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How to define vernacular design for this type of grassroots

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How to define vernacular design for this type of grassroots

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1.History and reasons for its emergence

2.Modern development

3.Similarities/differences/questioning

4.Case studies

5.Define

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The 1930s saw a high demand for political self-determination and technological modernisation in China as a result of the rise of local and global cultural movements. The graphic design of this era, known as the Progressive Movement, was formally characterised by geometric shapes, abstract symbols, flat colours, mechanical and industrial motifs and, most notably, the use of modern typographic experimentation and kinetic photography. It was not until the emergence of the Sino-Japanese War, the post-war influences, and the Communist Party's distaste for ‘capitalist print culture’ that the development of graphic design as a profession in mainland China was set back for a number of years. The development of graphic design as a profession in mainland China was set back by several years. Since then, early Soviet propaganda has favoured the use of character illustrations and large headlines to promote thematic ideas. At the same time the CCP leadership unearthed that such Soviet propaganda posters and the visual language of socialist realism played a crucial role in shaping the aesthetics of the communist regime, emphasising themes of labour, progress and solidarity. Better able to appeal to the masses and disseminate political ideas, the formal aesthetics of the revolutionary style thus became a major component of the aesthetics of Chinese communism.

Taking into account the fact that the majority of the Chinese proletariat came from the peasantry, their level of education and the environment in which they lived, the formal aesthetics of this revolutionary style drew inspiration from Chinese folk art, such as paper-cutting and painting techniques from non-Han ethnic minority art. Many cultural elements of vernacular are used in the design. During the Cultural Revolution, ‘big-character posters’ became a key propaganda medium, using social realist illustrations with slogans in black or red type, often typed in long, thin vertical and horizontal fonts. The design philosophy of ‘practicality over aesthetics’ extends to the present day. However, this crude and aesthetically unappealing design philosophy is now defined by the term ‘New Ugly’.

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‘The New Ugly’ is derived from the book Pretty Ugly, published by gestalten in 2012. The book documents works that are bold in form and different from aesthetics or rational design. A large number of the works in the book are primarily crude and ugly in form, and we refer to these works as the New Ugly. Nowadays, many contemporary designers have begun to invoke the term New Ugly as a source of inspiration for their designs, and are working to break away from conventional forms of design and to create works that go against the ‘design discipline’ of design. They are also trying to break the conventional design forms and use methods that go against the ‘design discipline’ to create their works. At the same time, an important concept closely related to the term ‘new clown’ is the Chinese term ‘earth’. The word literally means ‘soil’, ‘land’, and refers to a specific Chinese concept that can be described as rustic, vulgar, tasteless, or uncultured. When it serves to describe visual qualities, it refers more to visual styles associated with the lower classes in China. The stall culture design mentioned in my RP is also more about showing ‘earthy’ brand culture and the use of ‘grassroots’ design by the common people to package and promote their products.

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1. China (Mainland/Hong Kong)

2.International Brands

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1.Yui Takada

2.Liao Bofeng

3.Ivy Yixue Li

4.Ken-Tsai Lee

Similarities：

1.Both Takada and Liao studied at art and design academies, and their institutional identity highlights the discrepancy between the aesthetics of the Chinese masses and those being taught at design schools, which are predominantly of a Western origin. Their works are stylistically and historically demanding: it is challenging to learn how to use grids, hierarchy, and colour theory among other principles, only to see prominent designers conspicuously abandon conventional discipline in favour of a textbook ‘bad design.’

2.Both Ivy Yixue Li's and Ken-Tsai Lee's work is a critique of capitalism through thematic designs in the mode of neo-ugly, which is understandable given the inherently commercial nature of the ordinary and ugly. The designers aim to capitalise on the hyper-economic properties of this style and use satire and irony to critique the commercialisation and dangers of capitalism.

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Definition: is a contemporary and critical graphic design practice

The grassroots vernacular design presented in RP is rooted in everyday life, while at the same time it is more of a representation of the current state of Chinese folk design. The potential of these grassroots vernacular designs should be explored. At the same time, it is necessary to continue to explore the significance of the existence of this new ugly grassroots vernacular design and its critical practice.

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She emphasised the huge disparity between labour and product, the producer and the consumer, and the exploited and the privileged through her ‘unconsciously anti-designed visual outputs of migrant workers in China.’ Migrant workers, or Mingong [民工] in China face a twofold abuse: On one hand, companies from the global north take advantage of the cheap manual labour in China by overproducing in a country with poor labour laws. On the other hand, coming from mostly rural and underdeveloped areas, migrant workers lack access to many rights-including medical care, education rights, and pension-like locals of the area, due to China’s outdated Hukou system.On Being a Factory Worker is a fierce critique of China’s modernisation process that values capital over capita, but it also reminds designers to acknowledge their source of inspirations and financial privilege.

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In her recent work, Ivy Li captures the unconsciously anti-designed visual outputs of migrant workers in China, taking inspiration from the vernacular visual language around Chinese factories. She admits that graphic design education is not easily accessible to the public and in the past, "design principles might just be elite conventions constructed by history." But in spite of this, migrant workers are surrounded by printed matter all day every day; their lives have become entangled with design whether they know it or not. And as a result, their experiences speak a unique visual language.

