02
PROJECT 01 Storytelling Map Have a xuan day
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PROJECT 06 Vinyl records design Michael Bublé
06
PROJECT 02 Branding & environmental design Guilty Bite
26
PROJECT 07 Storytelling zine Adventure in China
10
PROJECT 03 Chocolate branding & packaging design Rococoa
30
PROJECT 08 Client project Instinet’s 40th Anniversary Event
14
PROJECT 04 Type specimen Bodoni
32
Writing sample Water-Moon Guan Yin
18
PROJECT 05 Beverage branding & packaging design Kombucha
xuan cen cheng Portfolio 2018 – 03
xuan cen cheng 04 – Project 01
PROJECT 01 ART225 - Communication Design Studio II Storytelling Map - Have a xuan day The project brief was to create a map that features our personal story and visually guides audience through the map. The topic could be anything from a realistic Portland map to abstract personal room or places. I’ve decided to take the abstract approach with my uneventful, simple daily routine and make it interesting. I came out with an idea of “putting myself to the bus stop to start my day” that is where I have an off-scale hand dropping a person on the top indicating “start” then I started to play with scale to create the different texture on the map. To fit the brief even more, I include my name in the title.
xuan cen cheng Project 01 – 05
xuan cen cheng 06 – Project 01
xuan cen cheng Project 01 – 07
xuan cen cheng 08 – Project 02
PROJECT 02 ART225 - Communication Design Studio II Branding & Environmental Design - Guilty Bite I got asked a lot “Where do you find vegan-friendly Chinese food?” which inspired me to create a brand that based on that curiosity. Foodies that felt guilty yet having the perception of plant-based diet might be missing out good Asian foods. Guilty Bite - a plant-based restaurant that highlighting delicious Southeast Asia cuisine, bringing foods from the other side of the world to this diverse Portland. Labeling veganism hasn’t been received well by the public therefore, my approach was to create a brand that allows the name to draw some ambiguous and present uplifting tropical vacation vibe.
Artwork attached
#2
xuan cen cheng Project 02 – 09
xuan cen cheng 010 – Project 02
xuan cen cheng Project 02 – 011
xuan cen cheng 12 – Project 03
PROJECT 03 ART254 - Typography Studio I Branding & Packaging Design - Rococoa A brand hybrid of Rococo and Cocoa, inspired by late Baroque/early 18th century French artistic movement. The Rococo interior design consists of elegant and ornate ornaments. By Including the decorative patterns direct echoing the art movement and carry the value of exclusiveness. Packaging style inspired by rustic food wrapping technique, minimized production cost at the same time maximizing the layout with extra space to tell more stories about the brand.
Artwork attached
#3
xuan cen cheng Project 03 – 13
xuan cen cheng 14 – Project 03
xuan cen cheng Project 03 – 15
xuan cen cheng 16 – Project 04
xuan cen cheng Project 04 – 17
xuan cen cheng 18 – Project 04
PROJECT 04 ART254 - Typography Studio I Type Specimen - Bodoni Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) This well-known serif typeface series that has had a long history of interpretations by many design houses. I’ve decided to minimize decorative elements simply let the typeface shine with it beautiful, bold and contrasting strokes. A hint of gold on black gives it an exclusive look.
Artwork attached
#4
xuan cen cheng Project 04 – 19
xuan cen cheng 20 – Project 05
PROJECT 05 ART225 - Communication Design Studio II Beverage Branding & Packaging Design Kombucha Created this brand with a goal of targeting the younger audience, having an idea of playfulness and most importantly stands out from the overclouded kombucha market. Using bright colors, clean typography, and texture, I managed to find the balance of playfulness yet professional. The beverage itself changes color depending on the flavor profile, therefore, I decided to use a white label to create a stronger contrast. The label not only emphasizes the natural colors of the drink yet, practically work as a template that could go well with any flavor profile in the long run.
