In the current media context, the friction between tradition and modernity is becoming increasingly apparent, and how to maintain the freshness and vitality of the visual communication course on the basis of tradition and discover more valuable information from it is also the goal pursued by the course.
——*The Academy of Fine Arts has advanced to a major in visual communication design
01 Let's start with an award
The 10th National Book Design Art Exhibition
On November 17th, the 10th National Book Design Art Exhibition was grandly opened at the Shanghai Library. Since its inception in 1959, the National Book Design Art Exhibition has been held for 10 consecutive years, promoting the innovation and progress in the field of book design in China over the past 60 years.
Wang Guangfu, director of the Visual Communication Design Department of the School of Continuing Education, designed "Phaedo: Plato's Dialogues", which won the Excellence Award (Literature). Su Jiangpeng, a 2022 student of the Visual Communication Design major, designed "Reconstructing the Lorgar Poems", which won the finalist award (Exploration Category), and Teacher Cao Qian (invited) and Teacher Wang Guangfu served as the instructors.
Phaedo: Plato's Dialogues
The 10th National Book Design Art Exhibition "Literary Excellence Award".
Phaedo: Plato's Dialogues Design: Wang Guangfu.
Phaedo, which depicts Socrates and his disciples discussing issues such as life and death, the soul, wisdom, and happiness, is the ultimate conversation about the meaning of life that has had a profound impact on Western culture. The Chinese version is translated by Mr. Yang Qi, which fully restores the ordinary and homely dialogue style of Socrates and his disciples, and contributes a classic work of equal literary and philosophical value to the Chinese world. The white color in the middle of the book cover symbolizes a door and a monument, an abstract symbol that defines life and death, space, and thought, and a "blank" element that unfolds a variety of imaginations. The circle represents dialogue, floating, and beings.
Reconstructing the Lorca Poems
The 10th National Book Design Art Exhibition" Finalist in the Exploration Category.
Reconstructing Lorca's Poems Design: Su Jiangpeng.
Instructors: Cao Qian, Wang Guangfu.
The book design course is the second major course in the second year of the Visual Communication Design major. The Lorga Poems is a collection of poems by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, translated by Dai Wangshu and published in 1956, and those sentences are still alive today.
In the book design course, Su Jiangpeng chose to reconstruct the "Lorga Poems", rearranged the text on the basis of retaining the seven chapters of the original book, drew illustrations from the content of the poem at the beginning of each chapter, and cut the middle of each illustration horizontally, so that readers can create more surreal combinations in the process of flipping through the pages to echo the surreal verses. The illustrations are all in olive green background, which enriches the reading rhythm and hierarchy between the text and the illustrations.
The practice of book design class, through the hand-made book binding line, the practice of printing factory inspection, and the interaction between books and people, experience the charm of the course brought by the traditional way.
02 Tradition and Modernity in Teaching
In the current media context, the friction between tradition and modernity is becoming increasingly apparent, and how to maintain the freshness and vitality of the course in the foundation of tradition and discover more valuable information from it is also the goal pursued by the course. This is the case for text design courses and brand design courses, and the second year has set up a course of "Modern Design Practice of Traditional Culture", which is also intended to learn from "tradition" and return to the present through Xi form of design.
While trying to break the edge of "visual communication design" and explore multi-dimensional possibilities, adhering to the spirit of tradition has given us a good breakthrough and answer.
Coursework: Modern Design Practice in Traditional Chinese Culture.
Class of 2022 Liu Yang.
Coursework: Modern Design Practice in Traditional Chinese Culture.
Class of 2022 Xu Weixiao.
Branding assignments.
Class of 2022 Visual Communication Design is tenacious.
Font design class.
Font design assignment class sharing.
The class of 2022 is looking for the relationship and context between fonts, and research.
Font design assignments.
Class of 2022 Visual Communication Design.
Design Fundamentals and Thinking
In the first-year general education course "Design Fundamentals and Thinking" for five majors (painting, calligraphy, visual communication design, photography, and architecture), visual diary is a consistent training method, focusing on cultivating students' insight and sensitivity, and cultivating the ability to think independently, re-understanding, analyzing, deconstructing, and reorganizing the content of visual diary from different angles and keywords, and establishing new ways of feeling and narrative with design thinking.
Research on the Fundamentals of Design and Thinking course.
Class of 2023 Painting Early Morning.
Design Basis and Thinking: A Migrant Worker's Migration Route.
Zeng Juan, a 2023 painting major.
Design Fundamentals and Thinking: Sound Unit.
Class of 2023 Visual Communication Design Zhang Congying.
03 Clues and Context of Xi
From ChatGPT to Midjourney to AIGC discussions at the beginning of this year, it has caused a lot of "impact" on various disciplines and industries. In fact, we need to face a truth in teaching: from childhood to adulthood, everyone should be an independent and free individual, and cannot be separated from the world by the experience summarized by AI, big data, algorithms, etc., and the freshness of life is the best in real practice.
Therefore, in the course, we encourage students to discover those shining points in life as soon as they start school, look for "personal themes", and link and run through professional courses in this way, forming clues and contexts of learning Xi.
The construction of personal themes, from the visual diary of the first grade to the visual communication design of the 2022 class of the design professional class in the second grade, Luo Chuandong.
This is quite a challenge, and the disadvantage may be that the students' thinking will be too simple, but we firmly believe that the benefits and energy of this approach are enormous.
At the beginning of the second year, each teacher will be asked to encourage students to continue to observe and design, and to make use of their "personal themes" according to the characteristics of the professional courses. In this way, each course is no longer isolated, and students can construct logic, echo back and forth, and make the learning Xi go deeper.
The construction of personal themes, from the visual diary of the first year to the whole process of graduation project. The picture shows the graduation project (excerpt), 2021 visual communication design, Zhang Ze won the "2023 Beijing University Degree Continuing Education College Students Excellent Graduation Design (**
Although there are many problems that need to be overcome in the process of practice, it is still the best solution to systematically establish students' personal observation and practice, and timely adjustment of teaching.
2021 Visual Communication Design Chen Lei's Visual Diary (Year 1, Long-term Observation).
Class of 2021 Visual Communication Design: Chen Lei, Book Design (Year 2).
2021 Visual Communication Design Chen Lei's graduation project (sketch).
04Embrace new knowledge
In the face of the update of design discipline knowledge brought about by the development of new technologies, it is necessary to face it with greater tolerance. This is the right given to us by this era. The new technology brings not only the convenience of technology application, but also the logic behind it, which is the core of challenging the "relationship" of traditional professional courses. The collision of tradition and modernity, and the change of way of thinking, will inevitably lead to related reactions.
Inherit the tradition and embrace the new knowledge. The trend of ambition is far-reaching.
Graduation project process practice.
Class of 2021 Visual Communication Design Li Fuhua.
Interactive lessons. Class of 2022 Visual Communication Design is tenacious.
*Provided by: Wang Guangfu, head of the Department of Visual Communication Design).
Wang Guangfu
He graduated from ** Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, and is currently teaching at the School of Continuing Education of ** Academy of Fine Arts, and the director of the Visual Communication Design Teaching and Research DepartmentMember of the 0 version of the Teaching Reform and Innovation Project". In the same year, he was rated as "Excellent Instructor" by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.
His design works have won the Bronze Award (Cooperation) of the 10th National Art Exhibition, the 13th National Art Exhibition, the Excellence Award of the 10th National Book Design Art Exhibition, the Bronze Award of the Hundred Flowers Cup China Arts and Crafts Exhibition (Design) and other domestic awards.
*:*School of Continuing Education, Academy of Fine Arts).