The "local language" of graphic design art

Abstract: When an expression is attached to a recognized ideology, it is called a good expression. As a designer, he wants to convey certain design intentions and design ideas through designing works. However, if the thoughts live in language, to express our ideas accurately, we must choose our own customary expressions and languages. This language is our native language. It is our native language in the true sense of the word and the only basis for us to regain our artistic language.

From the day when we really studied graphic art design, we often heard the name of one after another foreign designer and theoretician. It is also common to hear those people in the domestic design community who "seek to look up only" in our opinion have greatly designed domestic designs. Even those students who have not yet made out their flock are shouting “decorative sins” under the banner of humanity. These may sound very incomparable slogans. Although they may not understand what the true meaning of art design is, this kind of arrogance seems to play a role in clearing the way. It is enough to illustrate our design thinking of rebellion and language innovation. We are dismissive of traditional culture, traditional patterns and even traditional art, as if we were no longer grown up in such an environment overnight. We are gratified to be able to use our mouths to speak out other people’s theoretical viewpoints. In fact, we do not know the profoundness of true traditional culture, nor do we have an in-depth study of our native language, so that we have a mouthful of others. We have even fallen into the search for the Western art design theory. Why is the exquisite art design language of our predecessors so cold today? What is the true expression of our own? After thinking, I think it is necessary to insist on speaking in our native language, because this is the only basis for regaining one's own artistic language.

I. The situation of our native art design language

We know that it is the era of Western mythology and the era in which they dominate discourse. Although we theoretically acknowledge the pluralistic existence of culture and art and the symbiosis of various arts, the right to the survival and dissemination obtained by various arts is affected. Economic, political, and media development influence many different factors. People do not fully develop the possibility of various artistic languages. The influence of the first world is almost in-depth among all ethnic groups. People often lose opportunities and possibilities to fully understand and recognize many local Chinese culture and arts. At the same time, in recognizing the universal consensus of cultural and artistic diversity, it also includes factors that use Western values ​​to understand and judge our culture and art. Of course, this is often not a clear idea, but an unconscious element that permeates the discourse. Such evaluations are often not consciously "degraded" or "underestimated", but are due to the intervention of cultural machines and the introduction of complex ideologies, which have resulted in the loss of a solid and reliable basis for affirming and denying our own art. The production of highly industrialized art products has also made the arts and culture lose the kind of animated “halo” in the classical era. The endless "copying" of videos, recordings, books, computer software and other products have made our private life areas amazingly public. We can buy Chinese art prints cheaply in different countries. The rise of the cultural industry in fact gave the entire world a commoditized, non-selective situation. What we see is a dazzling variety of scenarios, but this diversity is based on the lack of commercialization. In fact, this kind of sovereignty is in the hands of the highly developed first-world countries in the industry. We are in a culture of post-colonialism. (The so-called "post-colonialism" refers to the state in which national independence and liberation have become a reality. After cultural pluralism and symbiosis have been widely recognized, in a time of mass media and transnational capitalism, it is implied in culture. In the hierarchical system of China, the original first world discourse controls our speech and writing, and suppresses our survival. This control and repression is characterized by strong concealment. It even permeates our unconscious field. , so that we bear a powerless deadlock. This is also the most profound division of the contemporary world. It draws away the severe oppositional character in the race, class, and gender differences. Therefore, our art design theory should be a kind of emancipation, a kind of transcendence, and a reconstruction of ethnic emotions that lasted for thousands of years. It swims in the river of flashing life, it comes from a kind of "cutting skin" living experience. It is first of all an attitude, a situation and an emotion, and then it is a theory and a discourse. Our art is the art of the weak, and it is the art of the oppressed and the powerless. The first world's art design theory always tries to imagine the values ​​and ideologies generated in its own culture as the absolute truth of the "hyper-cultural" "meta-language" nature, in an irresponsible and narcissistic narcissism. His own artistic imagination is an eternal, scientific truth. This "cosmopolitan" design idea is actually authoritative and lacks dialogue. The art dialogue we have always advocated is lack of mutuality and there is nowhere to go. Therefore, whenever we see a domestic design work, we habitually stand on the cultural and artistic standpoint of another world. We neither dare to criticize those abstract works that we can't read, nor dare to face it. For those clay-like works, we have neither bold criticism nor enthusiastic praise in the field of domestic art design.

2. Why do we want to develop the "local language" of art design?

First of all, it should be clear what we mean by "local language" here. "Local language" refers to the form of our discourse and expression habits formed on the basis of our own specific historical culture, living environment, and ethnic and folk customs.

