Chinese Pictograms: The Pictographic Evolution & Graphic Creation of Hanzi

Recent years have witnessed a Chinese character design boom, with influential activities popping up one after another across Asia. Institutions such as The Central Academy of Fine Arts, Just Fonts, 3type, Mojijuku have launched courses for Chinese character design. Meanwhile, various exhibitions, lectures, seminars, and competitions, online or offline, are popular with young designers. The innovative use of Chinese characters as main visual elements in design, such as brand identity, logos, books, and posters, enjoys growing trend globally. On the other hand, the cultural uniqueness of Chinese characters demands a sound understanding of its history from designers.

This book breaks the boundary between culture, art, and design by means of integrating the historical and cultural knowledge of Chinese characters with graphic designs. It offers a concise introduction of the invention and development of Chinese characters; teases out the glyphic characteristics and rules for creating different calligraphic styles; visualizes the glyphic evolution of 132 commonly used characters; and analyzes a selection of over 60 outstanding type designs of renowned designers. It will enable designers to maximize the expression value of Chinese characters in visuals!