Process attached
#5
xuan cen cheng Project 05 – 21
CHA While researching about kombucha, I found out that the first recorded use of kombucha comes from China in 221 BC. Which inspired me to come out with an idea of combining the Chinese characters - tea with the cha from kombucha. The execution of the brand turned out really fun which fits into the initial idea of playfulness.
xuan cen cheng 22 – Project 05
xuan cen cheng Project 05 – 23
xuan cen cheng 24 – Project 05
xuan cen cheng Project 05 – 25
xuan cen cheng 26 – Project 06
PROJECT 06 ART224 - Communication Design Studio I Vinyl Records Design - Micheal Bublé While I’m researching into Michael Buble’s album collections, I’ve noticed that the style of his albums is very portrait oriented; minimum typography treatment and mainly one photograph throughout the entire cover. Through listening to the album, it has a feeling of classic British James Bond theme song. One of the songs “Foggy Day in London Town” inspired me to combine London city landscape and fogginess to gives the album different dimension of mysteries feel.
xuan cen cheng Project 06 – 27
xuan cen cheng 28 – Project 07
PROJECT 07 ART224 - Communication Design Studio I Storytelling Zine - Adventure in China Zine - a simple, low production cost booklet that allows an individual to share their stories, thoughts, and ideas. I have decided to interview my new roommate Joshua who went to China for 7 years. My goal was to translate his story through his perspective with a simple zine. I visualized a horizontal time-line fold but printing something that larger than 17in will not fit the cost-effective basis. Tested out different fold and my chosen fold works perfectly with my vision and also creates a fun paper plane fold which is perfect for the story. To personalize the contents I’ve created a combination of hand-drawn illustrations and photographs as the overall look and feel. Finish off the zine with the entire stripe of time line on the back showing his 7 years in China. I have also joined the line to steadily connecting United State and China on the covers.
Artwork attached
#7
xuan cen cheng Project 07 – 29
xuan cen cheng 30 – Project 07
xuan cen cheng Project 07 – 31
xuan cen cheng 32 – Project 08
PROJECT 08 Client Project Event Branding - Instinet’s 40th Anniversary In conjunction with Instinet’s 40th anniversary, the company wanted to stage an event to be held in Hong Kong. Working with Pink Tiger Media team we created the event branding with the abstract symbolism of ruby representing 40th years anniversary. Geometric shapes that adopted from the ruby icon that turns into arrow-liked patterns carries throughout the branding. Some of the event components included - Digital Invitations - Branded staircases - Branded Reception area - Event Signage - Branded Wrist Brands - Stage - Branded flashing ice cubes - Branded models Strobe lighting - DJ’s - Photographer.
xuan cen cheng Project 08 – 33
WRITING SAMPLE ARH 410 - Chinese Buddhist Art Water-Moon Guan Yin
Figure 2 - Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in Water Moon Form (Shuiyue Guanyin), Ming dynasty (1368–1644) dated 1385, Wood (willow) with gesso and traces of pigment; single woodblock construction, Overall (without base): H. 30 1/4 in. (76.8 cm); W. 18 in. (45.7 cm) ; D. 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art.
xuan cen cheng 34 – Writing Sample
I grew up visiting temples because of my family’s religion. Even thought I consider myself as Buddhist, when I started to look into Buddhism art history I come to realize how little I know about the subject matter, background, original setting of Buddhism art. One particular deity caught my attention during our ARH411 lecture - Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Guanyin is one of the most popular deities in Buddhism, the god who is compassion, looking down and listening, widely worship as the guidance of salvation. In Southeast Asia Bodhisattva Guanyin always presented as a gender-neutral figure with highly feminine gesture, seated or gracefully standing on a lotus, holding bamboo and a water jar. However, when we look into the Kushan period, at the Sakyamuni panted sculpture (fig 1), I was surprised to found out that Bodhisattva Guanyin was presented as a masculine figure with mustache which raises my curiosity to seek for his original content, stylistic development, and religious position. While doing my research, I came across this interesting Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in Water Moon form, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated in 1385 Ming dynasty; beautifully crafted with willow woodblock, its overall size is 30 1/4 inches high, 18 inches wide and 13 1/2 inches deep (fig 2). In this paper, I would like to discuss Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara’s original content, stylistic development, and the transition or the influences into this particular Water-Moon Guanyin sculpture. In order to dive into