Mute Poster by Yi-Chin Lai

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DESIGN DETAILS

DESIGN NAME:
Mute

PRIMARY FUNCTION:
Poster

INSPIRATION:
What happens when our habits of writing and reading are jostled by unknown systems without semantic rules? How to apprehend the meaning and how to appropriate them? As a Taiwanese living in France since 2014, the lack of Chinese handwriting practice has made my writing more difficult to decipher. The words has gone beyond language conventions and has become confused and incommunicable. This is also a common phenomenon in geographical areas where Chinese is spoken, called Tibiwangzi.

UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
A poster based on Chinese characters, which Yi-Chin Lai wrote down to communicate while she was temporary mute. This experience brought her a new perspective, the designer started to see the Chinese characters as abstract signs. In this work, every character becomes a symbol of her thought, a sign with it's own meaning. Hence, Yi-Chin was more focus on choosing the words, use it correctly and specifically. It is above all an experience rooted in the gestures of writing.

OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION:
This poster is an experimentation based on the concept of abstract writing and its appropriation, and to question how we apprehend illegible scriptures and what sense emerges in front of the viewers. As Marshall McLuhan says: "The medium is the message", the communication tool has more influence than the content itself; just as for an abstract text without semantics, the message conveyed is a method and a process of abstraction, requiring a deep participation of vision, hearing and touch.

PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION:
The project started in August 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan and finished with screen printing in September 2017 in Strasbourg, France. The work was submitted to Graphic Design Festival Scotland International Poster Competition, and passed the 1st stage selection in September 2017. And it was exhibited in "Hidden Gem" at Pier-2 Art Center in March 2018 in Taiwan.

FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY:
Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design

PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY:
I collected all my handwritings in the notebook, and transformed them into vector elements with Adobe Illustrator. Then I started to play with these texts graphically as abstract signs or lines.

SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES:
585 x 830 mm, screen printing with 3 layers which are gray blue, white and black.

TAGS:
Graphic design, poster, screen printing, Chinese characters, abstract, amnesia, writing, communication, signs, lines

RESEARCH ABSTRACT:
Visual communication aims to convey a message from the author to the reader. In an illegible form of writing, the intention of the author is not to determine the meaning of the text, the act of writing abstractly does not seek semantic meaning, but rather a freedom of interpretation as well as a subjective understanding of the message. It invites viewers to decipher or translate the work in its own way.

CHALLENGE:
As graphic designers, we can manipulate text as an image as well for its plastic, symbolic, connotational quality. Our current communication relies more on the use of image to give meaning to written words, the domination of the image and the medium of the screen have profound effects on the writing. The instantaneity and the ease of the exchanges transform our modes of writing. Yet, the textual abstraction system, as a medium of communication, applies to different media and languages.

ADDED DATE:
2019-02-13 15:04:36

TEAM MEMBERS (1) :

IMAGE CREDITS:
Image #1 to #3: Creator Yi-Chin Lai, Mute (Sorry I can't talk now), 2017.
Image #4 to #5: Creator Yi-Chin Lai, Mute: 7 days record, 2017.

PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS:
Copyrights belong to Yi-Chin Lai, 2019.

Visit the following page to learn more: http://bit.ly/2tmVLDI

CLIENT/STUDIO/BRAND DETAILS

NAME:
Yi-Chin Lai

PROFILE:
Yi-Chin Lai, Taiwanese, graphic designer presently based in Strasbourg, France. Current student in master degree of Communication Design at Haute école des arts du Rhin in Strasbourg. She has worked for four years as a graphic designer at The Big Issue Taiwan, a monthly magazine which features international briefings, cultural and artistic topics. And one year as a visual director at Paper St. Coffee Company in Taiwan. As a designer, Lai enjoys tying visuals and articles together to reflect current design trends. Her works across a wide range of disciplines such as branding & identity, typeface design, logo, signage, poster, book design and digital production. Education: DNSEP, Haute école des arts du Rhin / 2017-2019. DNAP, Haute école des arts du Rhin / 2017. Bachelor of Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts / 2009. Shortlist: 1st stage selection of Graphic Design Festival Scotland International Poster Competition / 2017. Exposition: "Haunted by Algorithms", at Ensapc Ygrec, Paris / 2017. "Hidden Gem", at Pier-2 Art Center, Taiwan / 2018.

AWARD DETAILS
	Mute Poster by Yi-Chin Lai is Runner-up for A' Design Award in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Category, 2018 - 2019. · Read the interview with designer Yi-Chin Lai for design Mute here. · Press Members: Login or Register to request an exclusive interview with Yi-Chin Lai. · Click here to register inorder to view the profile and other works by Yi-Chin Lai.