Christina Yang

Communication Design, RMIT University, 2020  / Photographer

[christinaywn]

Collage I made

Collage I made:D

[christinaywn]

Colour Lab

How’s everyone holding up?

Simply sharing some of my colour lab works lately. They are originally created by one of my favorite artist. I recreated those art works applied with my own colour theory.

Striking popping colour combination is definitely one of my favorite art forms currently. How do you like that?

Plus: some relaxing jazzy music is always my best drawing buddy❤️

[elli-sojung-kim]

week9 Workshop in 17/05/2020 We had the collage workshop this week! I tried to find an old magazine and went to a second-hand book shop. I purchased the ‘CameraArts’ published in 1982, had a lot of fun with this old photos. Also, I end up this collage using another modern glossy magazine! I would like to name these letters as ‘retro dancers’! :-)

[christinaywn]

Love those collages!

[bygabb]

Project 3 : Ask Me Anything

https://maurakurnianto.wixsite.com/basquiat

Here is what my zine currently looks like, I decided to do an interactive zine. 

My subject of choice is Jean-Michel Basquiat. At first I was only drawn to his art style and the story behind it, but his take on the art industry fascinates me. His journey to being recognized in the art industry was not easy and I decided to dig a little deeper for this project. I have to say, he’s now one of my favourite artist! 

Click the link above and let me know what you guys think!

[christinaywn]

Love him as well. Really fascinating art style

[christinaywn]

Oil Crayon Practice - my colour lab & open themes 

A new pack of oil crayon encourages me to practice this art material more. The texture, the saturated colour, the rough and wild boundaries when drawing a line are all really fascinating to me.

My goal at the beginning is to paint one A4 everyday to see how will my paintings go. From the left to right, top to bottom, the paintings are placed in order from the earliest one to latest one. They are all open themes, just glooming and imagination in my mind. However, a theme is just gradually formed eventually as the drawing is going on. 

Strong encourage everyone to paint more, think more and have more fun. Adobe is not everything :D Let’s go old-fashion together 

Cheers

[elli-sojung-kim]

Lecture 3 (20/03/2020)

look back : lecture 3

In this lecture, we studied cuneiform, ostracise and hieroglyphic, and went over ideographic scripts such as Chinese and Japanese. Also, Andy recommended sharing our own experience of our language. We have a unique alphabet, called ‘Hangul.’ It consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels to make it easy to learn. Every year, we celebrate the invention of Hangul on October 9. King Sejong created Hangul to help people read and write more easily in 1446. The letter form is based on the shape of the mouth and tongue. The vowel shape resembles the sky, earth, and human. I made one image for pronouncing communication design in Hangul. Our language is also a phonogram, we can write any language for pronunciation like this. I hope more people in the world will learn Hangul! 

image source: 

https://medium.com/@minzikang/design-lessons-from-the-korean-alphabet-383191ee7d4d

http://gabrielwhiteboard.blogspot.com/2018/07/advanced-learn-to-read-hangul.html

[christinaywn]

Totally fascinated by Korean. The language which seems similar to Han zi. I am interested to dig into this language!

[reflectionsofeloise]

Visual Inspiration

Regarding the visuals and graphics of my zine I am heavily inspired by bright colours and reflective materials. 

For researching different ways I could portray this graphically, I found inspiration from these posters by @sergeposters on instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sergeposters/)

[christinaywn]

Love the idea of reflection and the colour combination conveyed through the attached poster! 

[joedesigned]

ZINE UPDATE

Finally starting to progress with my zine, and by that I mean I’ve done the introductory page… I’m just absolutely hating everything I make at the moment and am really stuck in a rut, but it’s due THIS WEEK so I’ll have to work past the creative block and suck it up. I’m not really happy with the layout at the moment but I figured if I just get something down i can go back later to fix it up. 

You can see better now how I’m gonna try incorporate my magazine collage / photo collages in with the zine. The talkshow host is made up of photos from unsplash.com (all free to use! no copyright!) and I’ll also include some of my own collage later in the zine.

again, feedback is welcome, I want to change the font of my body text as well, its too bold. Something bauhaus but not bold? Does that even exist?

