I have known Zhengda for 20 years. At that time, I was a student in China Academy of Art. His parents moved to HangZhou for some career reasons, and he moved to HangZhou with his parents too. They lived next to my dormitory for a short time. Today, one of his posters brings me to connect him with the child in memory. I saw his road from a child to a planar designer through that poster.

It was in the early summer in 2002, I was attracted by a piece of handbill in the campus which had strong visual power and high artistic conception because of the construction of clear graph and color, the simple geometry shape, the letter arrangement and the modern design thoughts. It is this handbill of the Graduation Poster Expo that attracted me into the exhibition hall. We happened to meet on my way to the hall. He introduced himself, and gave me a postcard with that handbill on it, and said it was his works. I nearly could not connect him with the child in the memory. How fast time flies! And I felt proud and gratified for his success, and the rise of our young planar designer. In fact, when I worked and taught in French in the past, what I hoped the most is to see that one day our designer could stand at the head of international designing, and could communicate and compete with others equally at the same playground.

Poster is both design and art, but it is different from pure art. It has to give certain information by visual languages, which needs the creative expressions of wise ideas, effective artistry in best design decisions. Different designers have different expressions, and their styles are different too. But I insist that the art tastes in their works are essential. It is like people"s word expressions. Someone is habitual to say too much waste without meaning, while someone could express something clearly and clarified. I appreciate the latter, because the skill of expressing clearly and clarified is the result of purifying language, of pursuing the perfect and of sublimation of thoughts.

I like Zhengda"s works because nothing is useless or just for decoration when he conceives the visual expression of the works. His design is very simple but symbolic which gives us an impression that it is not only transmitting some information but also the open and free expressing of the certain themes after paying attention to the thoughts behind the form. He could not only control the whole construction of the design but also the detailed design as a specific graph, photo or others. His arrangement of the words and graphs is very good too. Just as he said: "Design style is not the originality in the form, but the result of fusing designers" individuality into the works. Designs express what we think instead of the things we see or dream. When we look at the designs, we are communicating with the designers" likes and honesty hiding in the design." It makes me think of the sentence: "Surpass from the ordinary after indulging in the ordinary ".  He knows clearly that the designs could have real visual power and language calling only by describing the content precisely. This is what I feel from a series of his works, and it is also his individuality and language style after years pursuing. I always feel that his works is more mature than his real age. And when the famous French planar design magazine Etapes decided to publish his works and interviews, they found astonished that he was a young man.

I think this fashionable phrase "developing with the times" is really true in the field of planar designing. As a designer, maybe broader knowledge, deeper cultural accumulation is needed, but catching up with the international development in design artistry and design theory is more important.

Today, every country"s level of planar designing is changing, totally different from the conditions 20 years before. It has 2 reasons: one is from the aspect of theory. The fast development of our economy makes us being able to communicate with the first level designers directly, and being able to go abroad to learn their skills. And the introduction and report about the field of international design by the professional magazines and publish houses accelerate our pace of involving in the field. Besides the usage of Internet provides us the best environment to communicate with the world. The other reason is from the aspect of technology. The appearance of the modern tools and technology such as computer made it possible for all the designers from different region, culture, race, and field could stand at the same stating line in the usage of tools and expression skills. It provided the material fundamental for us to communicate with others equally.

In this information times, open times and the times in which the distance between different countries is reducing, the whole design level of China is improving. Our duty and responsibility requires us, especially the young planar designers such Chen Zhengda, to catch the chance to enhance our competitiveness in the international art activities. We have to boost the education and quality of our designing, learn from others, to try to get the equal "discourse right" with the first level designers and to build China a strong designing country by our wisdom and efforts.

2005-1-20

It was during the "Shenzhen Design 2003 Show" that I first saw Chen Zhengda"s work.  Last year, his poster for the "European Art Market" academic report impressed me deeply, because of his mastery of typography, the simple and pure design languages, and the structure of the works. Recently, I saw a number of his posters and other works of the last 5 years. I can feel clearly his sensitivity and pursuit of structure and color. The visual power in his works and his skills in the international design languages impressed me greatly, especially in his works of late 2004, we can feel his sensitivity and search for visual feeling. He is on the way to forming his own style.

Chen Zhengda is a true representative of the young Chinese designers. Their experience, passion for poster designing, their international perspective, and their success make us happy and inspired.

