PORTFOLIO HUO YIJIN DESIGN WORKS
2009-2012
PREFACE Many people are calling for Chinese design, it is certain that: Chinese design must not only refer to the design made by Chinese people . The Chinese design is far more complicated than that meaning. Modern design is exotic for China , and it lacks the inherent association with Chinese culture, Chinese traditional arts and crafts, Chinese people's past and present life, and Chinese society's existing problems. However, when the processing industry flourished in this place, and the people here knew how to appreciate the design of Europe and the United States, the above association needs to be quickly established. Many Chinese designers are involved in this great project. Here is the fruits of my past few years works.
Huo Yijin Nov 20, 2012
FLOWING COLOUR
SHUIJU
GUANGCHONG
THE OTHERS
2010-2012
2009
2009
2009-2012
P1-P14
P15-P22
P23-P28
P29-P40
ABOUT ME
CURRICULUM VITAE P41-P42
FLOWING COLOUR 2010-2012 This fashion tea tray design is rooted in Chinese traditional culture and their modern lives. Because of its temperature sensitive coatings, the consumer can appreciate the magic reaction of water and temperature acting on the tea tray while they are tasting traditional Kung Fu Tea. This is my school works when I graduated f rom China Central Academy of Fine Arts, which is also the works that I had spent the longest time on since I start learning design.
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Tea, which plays an important role in Chinese culture, has a history of approximately 2000 years. In nowadays, tea is no longer a kind of simple drink: The tea culture derived from tea covers many fields, including the art of Tea Set, literati social, and so on. Moreover, the process of making tea gradually evolved into a kind of ritual, mixed into a lot of operations which have some kind of performance nature. One way of drinking tea like that is also called Chinese Kung Fu Tea.
Pour boiling water into teapot and cups, clean and preheat them.
Add tea leaves into teapot, then pour boiling water in to it to clean it up, put the waste water into tea tray.
The formal tea step. Pour boiling water into teapot, and then transfer in to a Gongdao mug, finally pour that to everyone.
Pour the left or the cool tea through the teapot down to the tea tray, which makes the teapot much more shining than before.
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In China, people who are used to drinking tea in their daily lives are usually the ones who pursue higher quality of their lives. To design tea set for these people, you have to know about the higher-level artistic conception in Chinese traditional aesthetics, and understand the things that they appreciate and the fantasy haunting in their minds when they are enjoying the tea. In Chinese traditional spirit about the Creator, the natural factor and the technological level have the same important positions. In the fire process of Tang Sancai, as we know, the colour's natural flow and interfusion determines its glamour rating. Jun porcelain, having the history of 800 years, also follows this kind of creator spirits. Monochromatic glaze, changing randomly under high temperature and flames, metamorphoses into uncontrollable colour and shape, every individual of which is the masterpiece of our great nature and irreproducible. The brilliant colour and prolific shape enriches people's imagination. The design of this tea tray originated from this, emphasizing contingency and consumer experience.
Tang Sancai
Jun Porcelain
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The inspiration coming f rom Jun porcelain urge me to find a kind of temperature-sensitive and colour-changeable material, which can change its colour along with the temperature, to show tea's temperature . The material on the tea tray, which looks like sunglow in the sky, demonstrates us the beautiful things that hadn't been seen by us before, during each operation of drinking tea. The changing colour of the tea tray is a kind of m a s t e r p i e c e commonly made by temperature, gas flow and stream.
35째C
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50째C
65째C
80째C
After seeking for about a month, I locked in a raw material supplier in Shenzhen of China through Inter net. Their tec hnolog y of thermoindicator paint has applied in the production of some small mementoes, such as colourchangeable mug. However, as for the current technology, this kind of thermoindicator paint and the other thermochromatic materials on the market all have a common trait: That is as the temperature arises, the colour can only change from dark to light and basically belongs to the same colour band. As we know, the picture without complementar y colour al way s gives people an impression of tedious, especially when this color is needed immediately. I hope Tea tray can presents several vivid and surprising colors accompanied by the rise of temperature. Obviously, W hat I faced is not what I am good at: the reconstruction work on raw materials.