[christinaywn]

Just saw this post on Zine and now I can not describe how much I love this style. The beautiful collage and the colour, is so eye-catchy and it’s quite a vibe! As a big fan of collage from the post-modernism time, collage are applied in my zine as well but here, I feel it’s a different style of collage compared to what I made. This is neater and clearer than mine. 

[christinaywn]

Zine: Lion Dance 

Zine I made as a final project of my studying journey in Communication Design, Semester 1, 2020. It was a long process, not easy but heaps of fun. It took me a long time to figure out the topic of my zine: Lion Dance.

It is a topic I’m passionate in and simultaneously, this topic has its society, cultural value. I could still remember how I start from some plain A4 paper (which I used as a prototype of a spreadsheet) and some basic shapes, illustrations in my mind. Generally speaking, this is a great project which ‘pushed’ me to finalise my design one time and another. I learned a lot and I really enjoy it.

Compared to other four topics you did research for, what is the speciality of ‘Lion Dance’ for you? Is there a decisive reason for your final choice?

All five topics I did research for are fabulous artists, art movement or design. However, the reason why I’m so passionate for Lion Dance is because my hometown-being. I am from Canton, China and yes, this is where the Lion originated from. I was fully raised in China and the Lion Dance is almost accounted as the most important celebration during festivals, ceremonies, etc..

I want to say, this is something closely related to my life (childhood, hometown, memories) which is dedicated to my final decision.

What art material and art style you used for this zine?

Specifically, I utilised oil crayon and doing collage in some page. The intention for using crayon is to show the beautiful texture of the crayon through my hand drawing. Compared to digital sketching or illustration, hand drawing could bring out the sense of wild, free, no restraint, passionate more which is align with the idea of lion. 

Additionally, collage is an important idea and section of post modernism. It conveys the idea of breaking the traditional rules in art world and keep attempting new things. This is what I’m trying to convey through the interview with the lion. How traditional culture, art created by our ancestors combine and embrace the modern world. How the new generation re-develop the essence of traditional art.

Is there any difficulty when doing your design?

Yes, there is. Designing a zine is more difficult than I imagined (this is my first attempt for this new field). I want to do it creatively instead of having formal and neat layout. That’s my personal art style and preference. However, after doing research and consulting my tutor, I was strong suggested to relate the art form, style and material related to my topic. This makes it more difficult for me to think of design for every spreadsheet. 

Additionally, when the design process went digital for some typography and layout stuff, I noticed my typography skills requires lots of improvement. I am aware of this field.

What is the most interesting part during the designing process?

That’s a lot! There are many things I quite enjoy but I would say I enjoy myself most when painting and doing layout through playing around with different elements on Adobe Indesign. Indesign is like a lab for me to experimenting with different layout.

Would you like to share some tips for designing zine?

I consider myself as a newbie to the zine field. This is my first time ever designing a zine alone. I learn and have fun from it. I would say designing a zine should always try to break the rules, cross the lines and have fun with it. That’s what a zine really is. A plain white paper is ready to reveal all your talented thoughts.

[christinaywn]

Decolonising Design: Female photographer / Visual Artist - Elizaveta Porodina

What is Decolonising Design?

In my point of view, Decolonising Design is an encouragement for people to be more open-minded to design. Design should not be something restrained in Adobe Softwares, the black box, the rulers, etc.. It should be something popped out in your mind, the feelings you would like to share, the idea you would like to convey, the stories you would like tell and many other aspects.

How does ‘Gender’ relate to Decolonising Design as what is mentioned in the lecture?

It is not difficult to tell that still, in today’s art world, female creatives, critics and authors who are well-known in some way accounts for a minor part compared to male. This kind of imbalance happened all the time.

What do you think of the imbalance between male and female artists?