Our domestic art and design circles should put forward their own design theory, which is both the "local language" art design theory. Because as a designer, he wants to convey certain design intentions and design ideas through designing works. However, if the thoughts live in language, if we want to express our ideas accurately, we must use our own customary expressions. Language, this language is our "native language", it is our true native language. The so-called "local language" art design theory is by no means a "retrospective" trend of thought. It is not a narrow, one-sided view of the traditional worship and advocacy. It is the diversification of the “international style” of modern art trends throughout the world of design art, emphasizing traditional and localized new design art trends. In the global environment of post-modernist cultural development, our "local language" art design theory will certainly provide new possibilities for the development of design. Therefore, "native" and "contemporary" are the prerequisites and conditions for the existence of "native language" theory. Its development should also be based on this.

China belongs to a third world country and belongs to a country that has experienced "writing" of colonial culture. However, China is also a very special third world society and nation. China is a third-world country with the largest population and the most extensive geographical area. It is an extremely complete historical narrative and a long-standing cultural tradition. China has never experienced a more complete process of colonization, and the cohesion of local culture has never disappeared. Therefore, exploring China's indigenous design theory so that it can play a role in the present society will be a subject of great fascination. The theory of "local design language" is bound to become the independent form of the Chinese art design theory from the first world art design subordinate form to the Chinese art design theory, and the possibility and opportunity from the traditional form to the contemporary form.

What I want to emphasize is that the essence of the "local language" design theory lies in the possibilities of the various exchanges and dialogues it inspires, the richness of the language and the field of existence it displays. The "dialogue" provided here is a kind of Bakhtinian "voice" that can produce extremely rich discourse. The "native language" theory of art design is not a rigid stance, it can only be developed in the pluralistic symbiosis of multiple discourses. We hope that there will be a variety of voices, symphonies of different styles and languages ​​in the field of international art design. This is not a sound overwhelming another sound, but everyone is sharing the joy of thinking in mutual concerns. The "native language" theory of art design is only a possibility, a prospect, a theory and creation. As long as it does not reject or suppress other discourses and does not regard itself as an absolute "authoritative" theory, it has a broad future. Any illusion of absolute ideals can only lead to ossification and lack of vitality. But if we are in an irrational state of learning and we really have no choice but to accept the Western design language, then our own differences and the specificity of our own national culture may be assimilated and absorbed in this discourse. It quietly became part of the mainstream culture and became a one-sided, one-sided thing. The serious consequence of the internationalization of art and design style is that it ignores the differences in the cultural characteristics of different ethnic groups, treats the Western aesthetic value as a hypercultural "meta language," and treats the illusion of artistic language as a real world. . This has led to the most profound contradiction in our domestic art design. On the one hand, the "internationalization style" of art design has become our learning goal, but on the other hand, the reliability of this style value itself has been continuously questioned. How many good or bad selling designs appear in China? How many design works can only be used for awards? We are in an era full of temptations and dramatic choices. The confusion of the art design language and the predicament in the traditional and modern binary opposition relationship constitute the design puzzle. One side is the fast-paced tensions of industrialization and modern urban life, while the other is the lapse of elegant and ancient civilized traditions; one side is the uncontrollable wave, and the other is the melancholy and glorious remembrance. The loss of ancient traditions is painful and confused, and the desire for a new life tempts everyone to make clear choices and judgments.

What is the true charm and value of the "local language"? It lies in its relevance, reasonableness and vividness. "Local language" is not a "single", straightforward ideological discourse, but a communicative language, a state of existence, but in which an ethical value is dissolved. The ethical writing that dominates the business value. It successfully sutured the gap between commercial value and ethical value. For example, in the 2nd issue of "Art and Design" magazine published in 2001 such two sets of art and design works: The first set of image ads is a newspaper advertisement designed for the "Cool will" website. This set of advertisements appeared in the Beijing Youth Daily and other newspapers in the summer of 2000. The picture is based on several handsome modern youth models, reconstructing some of the shapes of the Cultural Revolution. From here we can see the impact of popular culture on graphic design (when Wang Guangyi introduced the image of the Cultural Revolution to his work - "Great Criticism", contemporary society accepted the images created by that period of history. Artwork) The advertising designer made this set of advertisements in the form of pun. One of the ad's ad words is: "Brothers, cut down." The image borrowed from the images of the fighting during the Cultural Revolution and borrowed the images of the Chinese fight films and Gudunlian films in the 1980s and 1990s. The adverts lost the heavy weight that was given to them in that era, and constructed a scroll in the e era with witty and playful tricks. From these e-era pictures, we can read: They have fashionable clothing and hairstyles, and the application of black and white photos makes the picture full of power. The "cut down" at the center of the slogan was tightly bound by the graphic. This ad can quickly attract people's attention is that it effectively breaks the appearance of the rich, overly focused design. The second group of pictures is a group of real estate advertisements in Guangzhou. This group of advertisements is for a series of activities that the real estate company has launched "No reason to check out." The advertisement borrowed the “red, light, bright, big, and full” model during the Cultural Revolution, and created a series of print advertisements that we knew from each other but whose contents were completely different. The slogan "People's interests above all else" and "Victory belongs to the people." These two advertisements are vivid and powerful using the historical language that belongs only to us. The power of "local language" is fully displayed