Warm winter

ha~~this is a photo taken by using my new DC in IKEA this weekend~this is one from my series called "Red Illusion" for this winter & Christmas~~

Then here is my entry on last Friday~~

Temperature suddenly dropped down last week and everyone needs warmth more than anything in the freezing wind. So I searched some designs that can make people feel warm in winter, from both physical aspect to psychological aspect.

1. Greetings on the toast!

This toaster allows you to write warm sentences on a baked toast. Give your VIPs a big surprise in the morning!

2. Give me a warm hug!

This chair gives you a warm hug even when you are sitting alone! So don't be afraid of coldness and loneliness. At least you have this chair!

3. Furry cup!

This is a Starbucks coffee cup sleeve. Feel warm when holding this cup of hot coffee without hurting your hands, but still feel warm in hands!

4. Stockings for table n chair!

Chairs and tables will also feel warm in cold winter!

5. Warm huge alert!

Don't need to worry about forgetting important things in freezing cold winter morning because you have this huge note to remember things for you!

Here is another story.

On the morning of last Wednesday, on my way to class I saw a very warm and sweet scene. A couple of students were wearing one scarf together in the cold wind. The girl was fully in love when sharing the scarf with her boyfriend.

As long as we feel warm in our heart, we won't feel cold in winter.

It's your big day!

I noticed that these days Google changed its normal icon into Sesame Street characters. I am a big fan of Sesame Street. I watched the Chinese version of the TV show early in my childhood until the show was not longer available in China before I grew up.

Google used to change its icon before on special occasions like Christmas, Valentine's day and other holidays. They are usually beautiful and creative. But seldom there is a series. This time the Sesame Street series really attract me.

The reason is Nov.10 is Sesame Street's 40th birthday! Happy Birthday to my dear Sesame Street! I used to think Sesame Street was over after the TV Show left China and followed by the vanishing of related products. Luckily I had some before Sesame Street left and I love them sooooooooo much!!!

Among this series icons, I appreciate two most: the Cookie Monster and the Big Bird.

The Cookie Monster one use the two round eyes of Cookie Monster to replace the original "o o".

The Big Bird one use the two long and thin leg of Big Bird to replace the original "l".

Both these two remind me of the poster named"She's got to go out to get Woman's Day" from New York School, in which the wheel of the bike the woman is riding are repalced by the two "o"s in "go" and "out".

In nature, they are the same, which I think belong to multi-stability. Both words and pictures exist in the same space at the same time.

Keep searching and prepare for the ancestor presentation.

p.s.: there is something interesting about Nov.11, or say 11.11. In mainland China, people usually call this day "Guang Gun Jie", in English, singles day. Because the outlook of 11.11 is like single man standing, this day has become the day for singles (both woman and man) and originated about 10 years ago from universities. This is humorous and people all say singles should eat fried sticks on that day, which looks like 11. Some pictures are even drawn for this day.

This is one of them.

Ha~~just happy birthday to Sesame Street and happy single day for singles!

check out google icons here: http://www.google.com/logos/index.html

something additional for this week: excerpt from a book.

This is a reflection I got this weekend when preparing for the final next week~~ i do have a visual diary entry for this week just below this post, pls don't forget to look at it!

-------------------------------------------

"Visual Communication of any kind, whether persuasive or informative, from billboards to birth announcements, should be seen as the embodiment of form and function:

the integration of the beautiful and the useful. "

--Paul Rand

I like this embodiment. It suddenly wakes me up from the unclearness about dgc.

People always, always mix dgc and VA as one and dgcers are always mis-recognized as VA students. Our explanations seem to be useless, because usually even ourselves cannot clearly define our major.There is also a joke said that you cannot understand what you have learned even after you graduate. It is a sad story. For both dgc and VA.

And something strange happened this evening and I seem to figure out something. VA can ignore the environment, or say just focus on expressing the artist's own feeling, but dgc cannot. We need to create beautiful things to tie people together. It is the integration of the beautiful and the useful. And that is also why we belong to school of communication and need to take comm1160. ><

Hope didn't offend any VA students.

haha~~found an "ancestor" just before the ancestor presentation!

Helena and I had a wonderful Thursday! We went to Adobe Photoshop World 2009 at Hong Kong Exhibition Center. This event was a lecture given by a photoshop master Russell Brown on introducing Photoshop CS 4 and he also gave the audience a lot of tips when using CS4. Another lecturer was Michael Stoddart, who is a graphic designer focusing on 3D animation creations. He showed the audience how to make VIDEOS in PHOTOSHOP CS4!!! yes! That's true! CS4 even includes video making and 3D creating!

Though I am still using Photoshop CS3 at a very beginning, I was still very impressed by the two lecturers. Russell Brown is extremely humors and loves making jokes about Americans (But he is from New Zealand!). Michael Stoddart is rather shy compared to Russell but his skill of making a short video in a few minutes is very attractive.

What I found interesting was the promotion poster for this event. On the poster there are some hands holding the PS icon in hand and approaching to somewhere far. I am sure this design has an ancestor and I know its ancestor is the one showing below.

Those posters during the Cultural Revolution in China. People are holding Chairman Mao's Red Book in hand.

