CHINESE MODERN ART ZINE
During my final quarter at school,
I created an Honors Capstone project & presentation to finish up my degrees.
As both a Design and a Chinese language/culture major, I felt that a project centered around Chinese design would be perfect. Though I'd learned a lot about Chinese culture and history throughout my college career, I'd never had the chance to focus specifically on Chinese art. In the end
I created a 45 minute presentation about
the importance of Chinese contemporary
art and how the nation's tumultuous history helps to demonstrate the necessity of art education throughout the world. I also designed a zine to accompany the presentation.
Scroll down to see the entire research and design process!
PROCESS
RESEARCH & IDEATION
China has nearly 3000 years of history, and the arts have been a priority throughout most of this time period - so there was lots of research to be done. Besides reading a lot of books, I also took a trip to the Seattle Asian Art Museum. I saw both ancient and modern examples of Chinese artwork, and found myself inspired, especially by the more contemporary pieces. "Colored Vases" by Ai Wei Wei was on display, which was a piece that especially stuck out to me in regards to contemporary Chinese artists and their artwork in response to China's current political climate.
MOODBOARDS
SKETCHES
DRAFTS
I worked mostly with InDesign and Illustrator to put together my zine.
Every page went through several iterations before I settled on final layouts.
Below is an example of how I experimented with layouts, colors and fonts before finalizing each page. The bottom right page ended up being my final design.
FINAL PACKAGE
In the end, assembling printed magazines that I could physically give to others was my favorite part of this project. Creating something and then bringing it to life was really exciting, and it was even better that this was a topic I'm so passionate about! I learned so much during this process and loved being able
to share what I discovered with others.
To view online versions of the magazine in English or Mandarin, or to view my presentation slides, check out the links below.
