OUGD504 Studio Brief 04 - Traditional Chinese Characters & East Asian Design Research

In the design for the album re-launch digital campaign I wanted to incorporate a sense of both the old and new by the use of traditional Chinese characters and modern/modernist graphic design so I looked at a book called Hanzi Kanji Hanja a book of which incorporated both of these styles. The book starts off by showing a number of different modern takes on traditional Chinese characters and how these can be used in such a way that take on a very modern style through the way the character is displayed and then goes on to show a wide range of examples of modern graphic design work of which incorporates traditional chines symbols so I believed that this is perfect research to help me with create this contrast of the traditional and modern aesthetics that I think is perfect for the digital launch campaign of this album.

The book has given me a fantastic look in to the way that the use of traditional Chinese symbols can be used with a modern graphic design style to create outstanding outcomes.

I then decided to continue my research with a look at a book that I own that is called "From Japan" by Counter-Print of which is just a display of a side of graphic design I don't get to see regularly of which is east asian design and often with a massive concentration on western designers and design studios so many different great design agencies, studios and movements around the world can be regrettably missed so I believed that this look in to east asian design may help inform the style in which I will design for this outcome.

This book focuses less on the inclusion of east-asian symbols in the designs although the majority of it still does but it just concentrates on the skill and standard of graphic design of which is coming out of a large number of Japanese graphic design agencies of which will give me an insight in to the standard and aesthetics of the work that is coming out of east asian countries and ultimately inspire my design.

Looking at the use this East Asian style of design in the book has helped me understand and further my knowledge in to how I should go about the design such as how and to what application traditional characters scan be used in design aesthetically but also the feature that East Asian design is consisted of be this the wide use of negative white space,to the comparisons between text and image but more importantly text as image and finally the colours used in design.