The notebook of experiments
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At the same time of doing experiment, I made a lot of notes, recording and organizing my own logic. Many methods proved to be failures in experiments, such as Stratified spraying. However, fortunately I finally found the answer.
The samples that fail to make the grade
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If we say the key of the design lies in the material, then, It is the form that p ro v i d e s a p l a t f o r m where this material can completely display itself. D uring that period, I draw a lot of drafts, and also made a lot of models, trying to seek the product form that can not only satisfy the function and the vision but also can fully displays that material's characteristic. In the graduation exhibition of China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2011, and the 'Unfolding Landscape' inaugurated in London Sotheby’s in 2012 , there are four items of tea tray with different designs. Those curves all have gone through repeating polish and finally constitute tea tr ay's current shape.
Unfolding Landscape Sotheby's, London Nov 1-8, 2012
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These curves are not only a decoration, but also a pipelined channel. And the panel which divided by curve can remove independently. It is easily for the user to clean the sink.
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The tea tray while in a Chinese Traditional garden
Sizes are: (mm) 1330*504*43 910*540*43 470*470*33 570*320*33
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In Chinese history, there is a famous allusion called 'Qushui Liushang', which records a lot of Chinese ancient literati drinking and versing at the edge of a stream. The line art plays an important role in Chinese visual arts. The lines in Chinese arts not only emphasize the artistry of the lines itself but also accentuate the sense of rhythm made by the changing lines. This helps me determine to design the tea tray into curve forming, which gives people fantasies of drinking tea by a stream.
Handicraft model April, 2011
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It takes me two years for this design from sketch to model and finally to the product. It didn't on l y o b t a i n C h i n e s e p a t e n t certificate of utility model, but also win me Chinese Design Award. The internal material has been changed from the original wood into synthetic resin, and the coating process also has great improvement. Until now, I have been improving the technology and structure to make it become a better product.
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SHUIJU 2009 The suit of vessel is called 'Shuiju', the inspiration of which comes from a full drip. There is an old saying in China: 'The benevolence person likes mountain, and the wise man prefers river'. When I came to Zhejiang Longquan, I walked along those mountains and rivers, appreciating the dark green lake and stream there, thinking about the natural connections between the beautiful nature there and their famous celadon porcelain. Chinese traditional art has been always influenced by Taoism. As we know, Taoism is mostly about nature. Therefore, I believe the natural form probably is the deep voice of porcelain.
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This works is accomplished when I was in sophomore year doing my ceramic design. In the first three weeks, I spent time in thinking form, drawing, sculpturing and molding. Then in the subsequent three weeks, I arrived at Longquan city, which is 1400 miles away from Beijing. In the kiln which has an ancient history of 1600 years, I learnt technics of making porcelain, and finally realized my design. Chinese ceramic, especially celadon porcelain, is a kind of imitation for jade article. The Chinese people always like jade paired up with wood, which is
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our favourite combination of materials. Although, there is no special meaning in that, It is still a very good choice for me: I can work out a different form by totally relying on my feeling, and then connect it with tradition in sensory by using the material combinations.
glaze
clay idol
wood
The celadon of Song Dynasty
Chinese celadon porcelain is different with Western ceramic. Celadon porcelain usually has very thick enamelum, and in fire process, enamelum flows along with the vessel shape and arises with thickness changes. In ancient China, Porcelain usually supplies people with rich visual and spiritual feasts by concise vessel shape and enamelum's delicate changes. When I was designing this work, the question that kept haunting in my mind is how to create conditions for enamelum to perfectly display itself.
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Since ancient times, celadon porcelain belongs to luxury. This is not only because the material is very expensive, but also because its yield is very low. This material is not suitable for industrial production. In this work, I try to accomplish every process of creation and production by my own hands, because for me it is not only learning a kind of technology for me, but also giving value to this piece of art. After visiting the precious col lection of Longquan Celadon Porcelain Museum, standing in the design position, I don't want the work have any similarity with the past, even neither have any inheritance relationship with the former ones. However, in spiritual level, I think this piece of work should show its respect to classics: gentleness, grace, subtle evolution and rich vitality - the eternal pursuit of Oriental art, which is still the pursuit of this piece of work.