I don’t think it’s a great idea for the art world to be more developed and prosperous. People should be open minded and listen for more options from different artists and creatives. We should more focus on the people instead of his or her properties such as gender, age, nationality, etc.. 

All those properties are created by society instead of human’s nature. I strongly believe that we should more focus on the most natural part of human beings such as feelings, imagination and so on.

Are there any female artists you particularly like?

My favourite female photographer is Elizaveta Porodina, who is born in Russia and located in Germany, Moscow more often. She was a psychologist before and doing fashion photography at the moment. 

Her work is different from other fashion photographer utilising dramatic lightning and strong colour. She has a great eye for capturing the most natural moment of human beings (models). In my point of view, photography is a way to convey your feeling, showing your view and communicating with the people in front of you. What Elizaveta is doing is aligned with my understanding of photography and plus, I’m a big fan of playing around with different colour.

[christinaywn]

Photography: Have you heard of the Lions? 

I would like to share some of my photography works. Dance Lion is also my topic for a zine design (which would be posted soon). For a better visual presentation, fortunately, I successfully borrowed a Southern Lion custome. 

‘Have you heard of the Lion?’ is created to raise people’s awareness of a traditional art heritage originated from Guangzhou, China - the Lion Dance. 

This group of work aims at capturing the beauty of Lion Dance and the fact that it was being forgotten and losing once in order to raise the awareness of people nowadays to pay more attention to traditional art. 

What are you trying to show through the photographs?

This art performance started since the Tang Dynasty in ancient China in order to protect people from a monster called ‘Nian’ when in Spring Festival. As time went by, the Lion Dance has already become a culture unity of good wishes and Chinese Spring Festival across Asia. 

However, because of commercialisation and industrialisation, this heritage was losing at a time because it is time and energy costed. Fortunately, it is such a comfort that the new generation is paying attention to some old and traditional culture such as the Lion Dance. Many creatives produce video, interview or photographs of some traditional culture. A large group of industrial, graphic or fashion designers are inspired by the Dancing Lion. This traditional heritage from our ancestors are promoted in the commercialised market and embrace with the nowadays world.  

The photographs look really colourful, does your colour palette represent something?

Yes. I am a big fan of playing around with colours either for my design work or photography. Regarding this project, lion Dance and Chinese Spring Festival related elements and colour are utilised in this project. Additionally, through some flexible pose of the model, the beauty of this dance should be conveyed more effectively.

 Another point to mention is the colour applied in this project. To show how this traditional art melts into the contemporary art world, a more contradictory colour combination is applied. The visions are striking and playful. 

Special thanks to the team:

Model: Zishuo Liu

HMUA: Luna 

Feel free to leave your comment below ❤️

[elli-sojung-kim]

Who inspires me? #02 Yawen

I loved the whole topics Yawen mentioned in the class. I believe she is one of the creative students in our course. She chose Andy Warhol’s factory, Buttons, Klein blue, feminist artist, and Chinese dancing lion. Then I thought to myself, ‘Please choose the dancing lion!’

I know her country, so I thought it is a cultural and meaningful topic. When I was a kid, I also saw some dancing lion parade. The dancing lion is really visually pleasing. When I saw this photo, I thought Yawen reinterpreted her tradition in her own way. Also, she looks like a professional photographer 📸Yawen’s work is always intense and colourful. I think she has her own style although it’s the first semester! I’m looking forward to seeing her final work as soon as possible :-)

[christinaywn]

It is always something good to see your classmate reblog your tumblr with a long comment. Kim is one of my classmate in RMIT University. She is sweet, beautiful and unquestionably talented. She has her own idea and she’s willing to share all the time. Although the semester is over, I still look forward to seeing what she will go in her design career and also, I can’t wait to see her zine //w\\

[christinaywn]

Art, unity and family keep our spirit strong: 

Family Portrait of Susan’s family 

I would like to share a group of family portrait captured by me for Susan. Unquestionably, images play an important and effective role in passing information. The emotion, the composition, the objects, the colour and the light & shadow construct the picture. One picture can tell a lot. That’s the reason why I am so attracted by photography. 