analyzing the powerful Water-Moon Guanyin figure, I’d like to have a better understanding of the original content of this particular Bodhisattva. Therefore, I did some reading about Water-Moon Guanyin. According to Petra Rösch in his book “Chinese wood sculptures of the 11th to 13th centuries” the source of Water-Moon Guanyin was an iconographic description of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara’s island home on Mount Potalaka from the earliest Avatamsaka sutra. The sutra beautifully described the landscape of his island home, surrounded by rich bathingponds, forests, tender soft grass, pebble ground, and trees growing luxuriantly. Bodhisattva Guanyin was seated on the diamond-throne, chanting the Great Compassion and Pity sutra. This beautiful description later became the iconic setting of Bodhisattva Guanyin’s and carried on for centuries. I can see the identical stylistic approach for artists and sculptures with the original setting of Guanyin. Now my following question will be how did Guanyin get the epithet of “Water-Moon”? From most of my reading, the term Water-Moon is a metaphor of illusion, it means moon reflected in the water creating an illusion, it is the part of meditation to enlightenment
and concept of emptiness. Therefore the concepts of Water-Moon has a close relationship with Guanyin because it fit well with the landscape of Bodhisattva Guanyin’s Island home, surrounded by water, and his moonshape halo. Overall, the stylistic translation from sutra to the image or the text of Bodhisattva Water-Moon Guanyin is logical and understandable. However, the sexual transformation of Guanyin still raises a lot of questions. According to Yü Chün-fang in her book “Kuan-yin: the Chinese transformation of Avalokitevara” since the gender transformation only happens in China, she thinks that it is influenced by Chinese religion, culture and traced of the Chinese goddess. Yü also thinks the transformation was an adaptation to fit into the Chinese feminine goddess. Yü explains; Guanyin could undergo a sexual transformation. If there had been powerful and popular goddess in China, Avalokiteshvara probably would not have become a goddess in China, just as he did not become a legitimizing symbol for Chinese emperors. This might explain why Avalokiteshvara did not undergo a sexual transformation in India and Tibet where powerful and popular goddess, such as Dura and Tara are present. 1
Bibliography Leidy, Denise Patry. Wisdom embodied:
Chinese buddhist and daoist sculpture in the metropolitan museum of art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.
Rösch, Petra. Chinese wood sculptures
of the 11th to 13th centuries: images of Water-Moon Guanyin in Northern Chinese temples and western collections. Stuttgart:
Ibidem-Verl, 2007.
Yü, Chün-fang. Kuan-yin: the Chinese transformation of Avalokitevara. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Endnotes 1. Chün-fang Yü, Kuan-yin: the Chinese transformation of Avalokitevara, New York: Columbia University Press, 2001, page 413.
On the other hand, Rösch thinks that the sexual transformation was because of the stylistic changes during late Tang and early Song dynasties, when the realistic human image was softer and rounder in general. I think both of the findings are interesting, and they developed into the character of the gender-neutral figure, and created the sexual transformation of WaterMoon Guanyin. Having the brief understanding of the original setting of WaterMoon Guanyin, the powerful Water-Moon Guanyin figure at the museum stands out because of his masculine features and facial expression. Studies show that sexual transformation started during late Tang; however, this structure is dated from 1385 during the Ming dynasty from Shanxi or Hebei province, and it is interesting to see artists are bringing back the masculine figure of Guanyin that was influenced by Central Asia. There are a few characteristic features in this figure that I think were highly influenced by central Asian style. To begin, looking at his facial features, he has an oval face, big almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, sharp arching eyebrows, high nose bridge, small mouth, and most importantly centralizes features, which reminds me of the early 6th century painting, like the Qizil’s wall painting the Head of the Ascetic Mahakasyapa (fig 3). Secondly, if we refer to earlier Chinese Buddhist images most of their scarfs are covering the entire body and multiple layers; however, he is wearing heavy robe covering only both shoulders and revealing his voluminous body, which emphasizes the characteristics of Tang period (Fig 4). The artworks’ comparison is centuries away yet still share similar style, characteristics, and expression, and it is fascinating to see the connection between the countries. Although this sculpture was influenced by Tang dynasty works, there was still a small amount of Chinese iconography in this image; for example the symmetrical necklace arrangement around his neck and the symmetrical headdress that has a balance shape and patterns on both sides. Members of Dongan village commissioned this Water-Moon Guanyin in 1385, the sculpture was produced as a guardian of the road in their temple. The woodcarver by the name of Feng Xiaozhang successfully secures an inscription of the date, and the commission details by writing