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To be a clay body after grouting
The processing technic is not very complicated. The slurry of appropriate consistency shall be poured into good plaster mold, the water absorption of plaster will form a layer of ooze in inwall of plaster, and the ooze will affix to the mold. Then the excess slurry should be drained, and when the layer of ooze become dry and narrowed, it can be removed from the mold. After polished, it finally becomes a Nitai(an unpainted clay idol) of porcelain.
the mold
poured into the mud
forming clay body
open the mold
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Nitai needs to be fired twice. The first is biscuit firing, and the second is fir ing with glaz e. The kiln temperature is strictly controlled at about 1280째C. After 24 hours, when the kiln entrance is open, every piece of porcelain is shining with glamours of jades.
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After coming back f rom L ongquan, I processed the base part by pine wood, and finally finished this piece of work. This is my first shaped work of design, and it also opens the door for my future designing thoughts. Since then I have been totally interested in ceramic art. In the subsequent two years, I respectively went to two more ancient kilns, Ruzhou and Shenhou of Henan Province, to learn porcelain making technics. In Ruzhou, I worked 'Clear day brush wash' and 'Pearl brush holder'; In Shenhou, I was enlightened by Jun porcelain, and designed 'Flowing colour'.
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This piece of work is selected into Yearbook Of Chinese Designers Work 2010 which is edited by Chinese Designers Association, and also received annual silver Award. The association believes that this piece of work properly displayed the special glamour of Longquan celadon porcelain, demonstrated the aesthetic spirit that had been passed on f rom a long time ago, and made this ancient porcelain spark with modern colouring. This design was subsequently chosen by a ceramic whiteware factory. The factor y then proceeded mass production, and the sales volume is said to be very considerable.
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GUANGCHONG 2009 This piece of work is kind of 'Re-design', which takes advantage of the recycled materials and through their own structures a piece of carpenterworm-like lamp is finally assembled. In the background of the standardization of industrial production, even the reassembly can make the product look totally reasonable in all aspects and have no sign of affectation. The body of ' carpenterworm' can be swinged freely with various of gestures. This kind of simulation is not only on the appearance level, but also a metaphor of life entity structurally. It makes the wasted materials generate a kind of vitality naturally.
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This piece of work is about the topic of 'Insect' and 'Redesign'. I don't want my design is only the imitation of appearance, neither I hope ' Re-design' is only a pile of debris. By chance, I put a cup cover on top of another totally unrelated cup and found that they accidentally fit with each other in a perfect way. It is at that time I found that in this highly industrialized society of us, most things are standard and naturally matched. If 'Re-design' can take use of the benefits brought by standardization, It can make the originally unrelated things turn to be correlative only by doing slight designing actions, and the consumers will think that is an easy and lighthearted design. Of course, more important is that the reassembly can easily turn our thoughts and ideas into reality.
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Unit: mm
120
15
16
14
1.2
1.1
This raw material of this design is 146 pieces of CDROM, 24 pieces of PVC sheet, a length of 2 m LED light bar, a length of 1 m air conditioning drainpipe. The minimum Diameter of airconditioning drainpipe is about 14mm, the maximum Diameter is approximately 16mm, and the screw pitch is about 1.2mm. On the other hand, the diameter of CD's center circular hole is about 15mm, the thickness of CD is about 1.1mm. Those above data determines that the CD can be steadily located in the screw thread of the drainpipe. It is both easy to be fixed and unlikely to drop off. Although this is just an coincidence, It is not a bit difficult to look for this kind of coincidence in industrial products.
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When Choosing CD, I never refuse any patterns or any colors, because when they are in series, they can produce abundant visual perception. Every piece of CD is an independent design which has its own visual image related with its content. When they are put in series, they look like the city's face composed with different commercial ads on the streets. Besides, the light effect, together with CD's transparent texture and reflections endow this 'carpenter worm' typical modern visual element.
