Graphic design is booming in contemporary China and a pioneering generation of young design students and professionals have established graphic design as a creative discipline. Shenyang University and the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts (LAFA) is part of this development. Today’s LAFA is a large and modern institution, boasting an Art Gallery of over 4000 square meters. Shenyang University traces its history back to 1906 and its Academy of Art has become renowned in Northeast China. Today, more than 2000 students are enrolled in programmes in the academy, making for a thriving and creative community.
Each year, these two institutions join together and invite a Nordic design studio to come and hold a workshop for around 100 students from the two schools and this year, award-winning Yokoland is the presenting studio.
In addition to the workshop, the two institutions are organising an exhibition of Yokoland’s works. Yokoland works across various fields of graphic design, typography and illustration – both commissioned and self initiated work. The studio recently won the 2011 Young Designer’s Prize awarded by the Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway, and since hand drawn typography is an important part of Yokoland’s field of work, they have long been interested in Chinese calligraphy. The exhibition and the workshop will therefore focus on the relationship between Nordic and Chinese design both from a historical and a contemporary perspective, and especially on calligraphy and typography.
Yokoland emphasises close, long term collaborations with their clients, and is known for their work with the independent record label Metronomicon Audio and publishing house Flamme Forlag. Yokoland frequently collaborates with other designers, architects, illustrators, photographers, type designers, programmers, printers, curators, musicians and writers. Their work includes book design, posters, photography and packaging for music to visual identities, stationery, signage systems, type design, web, video, title sequences for movies, exhibition design, editorial and curatorial work.
Graphic design is flourishing not only in Shenyang and it has become very diverse in form and style. Beijing Design Week, held for the first time in September and October 2011, is a reflection of this growing interest in design, and Yokoland will also present their work at the exhibition held at the National Museum of China in central Beijing during Beijing Design Week 26 September to 3 October.
See pictures of their work and read more about Yokoland on their webpage www.yokoland.com
See the Beijing Design Week website www.bjdw.org for more information on the venue and the exhibitions.