Article
Unbounded designs
Pan Jian Feng is a graphic designer. He is the founder of the company DumDumDesign and is currently working as the head of design in McCann-Erickson Shanghai, China. Pan studied Visual Communication in the United Kingdom and in China. He has over ten years of experience in arts and design practice and is interested in experimenting with typography.
In 2000, he set out to show in his project, ‘Longevity’, that ‘there are no boundaries in the visual world – black is sometimes white and vice versa, Chinese is sometimes Western and vice versa.
To do so, he explored multiple ways of depicting ‘Longevity’ by mixing the Western alphabet with traditional Chinese characters. For, he has said, ‘The main task of a Chinese contemporary graphic designer is to try and find their own visual identity, which is not a simple hybridisation of traditional pattern and text.’
In 2001, Pan won three awards during the Shenzhen Industrial Design Exhibition and Evaluation Week: ‘Best Webpage Design’ for Birmingham Museum Interactive Design; ‘Best Graphic Design’ for the Shenzhen Truecolour Pub website and ‘Best Visual Identity Design’ for Shenzhen Truecolour Pub.
Pan has worked as a curator both in China and overseas. In 2001, he was one of the key curators of the UK touring show, ‘Made in China – Contemporary Chinese Design’, organised by the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, UK, which focused on design in architecture, graphic design, household objects, fashion and ceramics.
Author: Diana Yeh
Bio
Pan Jian Feng is the founder and head designer of DumDumDesign. He is also currently working as the head of design in McCann-Erickson Shanghai, China. Pan possesses two MA degrees in Visual Communication from the United Kingdom and China. He has over ten years of experience in both arts and design practice, as well as curatorial experience both in China and overseas.
Works
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition / Installation,
2003
2001 First National Computer Arts Exhibition, Nanjing
2001 Shenzhen Industrial Design Exhibition and Evaluation Week
2001 Made in China – Contemporary Chinese Design, UK
2000 Interaction between Chinese Calligraphy and Western Typography
1999 9th National Art and Design Exhibition, China
1998 Poster exhibition for The 70th Anniversary of China National Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
Merits
2001 ‘Best Webpage Design’ for Birmingham Museum Interactive Design; ‘Best Graphic Design’ for the Shenzhen Truecolour Pub website and ‘Best Visual Identity Design’ for Shenzhen Truecolour Pu, Shenzhen Industrial Design Exhibition and Evaluation Week
Projects
This artist took part in the following project(s) organized/funded by the culturebase.net partner institutions.
Made in China: Design Exhibition
(01 June 01 - 29 December 01)