China Design Now

Ok this is a long post... but mainly pictures! Recently I went to the China Design Now exhibition at the V&A, I loved it and here are a few of the things I liked and/or manage to get sneaky pictures of (hence some of the poor quality.. there's only so ma

ny times I could get told 'no pictures'!).

The exhibit looked at graphic design, fashion and architecture, broken up and studied through grouping the areas into 3 different cities of China. Clipping from the V&A site...

  

The journey starts in the far south, where graphic designers in Shenzhen began to explore new directions in the early 1990s. Next we move up to Shanghai. Here consumerism and urban culture have combined to produce astonishing fashion and lifestyles. Finally, we travel to Beijing, where monumental architecture for the Olympic Games is transforming the skyline of this ancient capital.

China Design Now explores China’s dreams and hopes over the last two decades, from individual designers to the nation as a whole. It is our hope that this exhibition will bring contemporary China closer to you.

What appeals to me about modern Far East design is their bold use of colour and simplicity, shown in the boards, posters and magazine above.

Again, it's the simplicity in the pieces above that really attracted me to them. The pair of posters contains the names of the two Japanese cities bombed in WW2 (Nagasaki and Hiroshima), written in expressive Chinese calligraphy. In each character, strokes or parts of a stroke are missing, evoking the sense of the broken city in ruins.

You can see the designer's cool but crazy site here www.wangxu.com.cn

Now this was very odd... you bought a lovely packaged stuffed figure, you then customised 'him' by planting hairs on him where you wished. 

Below are just a couple of things I liked in the gift shop..

Some of the architecture on show was amazing. The structure below is a HQ for a television station and encases everything that the show and their employees need to live and work... restaurants, accommodation. Very cosy/communist.