On April 23, 2016, jointly hosted by CAFA and Brand Design Association of?South Korea, co-organized by the School of Continuing Education at CAFA and the Sino-South Korea Brand Design Senior Training Center, “Eastern Culture Design” exhibition and symposium was held at CAFA. More than 20 Chinese and South Korean brand products were being shown at the event, and the academic discussion of brand design was held in the Auditorium, CAFA Art Museum in the afternoon, the brand representatives respectively shared their case histories on development, discussing the current thinking on brand culture.

Dean of the School of Continuing Education at CAFA Bi Jianxun addressed the opening speech and said that a mature brand was a symbol of national power and an accumulation of national culture, Bi hoped an in-depth cooperation would start from this event, to play an academic role and bridge the construction of the local Oriental brands. Chairman of Brand Design Association in the South Korea Park Koo Yeon also mentioned that China and South Korea had a common foundation in Oriental culture, which offered the two countries a broad space and starting point for common exploration and communication.

The participating works are divided into two parts, on the basis of its members’ works, Brand Design Association of South Korea invited the first-line brands of 12 companies, including WHOO cosmetics, Shin Noodle, Cheong-Kwan-Jang, Orion, etc. On the basis of the teachers’ work, CAFA invited famous old brands such as Wu Yutai, Yi De Ge, Neiliansheng and some social cutting-edge designers’ brands to attend the exhibition. These brand products are about many aspects of everyday life and have a common philosophy and daily aesthetic, and different cultural personalities, which perhaps is traditional and restrained or can be fashionable and flamboyant. The exhibition highlights the fusion of brands as well as industry, life, cultural traditions and the national character.

When culture and the market move to an increasingly globalized convergence this is how to combine traditional culture with modern culture. Commercial consumption is one of the most popularly discussed topics, on the one hand, it is involved in the modern inheritance of traditional culture, and on the other hand, it is involved in how local culture is established within worldwide cultures. Throughout the world, national culture and regional characteristic increasingly become the elements and methods of brand segmentation, Oriental philosophy and aesthetics of profound thought have been existing in Chinese and South Korean brand culture, and developed a large number of “old” brands, in addition, we can also see the expressive logic of Oriental thought in the newly released cutting-edge designs, which has the appearance of traditional and national cultural genes in the contemporary visual daily life. For the exhibition, the academic chair, Prof. Hang Hai from CAFA did not think that the communication between brand and audience ought to stay in the mercenary relationship and should be replaced by an aesthetic experience and interaction. Director of CAFA Brand Design Strategy Senior Training Center Sun Haiying was also looking forward to more thoughts and dialogues, and to drive the future development of local brands of the two countries.

On the opening day, an academic symposium was held at the Auditorium of CAFA Art Museum. The brands included Laoshe Tea House, “Mole”, Yi De Ge, AK shampoo, Jeju Air, who shared their information on brand development. In the second half of the symposium, the participating brands communicated and had a dialogue on the issue of a deep relationship between brand and local culture, the design intervention in the process of brand design, meeting together to discuss the future of brand design in an Oriental context.

The “Eastern Culture Design” exhibition remained on view on the 7th floor exhibition hall of the School of Design, CAFA till April 30.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi, Photo by Hu Sichen/CAFA ART INFO