It was such a pleasure for me to shoot this group of portraits of Susan’s family in September 2019. Susan’s family is consisted of herself, her husband Sackey, and their lovely children. They currently live in Australia. Susan is from Australia, and Sackey is from Ghana in West Africa. Both of them are contemporary dancers, which is why they met and fell in love with each other. 

Susan told me that Sackey chose to settle down in Australia for marrying her - he has not been home for six years. It was difficult at a time for her because sometimes she can’t understand some of the nuances that make Sackey who he is; however, they’ve chosen to created a family and community with the value of not only the enjoyment of life but also the unity of global humanity. 

This family composition conveys the idea that love between human beings is something more powerful than cultural and racial differences. 

The happiness, creative, and harmonious life moment created by Susan’s family is a small reflection of the world nowadays, where internationalisation could bring people from different families, countries, and cultures together. From this, the idea of the sense of belonging and global humanity is revealed from the bond between human beings. It reminds us of the essential statue of human beings: we had been developed and will continue to develop together as a whole.

The below is the interview (selected) between me and Susan

How do you enjoy living with someone from a totally different culture? 

Well that’s interesting. I think when you marry into a family you become part of a community but marrying someone from another country and then they move to your country - there is no community or family with them. So really, I have married an individual who is now separated from his community. This is very difficult at times - it’s hard for me to understand some of the nuances that make him who he is and it is lonely for our family without knowing grandparents and uncles and aunts. 

However, it is also an opportunity to make a new family and a new community. We really enjoy meeting other families who are similar to ours, live music and festivals which focus on he values of our family - a global humanity, enjoyment of life, unity. 

Did life change after having children? 

Yes! One was fun, two is so much work! They bring us a lot of joy and it is wonderful to see a human grow from a baby to small children. Our children have made us a family and we are so grateful to them for that. It does make things harder, like traveling but we know it is a short period in life that they are dependent so we are enjoying being in Australia for this time. 

There is lots of art in our home, what role does art have in your family? 

Creativity is very important to us - Sackey and my ability to use creativity to keep our spirits high and connect others is very important to the way we live. Sackey says ‘art keeps our spirit strong’ and this is an important skill to pass on to our girls. 

[christinaywn]

The world is burning. What happened in US recently reveal the truth, crucially that racial discrimination is still going on somewhere. Such a shame on humans. Announcing Global Village, Multi-culture day by day, one city and another, what the truth is those are called out by the people who enjoying “privileges”. Please remember, we are all human beings. There is no one different. We are all the same. 

[christinaywn]

Photography: Have you heard of the Lions? 

I would like to share some of my photography works. Dance Lion is also my topic for a zine design (which would be posted soon). For a better visual presentation, fortunately, I successfully borrowed a Southern Lion custome. 

'Have you heard of the Lion?' is created to raise people's awareness of a traditional art heritage originated from Guangzhou, China - the Lion Dance. 

This group of work aims at capturing the beauty of Lion Dance and the fact that it was being forgotten and losing once in order to raise the awareness of people nowadays to pay more attention to traditional art. 

What are you trying to show through the photographs?

This art performance started since the Tang Dynasty in ancient China in order to protect people from a monster called 'Nian' when in Spring Festival. As time went by, the Lion Dance has already become a culture unity of good wishes and Chinese Spring Festival across Asia. 

However, because of commercialisation and industrialisation, this heritage was losing at a time because it is time and energy costed. Fortunately, it is such a comfort that the new generation is paying attention to some old and traditional culture such as the Lion Dance. Many creatives produce video, interview or photographs of some traditional culture. A large group of industrial, graphic or fashion designers are inspired by the Dancing Lion. This traditional heritage from our ancestors are promoted in the commercialised market and embrace with the nowadays world.  

The photographs look really colourful, does your colour palette represent something?

