• ABOUT US
• ARGUMENT
• "WORLD" AND "CHINA"
• ABOUT CROSSOVER DESIGN
• ABOUT CHEAP DESIGN
• IMAGINATION AND MATTER
• A CONVERSATION

About “Cheap Design”

The term "crossover" appeared eight or nine years ago and gradually developed from "fashionable" and "slightly compliment" to "vulgar" and “goofing around". For example, a fruit peddler who temporarily does to work as a taxi driver is regarded as a “crossover proprietor”; an performance artist who temporarily goes to build a house is regarded as conducting “crossover creation”.

However, what we are talking about today is the “crossover” of eight or nine years ago. At that time, “crossover” meant to extend excellent experience and cognition in a given field to a similar field, and optimize and renew them in a cooperative mode. The products made through the process, e.g. Xu Bing's land calligraphy and Tan Dun’s Kunqu opera, were generally quite conceptual and symbolic, so they were worth appreciation. The crossover artists creatively achieved the result of 1 +1> 2 by virtue of their own independent aesthetic awareness and through cooperation with masters of other fields.

Eight years ago when I first set up my studio, I intentionally or unintentionally came into contact with “crossover design”. Maybe this was because my project involved some interior design tasks, some graphic design tasks, some landscape design tasks, and occasionally some building facade renovation design tasks. Besides, I would spend much spare time studying furniture and lighting design. After some time, I gradually got a little understanding of design that it should not exist independent of the other fields. For example, buildings stand on the ground so their outside from should be complement with the surrounding landscape; their exterior pattern and facade form determine the interior design; the form and pattern of windows determines the range of lighting design, not to mention the design of furniture and decorative ornaments. All these designs are natural both from inside and outside, allowing people to enjoy themselves. They are the very creations that are fitting with nature and mankind.

Of course, the ways and means of expression of each design field differ a lot, so do the control and accuracy of scale, but the aesthetic perceptions are the same. They derive from the same origin and then produce their own enormous professional theoretic rules. Take the concept of analog-to-digital for example. You can apply it in graphic design or LOGO design, and also must apply it in the plane and construction drawings of landscape design. Still further, it is used in the interior design, in order to facilitate construction and save cost. Modulization constantly exists. Give you another example: when I was in charge of the overall design of the 14th China Advertising Festival, I integrated the exhibit arrangement of the interior design, the visual experience of graphic design, the landscape-style ground visual guiding system and the change of lighting device and scale control into one and ultimately created a whole sensory space. When the completed design was open to welcome both Chinese and foreign advertising men, several professional viewers of the Japanese advertising industry impressed me a lot. When they entered the door, they first bowed and then orderly went forward, turned around and stopped according to the ground guiding system I had designed, with no partial steps. They reminded me of the young pioneers. I sat and watched while they were sensing — both of us were joyful.

These views and experiences make it possible for me to make full use of the merits and creatively integrate them into one after understanding the rules and characteristics of each design fields. Moreover, they allow me to size up the interior design, the graphic design and the furniture design that I am concerned with from a special point of view.