Before we get started with today's topic, let's take a look at a few books:
These books have one thing in common, that is, they are related to Lu Xun.
Don't worry, I don't recommend Lu Xun's books today, I just want everyone to appreciate the covers of these books. Some of the books in this are Lu Xun's own, and some are not. But what is the same is that the covers of these books are designed by Lu Xun.
Yes, these covers are very contemporary, some are very artistic, some are a little cute, are they really designed by Mr. Lu Xun, who has a serious face and is worried about the country?
Definitely like a fake bag. If you think these are all whims of Mr. Himself, then you are wrong.
The emblem of the famous Peking University must be impressive:
The two seal script fonts are arranged up and down, the word "North" looks like two back-to-back portraits, and the "big" character below looks like a portrait standing on the front, and "three people becoming a crowd" alludes to the hope of rejuvenating the nation of Peking University students.
Under the careful tasting, you will also find that the whole pattern is like a face full of sorrow and grief, so as to warn the people of the country not to lose the sense of mission and responsibility of worrying about the country and the people.
This is what Cai Yuanpei, the president of Peking University, asked Lu Xun to design in 1917, can such a skill still be said to be a casual move in his leisure time...
In the Republic of China, when it comes to book binding, Lu Xun is definitely the first person in the graphic design world. It turned out that Lu Xun's pen was not only to the point and tit-for-tat, but also to the "Metamorphosis" of various words. Those design concepts are still worth learning from today, which is the talent of Lu Xun and the charm of Chinese characters.
Think of it this way, in fact, the great calligraphers of thousands of years ago were actually veritable master of font design, just like we often say Yan body, square and dense, thick and straight, open and majestic, which has the arrogance of the Tang Dynasty and the noble personality of Yan Zhenqing.
There is also Wang Xizhi, whose writing is beautiful and fresh, sometimes as light as a cloud, sometimes as agile and powerful as a dragon, each of which has a mark that is either related to the individual or to the dynasty.
With the change of times, the Chinese characters that best represent China are still used by people to convey a variety of beauty.
In recent years, when it comes to stunning font design, Shi Changhong is definitely on the list. The nostalgic font he designed almost blew up the circle of friends.
Each place name combines local regional characteristics and unique characteristics, such as the Gou Jian Sword in Hubei, the Lion Dance in Guangdong, the Gambling in Macau, and so on.
In the process of designing these words, Shi Changhong will read the materials, watch documentaries, and even make field trips, through understanding the customs and historical allusions of each city, and then integrating them into his own design, he wants more people to understand Chinese culture more intuitively through his own works.
The end result is amazing, but the design process is also very difficult.
Everyone has unique feelings about their hometown, how can they resonate with more people?
For example, Hangzhou and Guangzhou have a common "state", how to make people look at it to distinguish, these need hundreds of design drafts to improve over and over again, the entire design process is also a process of cultivation.
In addition to designing urban fonts, he also designed the twenty-four solar terms:
Summer crops grow vigorously, earthworms also come to help loosen the soil; mango planting rainfall is abundant, is the peak season of all things; after the winter solstice into the coldest season of the year, people like to cook hot pot to get rid of the cold... Each season is a picture of a beautiful Chinese style.
In Shi Changhong's eyes, the charm of Chinese characters is unique, ancient Chinese characters themselves are also hieroglyphs, combined with modern design art, there will be many kinds of play and imaginary design space, but in any case, its core is China's deep and long culture.
"If Chinese characters want to be alive, they must break down barriers and give creativity to adapt to the current environment." The people who say this are equally astonishing.
He is not a book designer, but he has won the "Most Beautiful Book in China" award six times; he is not a product designer, but the market response of the six classical mahogany furniture he designed is very good; he is not a font designer, but he has won the professional recognition of the Japan Type Design Association with the "Na Mu Song" body font.
His name is Hong Wei.
Hong Wei designed a lot of words, a little skinny. It is not as formal as a font like Microsoft Yahei, nor is it like Shi Changhong's like a painting, but a bit like a child's character-like symbol.