During that period of time, Chairman Mao actually had created a kind of self-worship. He wanted and in fact had made people worship him. So people at that time would rather abandon anything including academic and farming to "study" the red book. After searching and including what we have seen in class, I have already formed an idea that during those years there were a lot of posters like the above one. All were expressing an idea that the people respect and love Chairman Mao and they hold the red book firmly to show their royalty to Mao. And now Adobe adopted this ancestor as its promotion idea. I couldn't help thinking about the reasons. First, Adobe thought this gesture can give people a visual shock. Second, Adobe wanted its PS users to always follow them just like the royal people during that time in China.

Apart form the political issues, I actually do love this Adobe's design. It's simple but strong. It communicates ideas very clearly. It contains both Adobe's confidence in having a large group of PS users and its hope to have more in the future.

It was a great day today. And I am very happy to have found an "ancestor" and have written it in my blog to get some warm up exercise for the real presentation.

once a HP fan, always a HP fan~~

I have been a Harry Potter fan since I was in the fourth grade in primary school and until now I am still crazy about this series. I have done something crazy, such like reading the first volume for 16 times, the fourth volume for 6 times, copying down all the curses in a notebook, using dark green color pens, imaging every one of my friends are someone in the novel, getting a poster from the cinema when the movie was offline, buying tapes rather than CDs (when tapes are still quite popular more than nearly 10 years ago...) at that time ... I have pursued nearly every thing about HP, of course including the movie.

The movie is a great success, at least its box office, though the movie series will never be as good as the novel in a huge HP fan's heart. However, if we exclude the plot of the movie and simply view its technics and soundtrack, it is still marvelous! The first two movies have left the deepest impression on me. The first one: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, the great composer John Williams created the famous and widely accepted OST for HP. In the second movie, the digital magic on creating the elf Dobby made the scene real and live and has become a milestone in my heart at that age. I have found some videos on Youtube to recall my sweet memories in HP.

The first one is the trailer of the first movie. The second one is the scene when Dobby is freed by Harry who has cheated Malfoy by giving Dobby his own sock.

However, I must say the sixth HP movie was terrible. The length limitation was a huge cause of the incoherency of the movie. Actually I think it's better to read books rather than watching movies after the fourth volume.

But Harry Potter has created a world for me. This is the real magic.

Games with characters

We are playing games with fonts in DGC 1180 these days and this reminds of an old game I used to play when I was little with my grandparents.

This is a game to be played with Chinese characters. There is a children's song along with this game. The rule is simple. You just draw what the lyrics tell you to do. And when the song is over, a picture of an old man will appear in front of you.

The steps in the song are like this:

1. There was an old man whose family name is DING.

Then you can have the nose of this old man. (The Chinese character of DING is: 丁)

2. He got two cute grandsons.

The grandsons are fat and cute so the eyes of the old man can be replaced by two circles resembling the two grandsons.

3. He didn't eat for three days.

Here three lines appear on his forehead like three wrinkles.

4. And he was hungry and turned around.

The round head comes.

5. He bought three scallions.

His three hairs.

6. He used 3.3 dollars.

3 is just like the shape of his ears.

7. He bought a piece of cake for four dollars.

The Chinese character of four:四 is his mouth.

8. He bought a big melon.

It's his body!

9. He used 6.6 dollars.

Make his has the same way like ears.

10. He also bought some little cakes.

These are his buttons on his clothes.

11. He bought these for 9.9 dollars.

Also working in the same way as ears.

Then a picture of an old man appears as long as you follow the simple instructions!

This game is classic at least in my hometown and now when I am approaching to design, these old things just remind me of the fact that design is not only designed by professional designers. Everyone can design and there is really nothing new under the sun.

Hope you enjoy this little game.

The Chinese version of the song is listed below.

从前有个丁老头（眉毛和鼻子），

他有两个乖孙儿（眼睛），

三天不吃饭（额头皱纹），

饿得团团转（脑袋），

买了三根葱（头发），

用了三毛三（耳朵），

买个小方饼花了四毛钱（嘴），

买个大冬瓜（身子），

用了六毛六（两只手），

买串油果子（纽扣），

用了九毛九（两只脚）。

Le Chat Noir

I was quite surprised last class when I saw this cat poster shown because I bought a copy of this in Florence this summer and I wouldn't have thought this poster has so many things to say. At fisrt when I bought the copy I just thought it was prettier than other pictures there. However I always want to know the story behind this poster.


I have searched some information about this cat. First I found out that the word Le Chat Noir represents a kind of entertainment in late 19 century in France welcomed by a group of artists, especially Picasso. However this didn't exist for a long time. It was a shame for both Paris and the cultural field I think because Le Chat Noir represented a trend to move forward and develop. I have also read some articles in memory of those days. I guess it was a time for new things to emerge but was killed at last.

Then I found out the author of this poster, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, was also inspired in Le Chat Noir, a cafe shop related to this trend and entertainment in Paris. I always like those coffee shops in Europe, where are not only a place to eat and drink, but also for people to exchage ideas and communicate whatever they like. Culture occured there, and we know something like this cannot happen in a busy and stressful life.