As a tool for the transmission of information the poster has played an important role in human social communication. The use of graphics and words have made poster become the powerful media in advertising political activities and measures for the common good. They have given color to the streets, communities, cities, and became an inseparable part of human lives. Looking back on the history of poster in the 20th century, we can see the change in society.  Walking through the streets of European cities, we can find many posters which advertise cultural activities or sports competitions. But as time goes by, television has become more popular in human life. Television and moving advertisements attract people"s attention in places like bus stations, lifts or subway stations. The giant commercial advertisements and billboards are taking over the streets and cyber space. Graphics, words, and sounds of advertisements can appear on the screen of computer or mobile phone through networks. People cannot get so much information from posters. It is no longer such a popular medium as before. You cannot easily find posters in China or U.S.A. The designers have not many opportunities to design posters either.

But designers" passion has not suffered. The poster still holds a great attraction, and is still vital in their designing. Nowadays, the practical function of poster has been weakened, but its value as an art form enhanced. Because of the demise of its practical function and commercial value, the poster is becoming a kind of artcarrier. Many designers have improved their artistry by designing posters. Compared with other items, posters give designers more freedom for their imagination and creativity, and less interference from clients or commercial pressures. Often the designers design posters for themselves. So the process of designing posters becomes a pure art experiment. We can feel designers" style, character, and goals from their posters.

In the construction of social culture, the designers" participation in designing posters for the general good reflects their depth of thought and social conscience. Good posters are still useful in enlightening people to seek the ideal. So poster is still very active throughout the world. It has become the sign of cultural activities, party of designers, and the windows to express their thoughts and art techniques. In the classic posters, visual power not only reflects designers" artistry, but also affects their commercial designing ability. The focus on the posters, and the amount of excellent posters, improve the whole level of planar designing.

With social development and the economic boom, Chinese planar designing has been very vigorous in the past 20 years, and has made much progress. We can not ignore the efforts of the young designers who are full of creativity, actively take part in international competitions, and improve their artistry by communicating with the best designers. Chen Zhengda is a good example of these young designers.

In the next few years Chinese designers will refine and advance, and it is also a period for us to play an important role in the world of design. We need young designers like Chen Zhengda who have their ideals and great skills. I believe that he will make more progress, and more masterpieces.

2005.1.25

120 years ago, Nietzs mentioned in his book Human: "Create-does not mean make something new, but to discover the newness in the things which already exist and known to everyone. The people who discover the newness have the creative brains." Here, the most important word is "discover". In fact, designers are trying to discover something new when they are looking outside or observing the things around. Handbill is also the art of discovery, though it is only a piece of rectangle paper with ideas on it mostly. It has a strong and impelling power though the picture is small. It has been constructed by thousands of designers for hundreds of years, and also has been ruined by so called designers but real businessmen for hundreds of years. Today"s designers, especially planar designers, are agonizing, because they want to discover something new in this field. Mr. Chen Zhengda realized that though format is important, the breakthrough only in the format is not thorough. He pays more attention to the mental experience, the original discovery, and the free graphic expression without sticking to one pattern. Many works in this book are good examples of fusing the object consciousness with format.

Time leaves us present and future. As past has become the history, we cannot change history, and no one can estimate what will happen in the future. Our life is consisted of many presents. There is a saying: "the 1,000 miles journey starts from the steps". So mastering present becomes an essential thing. Chen Zhengda is proficient in mastering present. His diligent thinking, acuminous observation and quickly responses produce series of new works. This working style of not waiting though may make mistakes, just as Nietzs affirmed, might be the outstanding qualities of professional people being successful. Only by working can the designers get some practical experience. Designers can control the process of the designing only through the accumulation of the practical experience. Chen Zhengda gets knowledge both from books and practical experience. We can benefit from his working style.

Many people confuse the style of works with format. In fact it shows the lack of thinking for the essence and format of the works. Style is an aesthetic problem, and a philosophy problem in the end. Style is forming as the development of designers" thought and art pursuit. It cannot be obtained importuned. So Mr. Cheng and I always talk about the designing theory, then we will talk the content, format, ideas, expressions, arrangements, skills and the inks, papers or printing skills, etc. I think it is not wise for designers to form his style too early. It will be frozen to a pattern easily, and the immature style is low and useless. Fortunately, we can get such information from Chen Zhengda"s works that he is not hurry in forming his style. He is busy in researching the visual language. He is indulged in studying the poster language, the expressions and some detailed experiments. In the summer 2003, he studied a large amount of information about international planar design competition as a major plotter of the China International Poster Biennial. He also studied the posters from more than 40 countries when he organized the expo as the vice secretary-general. Years practicing and studying made him one of the few experts in this field. Because of the same interest in the poster designing, Mr. Chen became a frequenter to my studio.

I appreciate his discovery, and his way of working. I also appreciate his spirit of exploration.

Pan-Qiantang River Graphic Studio, HangZhou
Twinight, 10.2.2005