on the inner surface of the cavity’s cover that used to hold consecratory material (Fig 5). The highly skilled woodcarver created this small sculpture out of a joint willow wood block with beautiful intricate details. For instance, the beautifully carved headdress has intricate details of Amitabha Buddha sitting on a lotus, both leg folded with padmasana, a halo, and a mandala behind him and a canopy above him. There is a possibility of 8 more Bodhisattva around him by determining the oval shape with the halo is the same as the shape of Amitabha Buddha. This is a tripartite headdress, and each of the panels was slightly tilted toward audience creating deep shadow and feels like Amitabha Buddha appearing from the headdress, each of the sharp shadows creates deep and realistic definition on the sculpture. Besides that, the realistic center-parted hair was also delicately crafted. His hair is tied up to the back, and the rest falls on both side landing on his shoulder, with straight and clean hairline, separated away from his ear that clearly show his large fleshy ear. The hair guided my eye to his heavy robe, thick and heavy robe covers across his shoulder, the scarf is so thick that creates a deep collar around his neck showing his fuller double chin. The large pieces of scarf clinging on his shoulder and falling on both side of his body, his right hand is holding the other end of the scarf was leaning on along his body towards the diamond-throne. His right arm gently rests on his bended knee, fingers lightly band to hold the scarf, from his fleshy arm and finger gesture shows he is putting minimum effort on holding the scarf, rested and relaxed. Furthermore, looking at his heavy scarf that falls from his left shoulder to his right hip, the softness of the scarf falls heavily diagonally along his body. The realistic tighten knock in front of his left chest, remain streamer flowing down along with the scarf and partly tuck into the sash creating waterfall drapery. One of the iconic characteristics of Water-Moon Guanyin is his sitting positions; his approachable gesture usually sits in a relaxed pose, half-lotus pose or royal ease pose. Which bring me to my following point, even though this particular figure sits in the royal ease pose, both of his arms are relaxed, but he wasn’t leaning his body to the side like any other royal ease pose we’ve seen in the past. In this case he sits upright in the center presenting an assertive gesture, which I think is rational because this sculpture was created to protect the village and brought villagers’ luck and peacefulness, that might coherence with the Emperor or General’s body language who act as a leader and guardian to the tribe. He sits on a diamond-throne that has a three-sided, pentagon-shaped drapery falling down from the seat. The pattern around the throne looks naturally from the original wood structure which might symbolize the luxuriant vegetation from his island home. Moreover, the symmetrical flower wreath around his neck also possibility symbolization of the greenery as well. As I have shown, there are many developments of this WaterMoon Guanyin throughout the centuries in China. This sculpture shows a lot of cultural influences and stylistic developments during Ming dynasty. In this paper I’ve learned about that the original content of water moon Guanyin that is associated with the landscape setting of his island home from lotus sutra; the sexual transformation of Bodhisattva Guanyin during early Song till Ming dynasties; his sitting positions that reflects his religious position in the province and lastly the skillful woodcarver that creates this intricate sculpture that well preserved until today.
xuan cen cheng Writing Sample – 35
Figure 1 Sakyamuni panted, Sakyamuni flanked by Avalokitesvara (Guanyin) Maitreya, Indra and Brahma, Kushan Period, Professor Junghee Lee, Chinese Buddhism Lecture slides (2018)
Figure 3 - Head of the Ascetic Mahakasyapa, Wall painting from cave Qizil, Professor Junghee Lee, Chinese Buddhism Lecture slides (2018)
xuan cen cheng 36 – Writing Sample
Figure 4 - Blue Lotus Maitreye Bodhisattva, Wall painting from Niche E of the Monastery of Fondukistan, Professor Junghee Lee, Chinese Buddhism Lecture slides (2018)
Figure 5 - Inner surface of the chamber’s cover with inscription, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) dated 1385, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
XUAN CEN CHENG ART 225 BRANDING & PACKAGING KOMBUCHA Project artwork
#5
Process book Project artwork
Project artwork
#7
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