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This piece of lamp can be put in everywhereďźšon the floor, on the table, besides the bed, or you can even hang it up, which looks like a pet in your home. The lamp wick is a length of high-br ightness LED lamp band, but only has the voltage of 12V, which is converted by a transformer. As for the problem of heat dissipation, we don't have to worry about it. Because in the 24h galvanical experiment, the heat-dissipating speed is much faster than the heating up speed of lamp band, and the lamp has never occurred any potential safety hazards.
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This is a simple design and is also an interesting tr y. It can be interpreted both as an environmental design and a design full of vitality of life. I wish I could made a lot more line products of it, the whole 'Insect Family'. However, because of some other reasons, I didn't make it and this piece of work had consequently never been put on display since then. When I was a f reshman, on my elementary course, I studied the artificial form and the natural form. Now I think how to endow the articles with vitality might be a major issue for designers of post-industrial age.
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THE OTHERS 2009-2012 This is a relatively much more complex chapter, which includes four pieces of work. Some of them is incomplete, and some of them is not accomplished by myself. They cannot compose chapter independently, but they contain some of my understanding and tries on design. There are also some pieces of works that I am not very satisfied with, but I still think they are necessary to be displayed here in that they have causal relations with those successful works of mine.
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HAPPY DRINKING 2010
This piece of design named 'Happy Drinking', is composed of a pile of ferric pop cans. W ith hexagon as their units, they are glued together by nano paste which are special for pasting metals. The standardized pop cans and their hexagonal compound mode make them randomly pile up into different shapes and heights as teapoy and chairs. When unwanted, they can be put against the wall with different layers as your wish, which still has some kind of formal beauty.
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The origin of this design is that I found in supermarket all the different brands of pop cans are piled up together, so once again I f elt that this is the convenience brought by standardization. Those pop cans have different images but the same sizes. As for temporary furniture, they are freely assembled and used, and their biggest load-bearing surpasses 150 Kilograms. H o w e v e r, w h e n t h e y are set up, they almost occupies no ground area. While the other emphasis that I am interested in is, every Pop can has its own date of manufacture, and even some of them are accurate to minutes and seconds, which makes it look like a party of time and e ver y c an has its own birthday.
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This kind of work is not accomplished totally according to what I imagined. Because I hadn't collect enough waste pop cans, I had to turn to a Soft Drinks Plant for help. When these Pop cans with the same image are grouped together, they look like a little tedious more or less. However, In Shanghai Expo of 2010, this piece of work is selected into the ZeroCarbon Accommodation of London as a case of environmental protection, and it will be collected by that accommodation forever.
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THE JIANGTAI HOTEL PROJECT 2011-2012
This is a Team work. Together with the other four Chinese designers we d e s i g n e d a s s o r t e d light fitting and chairs for the guest room of a hotel located in Beijing urban district. This hotel in all has more than sixty guest rooms and they are all different with each other. Most are themed by movies, drawings, dramas, and musics. Our design needs to agree with every guest room's theme, and satisfy guest's practical requirement functionally.
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In this item, I worked with the other designers in discussing the design scheme, and mainly responsible for the processing course of products. In factor y, I worked out some problems about the structures and technics and made further improvements on the details of products. By and large every product is unique, therefore, the workers and I almost finished them by hand.
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After the finish of this batch of products, the first party turns out to be very satisfied with the results of my design. Therefore, they decide to explore an approximately 600m 2 area in the first floor of this hotel as a store for selling products of arts and designs. I made special space design for them, and arrange the exhibitions for them. In the following five months, I served as the art director of that store, and placed a lot of Chinese designers' works in that store's exhibition room.
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THE PAINT ANNUAL RING 2009
This is a necklace made by Chinese lacquer. What we see is a cross section of Chinese lacquer which has more than 60 layers. This lacquer is a kind of coating flowing out of trees. This coating is not only environmental, innoxious, but also very hard and corrosion resistant, and its surface emits a luster of amber. It is a product of time, and the making of it needs more than two months. Just as the tree's annual ring, time adds into its glamour.
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The Chinese ancient lacquer has a special t e c h n i c c a l l e d l ac q u e r engraving, which is painting the red and black Chinese lacquer on the surface of wood layer by layer, and when the paint layer accumulates to a certain thickness, carving images on the thick paint layer with a scorper. After t h e n e a t c ro s s s e c t i on shows up, when people are applauding the beauty of arts and crafts, they also sees the artisan's f ruits of labour and the accumulation of time.
This tiny jewelry starts from a length of bamboo stick with a diameter of 2mm. The first step is painting a layer of lacquer everyday on average until its diameter increased to 20mm, then cutting it into thin slices and carefully grinding this beautiful cross section, finally polishing it with titanium pigment and edible oil to make it feel gentle and modest. From the time it costs, you must think that it can be regarded as a luxury. However, it is different with lacquer engraving technics, every necklace is only a sheet of this long bamboo stick. Its cost is actually very low, for I can make thousands sheets of this kind of necklace at the same time in two months.
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THE FOLD 2010
This is an unfinished design of nut dish, and what we see is the ceramic without glaze and its plaster mode. While designing it, I was attending my elective course of architecture school. The plane figure of architecture usually works as function division, which enlightens me to finish this piece of design by the way of architecture. This piece of work is divided into two regions by body's turnover and fold, just like the mountains and basins.
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The f resh colour paint on the plate is to make this piece of work look more vivid, and no matter where it is located, it can become an embellishment of that place. The white ceramic can give people a sense of atmosphere, and the triangular color lump looks like turning over and folding freely in the space. Naturally, this piece of work reminds people of De Stijl drawing. It is the color that makes it become the derivative of arts.
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ABOUT ME
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HUO YIJIN' S CURRICULUM VITAE Please turn to the next page.
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ABOUT ME
YIJIN HUO Member of China Designers Association (Hong Kong) Education Background 9/2007 2/2009 6/2011
I entered Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), major in the School of Design. I entered The Ninth Studio at CAFA, major in the Product Design. I graduated from CAFA and got my bachelor degree.
Honours and Awards (title of work, host, award year) Honourable Mention for Chinese Design Awards (Flowing Colour, Guangzhou International Design Week, 2012) The 3th Prize for The Sixth National Design Competition (Flowing Colour, China Designers Association, 2012) D9 Design Prize (Flowing Colour, Central Academy of Fine Arts, 2011) Silver for Yearbook of Chinese Designers Work (Shuiju, China Designers Association, 2010) Work History 2008-2009 2009-2010 2009-2010 2011-2012 2011-2012
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I was the Student Progapanda Minister and school magazine editor of CAFA. I was the president of student union of CAFA. I was a intern designer of Beijing Detail Design Center, engaged in Ceramic Design. I served Project director of an art and designs shop for Jiangtai Hotel in Beijing. I started my studio named Beijing Liangxiang Design Studio, and served as designer.
Exhibition Experience "Unfolding Landscape" Graduation Exhibition of The Central Academy of Fine Arts (Sotheby’s, London, Britain, 2012) winning exhibition of China Design Award (Poly World Trade Expo, Guangzhou, 2012) Beijing International Design Week (Dashila Xi Jie of Qianmen, Beijing, 2011) Graduation Exhibition of Central Academy of Fine Arts (Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 2011) "Light of Design"--- an exhibition of promising young designers (Guang and Shiguang Gallery of 798, Beijing, 2011) The Fourth International Art Exhibition (China National Convention Center, Beijing, 2010) Zero-carbon Furniture Fair during Shanghai World Expo (The Zero-carbon Buildings of London in Expo Park, Shanghai, 2010) The Contemporary Art Fair named Art Beijing (National Agricultural Exhibition Center, Beijing, 2010) Chicago International Home & Housewares Show(IHHS) (Mckormick Exhibition enter, Chicago, America, 2010) Guangzhou Home Design Exhibition (China Import and Export Commodity Exhibition Hall, Guangzhou, 2010) Art Derivatives Show named "Tomorrow’s Life Style" (White box Art Center of 798,Beijing, 2010) 43