Hong Wei calls himself "Hong Mixed Mixed", which seems to be "mixed world", but he is trying to update more and find new paths for the innovation of Chinese character design. It turns out that Chinese characters can also not be calm and regular, they can be smart and interesting, naughty and pleasing.
In 2016, Hong Wei successfully won the 2016 Japan Type Design Association's highest honor, the BestWork Award, with the "Nymbar Song" body font, becoming the first Chinese to receive this honor.
The inspiration for the "Ni Mu Song" was derived from the "Bird Seal" body on the "Thirty-Two Seals Of the Diamond Sutra", and Hong Wei pondered to integrate such an emotional thing into the creation of the main text.
Therefore, he also attributed the reason for winning the award to two points: there is inheritance and emotion.
Chinese characters combined with the art of design, quietly there, can express thousands of different emotions and meanings, so if one day, the words in front of you will move, what will it be like? If the Kanji themselves had their own emotions, what would they look like?
These Chinese characters, which seem to have their own emotions and even expressions, are the works of type designer Ye Tianyu.
For the creation of characters, Ye Tianyu has a rather grounded responsibility. In his view, many genuine fonts are extremely expensive and cannot be used by the public. If most people can't afford it, how can genuine versions be supported? Although calligraphy is art, design is for people.
So he quit his stable job and devoted himself to making characters, hoping that everyone could use the genuine font library. In his words, it can be regarded as "design for the people".
In 2016, he single-handedly figured out the signature body and the Ledun body, and also founded his own "Magpie Character" brand.
The name "magpie" turned out to be because one night he dreamed that a magpie with a tree branch and a colorful body had become a horizontal stroke of the Song body, so he decided to use "magpie" as his brand name.
For us, it may be a bit dreamy, but for Ye Tianyu, it should be a state similar to "no crazy devil, no life".
Designers are using their own accumulation to bring new life to the Chinese characters that do not smile, but life is long and short, how long can the words they create be used? Having given up so much, will you regret it if you don't end up with a good result?
Ye Tianyu said: The sky has not left a trace, but the birds have flown by. You don't know how happy it flies.
To talk about Chinese character design, in addition to China, there are many famous font designers in Japan that are still using Chinese characters, and it has to be said that one of the earliest founders of MUJI that we are familiar with - Tanaka Kazumitsu.
Mo said that in Japan, that is, in the world graphic design world, Tanaka Kazumitsu occupies a very important position. His great contribution to type design, the amount of effort he has invested in the development of fonts, and his contributions to the art of character design have profoundly influenced the design of the Chinese character culture circle.
There is a font he designed that we must be familiar with:
Extremely fine horizontal paintings, sharp triangles, thick and powerful longitudinal paintings, slender but elegant, very modern, this is the light dynasty book body.
The Guang dynasty script looks very similar to our Song script, and of course it is indeed based on the Song script (known in Japan as the Ming script). In fact, almost most of the innovative fonts are derived from the evolution of the imitation Song and black fonts in the six ancient scripts, seal scripts, and Licao Kaixing, as well as the printing style.
This requires us to have a certain understanding of Chinese character culture and calligraphy, which all permeate the rich Chinese culture.
The beauty of Chinese characters has attracted more and more people, and because of the "Beauty of Chinese Characters Global Youth Design Competition" launched by Dan, it has attracted researchers of Chinese character culture and internationally renowned designers around the world.
Chinese characters are the patterns held in the palm of the Chinese nation, and following its finger pictograms, you can touch the secrets of the origin of all concepts. It is the Chinese culture accumulated over thousands of years that has given these horizontal and vertical strokes a huge vitality, and in this regard, I am afraid that no one in the world is unsurpassed.
How beautiful can the beauty of Chinese characters be? It's like a road that never ends, walking non-stop, far away forever.
In other words, the beauty of Chinese characters For people who identify with culture and think about life, how cool the world is in our eyes, how beautiful Chinese characters are.