Yes. I am a big fan of playing around with colours either for my design work or photography. Regarding this project, lion Dance and Chinese Spring Festival related elements and colour are utilised in this project. Additionally, through some flexible pose of the model, the beauty of this dance should be conveyed more effectively.

 Another point to mention is the colour applied in this project. To show how this traditional art melts into the contemporary art world, a more contradictory colour combination is applied. The visions are striking and playful. 

Special thanks to the team:

Model: Zishuo Liu

HMUA: Luna 

Feel free to leave your comment below ❤️

[christinaywn]

Art, unity and family keep our spirit strong: 

Family Portrait of Susan’s family 

I would like to share a group of family portrait captured by me for Susan. Unquestionably, images play an important and effective role in passing information. The emotion, the composition, the objects, the colour and the light & shadow construct the picture. One picture can tell a lot. That’s the reason why I am so attracted by photography. 

It was such a pleasure for me to shoot this group of portraits of Susan’s family in September 2019. Susan’s family is consisted of herself, her husband Sackey, and their lovely children. They currently live in Australia. Susan is from Australia, and Sackey is from Ghana in West Africa. Both of them are contemporary dancers, which is why they met and fell in love with each other. 

Susan told me that Sackey chose to settle down in Australia for marrying her - he has not been home for six years. It was difficult at a time for her because sometimes she can’t understand some of the nuances that make Sackey who he is; however, they’ve chosen to created a family and community with the value of not only the enjoyment of life but also the unity of global humanity. 

This family composition conveys the idea that love between human beings is something more powerful than cultural and racial differences. 

The happiness, creative, and harmonious life moment created by Susan’s family is a small reflection of the world nowadays, where internationalisation could bring people from different families, countries, and cultures together. From this, the idea of the sense of belonging and global humanity is revealed from the bond between human beings. It reminds us of the essential statue of human beings: we had been developed and will continue to develop together as a whole.

The below is the interview (selected) between me and Susan

How do you enjoy living with someone from a totally different culture? 

Well that's interesting. I think when you marry into a family you become part of a community but marrying someone from another country and then they move to your country - there is no community or family with them. So really, I have married an individual who is now separated from his community. This is very difficult at times - it's hard for me to understand some of the nuances that make him who he is and it is lonely for our family without knowing grandparents and uncles and aunts. 

However, it is also an opportunity to make a new family and a new community. We really enjoy meeting other families who are similar to ours, live music and festivals which focus on he values of our family - a global humanity, enjoyment of life, unity. 

Did life change after having children? 

Yes! One was fun, two is so much work! They bring us a lot of joy and it is wonderful to see a human grow from a baby to small children. Our children have made us a family and we are so grateful to them for that. It does make things harder, like traveling but we know it is a short period in life that they are dependent so we are enjoying being in Australia for this time. 

There is lots of art in our home, what role does art have in your family? 

Creativity is very important to us - Sackey and my ability to use creativity to keep our spirits high and connect others is very important to the way we live. Sackey says 'art keeps our spirit strong' and this is an important skill to pass on to our girls. 

[christinaywn]

Colours

I would like to share some covers design of one of my favourite magazine: Colours.

Why you want to share those cover design?

Personally, those cover are aesthetically pleasant. Most of the covers are designed based on some photograph shoot. The pictures are all very conceptual. 

Image source: Grafisk, J n.d., Colour magazine/Benetton/T Kalmann, image, Pinterest, viewed 18 May 2020, <https://www.pinterest.se/evajais/colors-magazine-benetton-t-kalman/>. 

Regarding the whole magazine, what is the most brilliant point in your point of view? 

Apart from the striking cover design and publication design of Colours, the most brilliant point of it is how Colours combines design and merchandising. They often advertise their sponsors in a very aesthetically way (refer to image). As a result, unlike other commercialised magazine publishing boring advertisement, Colours still keeps it audience engaged till now and get lots of funding for the magazine. 

Image source: Grafisk, J n.d., Colour magazine/Benetton/T Kalmann, image, Pinterest, viewed 18 May 2020, <https://www.pinterest.se/evajais/colors-magazine-benetton-t-kalman/>.