Having grown up in Chengdu, an inland city in China known for its pandas, Ivy developed a love for the arts with the influence of her mother (a kindergarten teacher) who made all the decorations, wall paintings and performance costumes for her class. She went on to study at the University of Southern California where she pursued physics and computer science, but by the end of her junior year, her head had turned towards fine art and graphic design. Following this, she studied for an MFA in graphic design from Virginia Commonwealth where she finally found her "artistic freedom." And it was there that she explored the fine line between graphic design and art, an area where her interests would continue to flourish.

"My fascination with colours, shapes and typography is why I see myself more as a designer than an artist," she tells us. Currently based in New York, where she works and teaches at her alma mater, Ivy is pursuing a number of ongoing projects including her work with Chinese migrants. "I am fascinated by how the visual culture truthfully depicts the living needs, desire and daily activities of migrant workers and how they couldn't care less about design trends, and how stretching and squashing fonts is not a type crime but a reasonable choice to use space economically," says Ivy.

In turn, her work aims to "justify misused type" and design created by the underprivileged community. Her research for this began back with a poem written by a female worker in China, Wu Xia, where she imagines the life of the girl wearing the dress she is making. Ivy says on the discovery of the poem: "This was mind-blowing to me, as I suddenly realised that every object around us has been manufactured, packed and shipped by some individuals we would probably never know, especially with the ultra-developed global supply chain of today."

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Who made the objects in your house? Ivy Li explores the vernacular visual language of Chinese migrant workers

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In her recent work, Ivy Li captures the unconsciously anti-designed visual outputs of migrant workers in China, taking inspiration from the vernacular visual language around Chinese factories. She admits that graphic design education is not easily accessible to the public and in the past, "design principles might just be elite conventions constructed by history."

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Known for his use of bright but harsh colours, simple geometric shapes and fluctuating dimensions, Takada was obsessed with busy compositions and compact messages, such as those found on supermarket promotional flyers.

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I have chosen Yui Takada as my creative.

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Chinese designer Liao Bofeng expresses a similar idea in his advertising flyer. In a whimsical tone, he writes his name, work, achievements and contact details in a compact space. Liao Bofeng's appreciation for ugly design is also evident in the business cards he designed for the Graphic Design Alliance International (AGI) in China. For his work, he created a business card for each of the AGI's 32 Chinese members. Instead of doing it all himself, he commissioned a local printer in the capital city of each Chinese province. Liao Bofeng combines the elitist and intellectual side of graphic design with what is perceived as low-end print shop design. Instead of executing it in a pejorative way, he presents ‘the current state of Chinese folk design’ objectively with a 6-metre-long careful analysis, dissecting all the cards from an anthropological point of view.

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2.International Brands：Balenciaga Valentine's Day Advert

Take Balenciaga’s 2020 Qixi [七夕, Chinese Valentine’s Day] campaign for example. The campaign photos feature models surrounded by tacky, saturated and dated imagery. These images-digital ‘found objects’ likely sourced from the 1990s to 2000s Chinese social media-represent the aesthetics of older rural populations and retro media in general. It is clear that this campaign is designed to appeal to the younger generation who identify with the TuKu trend. Because of its unique aesthetics, as well as the questionable design of the product itself, this campaign stirred controversies on the Chinese internet.

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Chinese Netizens Turn on Balenciaga’s Latest Campaign, But To What End? | Jing Daily

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Balenciaga’s new campaign for Chinese Valentine’s Day is stirring dissent on China’s internet, but will this offense really hurt the brand’s sales?

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Mainland China: Some of the design ideas of communist aesthetics are still distilled in large-scale government propaganda advertisements and posters, which focus more on functional communication and less on aestheticisation. At the same time in most of the stall culture and small advertisement design also still maintains the same design concept, more hope through low cost to ensure the functionality of the communication to achieve the effect of propaganda.

Hong Kong: Since the commercial Shanghai style design in the British colony of Hong Kong's capitalism continues to flourish, for example, neon design is the introduction of the original Western lighting technology, with the style of traditional text, the texture of the lights to show the signage vibrant vitality and prosperity of the atmosphere of life. However, neon has been gradually replaced by LEDs in recent years, and only a few areas in Hong Kong have preserved the use of neon.

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The campaign's work takes a methodical approach: adopting the formal qualities of ugly design while executing them on a larger scale. The team rented a real storefront to act as a fake housing agent, further demonstrating the irony of using a hyper-commercialised form to address the problems posed by Taiwanese agents. The text content of the posters was largely drawn from the team's collection of negative experiences from home buyers and tenants. The event also featured a one-day lecture on civil justice and invited local politicians to act as one-day managers in an attempt to get them to interact with and better understand the public.

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Ken-Tsai Lee 李根在 - Ken-tsai Lee is an associate professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s Department of Design and also serves as the head of the Ken-tsai Lee design Laboratory. His expertise spans multiple fields, including design, education, curation, and interdisciplinary contemporary art. He focuses on experimental and creative approaches, emphasizing the integration of teaching and practical application, and draws inspiration from the spirit of interdisciplinary exploration.

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Celestial Dragons House – 天龍房屋 - Ken-Tsai Lee 李根在

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Ken-tsai Lee is an associate professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s Department of Design and also serves as the head of the Ken-tsai Lee design Laboratory. His expertise spans multiple fields, including design, education, curation, and interdisciplinary contemporary art. He focuses on experimental and creative approaches, emphasizing the integration of teaching and practical application, and draws inspiration from the spirit of interdisciplinary exploration.