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Conceptual 

Design - Chinese togetherness 

2 months, Mar 2023

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Introduction

This project is my university thesis which is called “Chinese Togetherness”. I designed the tablecloth and bowls by decorating with the related Chinese food cultures and traditional elements. By combining the main Chinese food flavors, related food, corresponding blessings,  physical bowls, and the tablecloth together, I hope to represent the theme of "合" which means togetherness. It symbolized the traditional communal dining style in China, which created a good opportunity for people to socialize, celebrate, and convey affection and love through sharing and enjoying the food together. 

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Presentation - "Chinese togetherness"

The main works of this project are five bowls, one tablecloth, and one process book. The whole setting was presented in OCAD University for its graduate exhibition.

bowls:

made with air dry clay, painted with acrylic paints;

4.5 inches in diameter, 2.5 inches in depth

tablecloth:

fabric printed (7oz polyester);

36*36 inches (24*24 inches for the central designed pattern)

process book:

printed on matte cover (80lb);

148 pages, 6*6 inches

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Details

The decoration features five main designed icons, each representing a distinct flavor and intertwined with symbolic foods or vegetables and traditional blessings conveyed through old sayings and proverbs related to each specific food. The five combinations of the decoration are “Fish-Salty-Fortune”, “Bitter melon-Bitter-Prosperity”, “Longevity peach-Sweet-Longevity”, “Chili-Spicy-Happiness”, and “Fermented sour cabbage-Sour-Wealth”. 

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The Chinese character "合" is integrated into both the bowl and tablecloth designs. From a top view, the character emerges by aligning the parabolic section of the tablecloth design with the corresponding bowl design.

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The center image of the tablecloth mimics an impression of a Chinese dish that contains different food, flavors, and implied meanings and blessings. 

I also designed my own business cards for people to take freely. There are related main icon design works and my handwritten greetings on the cards, which could also be the spreading of Chinese cultures and my own blessings to other people.

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Audience participation

Icon design

"The five main icons are formed by combining the letters from the corresponding flavor's English names, designed in the style of Chinese paper-cut art." I drew the rough ideas in Sketchbook with a graphic tablet. Then I made the digital version in Illustrator and Glyphs 3.

 
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Fish-Salty-Fortune

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icon in Illustrator

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Bitter melon-Bitter-Prosperity

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icon in Illustrator

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Longevity peach-Sweet-Longevity

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icon in Illustrator

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Chili-Spicy-Happiness

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icon in Illustrator

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Fermented sour cabbage-Sour-Wealth

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icon in Illustrator

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"salty"

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icon in Glyphs 3

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"bitter"

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icon in Glyphs 3

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"sweet"

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icon in Glyphs 3

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"spicy"

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icon in Glyphs 3

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"sour"

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icon in Glyphs 3

Pattern design for bowls

I created patterns to decorate the bowls in Illustrator. Then I used Adobe Dimension to apply the patterns on the bowls for achieving a 3D effect. Lastly, I edited the digital patterns in Photoshop for representing.

 
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Fish-Salty-Fortune

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Longevity peach-Sweet-Longevity

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Bitter melon-Bitter-Prosperity

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Chili-Spicy-Happiness

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Fermented sour cabbage-Sour-Wealth

I placed the large five icons on the inner bottom of the five bowls respectively. I also made patterns on the inner side of the bowls with the icons and words. There are also corresponding blessings beneath (on the outer bottom of the bowls), implying that the blessings will be “eaten”(physically possessed) by the people.

 

Fish-Salty-Fortune

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Bitter melon-Bitter-Prosperity

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Longevity peach-Sweet-Longevity

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Chili-Spicy-Happiness

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Fermented sour cabbage-Sour-Wealth

Pattern design for tablecloth

The red line on the tablecloth mimics the style of Chinese knots which connects all flavors (salty, bitter, sweet, spicy, sour), blessings (fortune, prosperity, longevity, happiness, wealth), and food (fish, bitter melon, longevity peach, chili, fermented sour cabbage) together to represent the main theme of "合" which means togetherness, to bring and fit together.

 
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tablecloth pattern made in Illustrator

 
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3D pattern presentation made in Adobe Dimension

 
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The combination of bowls and tablecloth - "合"

 

five "合" in total

 

Handcrafted bowls

I created physical bowls by air dry clay. The overall process is modeling - baking - sanding - painting (acrylic paints) - glazing. There is also a video I made about the process of creating bowls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF2MOVSqqDo&t=74s

 

 materials

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 modeling

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 baking

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 sanding

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 painting

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 glazing

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Process works for bowls

 rough sketches (Sketchbook with a graphic tablet)

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 icon design (Illustrator & Glyphs 3)

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 pattern design (Illustrator)

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 3D modeling (Adobe Dimension)

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Process works for tablecloth

 rough sketches (Illustrator&Sketchbook with a graphic tablet)

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 pattern design (Illustrator)

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 3D modeling (Adobe Dimension)

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