Translating Tradition: The Modern Visual Identity System and Commercial Repositioning of Chashan Clay Sculpture in the Art Toy Era

Yajun Liu

doi:10.63313/ah.9054

Authors

Yajun Liu Graduate University of Mongolia, Mongolia Ulaanbaatar 15141, Mongolia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/ah.9054

Keywords:

Chashan Clay Sculpture, Lingnan Folk Art, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Visual Noise Reduction

Abstract

Based on a historical Intangible Cultural Heritage from Lingnan area in southern China — clay sculpture craft from Chashan of Nanxiong, this paper carries out visual translation and rebranding from craft heritage to Visual Identity for contemporary art toys. Faced with the impending danger of crafts becoming obsolete and being replaced by new forms of cultural expression, many craft heritage has to carry out productive protection through the means of design, rather than mere conservation. Using the rich saturated color palette of Kailian and the semantic representation of motifs, as well as taking the neotenic proportion for illustration, this research develops a set of design approach in transforming tacit knowledge from traditional craft heritage into formalised and quantitative terms. Following design principles that include reduction of visual noise through vectorisation and using modular geometric elements, this research carries out the practical design for a rebranded logo that caters to the Guochao (National Trend) elements and in turn secures the long term development and changes of an agriculture-based ritual clay sculpture craft heritage into one of mass demand commodity and has succeeded in taking roots in Dongguan, Guangdong province's prominent global Art Toy industrial city of Dongguan, thereby develops a design strategy that can be applied in an industry wide scale in order to sustain folk culture of each region.

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