Sunday, June 19, 2005

Ambiguous Design Element



Annoymous emails:

"Hi, I do color separations for silkscreen printing. Lately I have been getting a lot of designs with Hanzi like the one attached. Do they mean anything or are they merely used as an ambiguous design element?"

From my previous email exchange with representatives of apparel companies, these Chinese characters are used randomly as design elements or marketing tools.

= long, perpetual, eternal, forever
= forgive, excuse, show mercy
= bright, light, brilliant; clear
= air, gas, steam, vapor; spirit
= trust, believe; letter
= petal, flower, leaf; brave, a hero; England, English