Would you think Colour could still be one of the most valuable magazines worldwide in future?

Yes, no matter for the past or future, Colours would be one of the best magazines worldwide. Because what Colour is bringing out is the discussion of society topics such as racism, AIDS, etc., Colour magazine has its own voice and insistence which made him survive among thousands of competitors. 

Image source: Grafisk, J n.d., Colour magazine/Benetton/T Kalmann, image, Pinterest, viewed 18 May 2020, <https://www.pinterest.se/evajais/colors-magazine-benetton-t-kalman/>.

[christinaywn]

The future for design: What would come after Post Modernism art?

In week 9 Lecture, Andy and Karen (lecturers) discussed about the future of post modernism through showing some art works in Premodern, Modern and post modern period.

 The style of the artworks from these three different times could be summed up as loyal to god, holy in Premodern, showing democracy, self-determination of people in Modernism art world, chasing for human rights, equality, against reaction towards reality in Postmodernism. 

Undeniably, through comparison and summary towards these three different periods artworks, it could be revealed that art is closely related to big environment. Environment here could be pointed as what happened in the society and what’s the society hierarchies like such as monarchies, democracy, etc..

Artworks from Premodern, Modernism and Postmodernism, which do you like most?

After reviewing several artists from different times, in my point of view, artworks from postmodernism would be my favourite. My favourite designer representing postmodernism art style effectively would be David Carson. Davis Carson is a graphic designer and art director. He utilises lots of collage art in his design combining with outstanding colour application. He plays around with different texture, pattern and shapes. There’s no rule to look for in his design, which is the most representative style for postmodernism art. 

 Image source: Carson, D 2011, Quiksilver Pro New York, image, 2014 AIGA Medalist, viewed 07 May 2020, <https://www.aiga.org/medalist-david-carson/>.

Image source: Carson, D 2011, National Theatre 50th Anniversary Poster, image, 2014 AIGA Medalist, viewed 07 May 2020, <https://www.aiga.org/medalist-david-carson/>.

Compared to David Carson, what do you think of Ettore Sottsass, another representative designer of Postmodernism art?

I like Ettore Sottsass as well. Unquestionably, he is an absolutely talented industrial designer. His works shows the pattern, colour and minimalism theory which are totally different from traditional furniture design. 

Image source: Sottsass, E 1981, Scottsas Carson’s Bookcase, image, Dezeen, viewed 07 May 2020, <https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/03/ettore-sottsass-memphis-group-carlton-storage-unit-tahiti-lamp-postmodernism/>.

Image source: Sottsass, E 1981, Scottsas Carson’s Lamp , image, Dezeen, viewed 07 May 2020, <https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/03/ettore-sottsass-memphis-group-carlton-storage-unit-tahiti-lamp-postmodernism/>.

In his design, what important is the surface. His design is constructed of surfaces and shapes. Some surfaces are applied with pattern and some are being laminated. From this, it is revealed that materiality in postmodernism art word becomes less important yet artists still play around with it. 

Do you think what would be the future for design, after Postmodernism art?

In my point of view, through the development of art from Premodern period  till Postmodern, there is a trend that people’s consciousness and eager for equality, liberty and human rights is awaking. It is very difficult to predict what would the art style be after postmodernism but I am sure the borders, the barrier in art world would become weaken and weaken. I have faith in the future of art world and the society we are in. 

[christinaywn]

Shapeshifter - Alphabet

Some shapes (triangles and semi-circle) are prepared before the tutorial this week. To make it more interesting, I utilised marker to colouring the crafted paper. 

What do you think of this activity?

This activity is a piratical, inspirational one. Through composing, construing the most basic shapes, alphabet letter could be created in various ways. For example, ‘M’ shape in the above is created through negative space. ‘t’ is folded through different layers. To sum up, this activity encourages me to think how alphabet could be created in different ways. 

Do you enjoy this activity? 

Yes, I really enjoy practicing creating alphabet in a practical way.