It is a harvest season for the campus in June and is the time for the academy to present the annual graduation exhibition. The graduation exhibition initially opens a new graduation season mode – all the graduates from the academy present their graduation works at the same time in one month, which no doubt offers the graduation exhibition of the School of Design a new opportunity and new direction, meanwhile showcasing the creativity of the students from all design disciplines and the uniqueness of students’ work and it also considers design as the appeal and practical value of the “artwork” which closest in relation to our daily life and the embodiment of the beautiful pursuit of the change of design keeping up with and even advancing the change of the times.

155 graduate candidates from 14 studios of 7 specialties including Visual Communication, Industry, Photography, Digital, Fashion, Jewelry, Transportation from the School of Design show their design ideals, pursuit and wisdom with a unique style at Block 7 B1+F1+F2+F4+F5, Block 5 F-1. Following this, they lead and even go beyond the times as the best reason being the fact that the School of Design has been developing a school of its own.

Under the big exhibition environment of the graduation season, the School of Design also has its own special exhibition theme and form, it is themed “No Zuo No Design” of the year, which actually reminds the audience of the popular network words “No Zuo No Die”, but “Zuo” actually refers to designers’ constant pursuit and unremitting exploration of the exceptional requirements and quality, which can inspire the designers to constantly think and experiment, with a rigorous scientific attitude and practical spirit, until it reaches an ideal effect and standard, at the same time it is also a perfect embodiment of “pursuit of the subtle” for the design disciplines and represents the spirit of design, the designer’s own requirement.

In addition, a series of titles with “D” as the initials are extended from Design, for example, No Zuo No Do it, No Zuo No Dress and No Zuo No Develop and so on. The titles are vivid, visual, and interesting, while the titles of the series cooperate with fluorescent pink of an high purity to create the poster, while using white frames as the supporting structure of the whole exhibition form, while passing the core pursuit of the exhibition, it no doubt creates an impressive perfect visual effect.

Introduction of the School of Design

“Design to serve the people”, “Design to serve the country” is the core guidance of the School of Design, CAFA, which is unremittingly the pursuit of art, experimental, prospective and international, while the open, intersectional and integrated concept of the school becomes the most powerful educational feature of the School of Design. Once assessed to one of the 30 best design colleges around the world by Business Week in the United States, School of Design, CAFA absorbs the excellent law of value from the masters at home and abroad, established a syllabus and curriculum which synchronizes with the international first-class design institutes, attractive and cultivated as the most influential design students in China.

The School of Design is located on the CAFA main campus which has a thick artistic accumulation, a rich artistic atmosphere and integrated art specialties which inspire the creativity, releases and develops the imagination of design students, the school believes that creation is the life of design, originality is the soul of design, people-oriented is the fundamental aim of design, cultivating and developing students’ creativity and innovation is our mission; it also believes that through cultivating the creative ability and innovative designers, China can truly move towards designed in China and created in China from the made in China.

Words for Graduation by the Teachers

“Graduation design is one of the major parts in our teaching, as it is not only a test of the level of the students during the period of study in the school, it is also a very important research and learning process. In the period of more than half a year, the students experienced the process of choosing a topic, investigation, thesis proposal, research, design, production and display. It both requires creativity and rigorous training of design thinking. At the same time, this process also cultivates the students’ comprehensive ability to integrate and control a complex project.

Although each specialty and studio has a different operating mode, the teachers pay very little attention to each student’s graduation design, as they had poured a lot of energy and time into coaching students. Year after year, we hope that the students can further find their talents, discover the inner voice and unique design language in the process of creating their graduation design. We also want our students to pay more attention to social issues, carrying the social responsibility of the designer, through the graduation design to lay a high starting level for their design career.

Wang Min, Dean of the School of Design, CAFA

Seen from the students’ work, we can find the state of mind and spirit so they can’t survive loneliness and they abandonold conventions, it is a kind of valuable spirit, although the works are still in the process of exploration in terms of presentation skills and creative language, the spirit of constant exploration is more important.

About the Exhibition

BFA Graduation Exhibition School of Design: “No Zuo No Design” presents the works by 155 graduate candidates from 14 studios of 7 specialties including Visual Communication, Industry, Photography, Digital, Fashion, Jewelry, Transportation.

Venue: Block 7 B1+F1+F2+F4+F5, Block 5 F-1

Duration: from 8:30 on Monday June 1, 2015– 17:30 on Tuesday June 30, 2015

For more information and to browse the works, you can log on to the official website of the exhibition: http://designyearshow.cafa.edu.cn/2015/

Text by Zhang Yizhi, edited by Yu Ya; Photo by Xu Fan/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO