Typography

Lai Zi Na Li

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Traditional Chinese characters are regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful writing systems. Each character is constructed with eight basic strokes, named the “eight principles of yong”. In Taiwan, those characters have been preserved in complete form. With the idea of continuing, promoting and protecting this history, the “movable-type stamps” of this work were designed by breaking down and reassembling the “eight principles of yong”, as well as reinterpreting them by changing the formation of the single characters. The forms of the stamps, which come in the two font styles serif and sans serif, were aimed to integrate and represent Taiwanese candidness and friendliness. The complete six-stamp set allows all Chinese characters to be printed out, inspiring user creativity and providing joy. Thus, the style of word creation can vary from one user to another, depending on the users’ personalities. Overall, the work draws attention to the beauty of the traditional Chinese characters and promotes its 3,000-year-old font culture.

Statement by the Jury

The way in which this work breaks down the enormous complexity of the Chinese character writing by reducing it to a system of a few small elements and, in so doing, reflecting the entire range of traditional Chinese characters, is absolutely fascinating. Simply beautiful, playfully realised and expertly implemented, the set achieves a self-sufficient overall impression.

Red Dot: Best of the Best

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