The Phoenix Poster by Te-Sian Shih is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Competition Category.
IronGraphic· 2022
The Phoenix Poster
by Te-Sian Shih
Client: Te-Sian Shih
A' Design Award Winner in Graphic Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #127295The Design
About The Phoenix Poster
The Phoenix is a key visual poster created for a music academy and festival in Taipei. The central image combines music waves with the shape of a violin, forming a phoenix that spreads its wings. The orange waves at the center also suggest a flame, representing the effort and enthusiasm of the musicians and the staff. The dark blue background is built from curved lines that recall the sea and sound waves. The poster was made entirely from drawn lines, without photographs, using blend modes in image editing software.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
The Phoenix Poster is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. The Phoenix Poster is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. The Phoenix Poster is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
It's the enthusiasm of the masters and the flow of music that makes the music sound like in the ocean and feel comfortable.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
Enthusiastic and comfortable music from the masters and all participants.
I want to make the brand image an elegant, high-quality concert
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
Customers ask me to put this visual in their 2023's music activity poster but edit some parts.
This award-winning design has been published in Art Shopping Louvre Carrousel du Louvre, Paris 2022.
Grand Interview
Your innovative fusion of music waves and violin imagery in The Phoenix Poster creates a powerful visual metaphor. How did you develop this unique approach to representing both musical performance and symbolic transformation?
Because the client wanted me to convey the passion of the concert and a sense of comfort for the audience, without making the theme too explicit, I came up with this design featuring flowing lines that outline a flaming phoenix — symbolizing both passion and the calm, soothing quality of music, like drifting in the ocean. The client really liked the flame-like lines, and the following year they wanted to continue using this phoenix motif as the main visual.Of course, I made a different but same style key visual design in the following year.When I designed it, I intended it to represent the image of a phoenix reborn from the ashes because it was ongoing pandemic at the time and to indicate the musicians’ passion, but also the idea of a dove of peace. By changing the flame-like lines to white and change the shape, the abstract form could also be seen as a dove. I find it fascinating how a single set of abstract lines can convey so many meanings through different colors, shape, and perspectives, allowing the audience to interpret it freely — creating a subtle and engaging interaction.
The Phoenix Poster demonstrates remarkable technical precision, particularly in the line thickness requirements for printing. Could you elaborate on how these technical constraints influenced your creative decisions in developing the wave-like patterns?
Yes, because the printed version needed to make the lines visible to the audience without making them too thick and losing their elegance, I calculated the overall size of the poster and compared different proportions to find a balance — making sure the main visual lines stood out at first glance but still looked refined. I think this requires both a sense of mathematics and aesthetic sensitivity to get it just right. I also discussed this part with the client and asked for their feedback before making the final decision.
The transition from using realistic violin imagery in your 2020 poster to the abstract representation in The Phoenix Poster marks a significant artistic evolution. What inspired this shift in your visual approach, and how did it challenge your creative process?
On one hand, the client requested an abstract main visual that year, and on the other hand, I personally enjoy challenging myself with different design styles. Design, to me, is about solving problems, so I believe that as a designer, I need to have the ability to adapt to and fulfill each client’s desired style. Of course, I also have a personality that enjoys exploring different styles — sometimes, by experimenting more, you discover new and creative ways to approach design.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- She designed this key visual poster for Taipei Music Academy and Festival combines the violin with the image of flame, the phoenix, and the sea and music's sonic (music waves). The poster makes people feel the smooth lines, the sea's feeling, sonic waves, and musicians' enthusiasm.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 18cm width x 0 cm dept x 24cm height
The lines should be thicker than 0.5 mm for printing, so she made each line in the poster thicker than 0.5 mm. - Tags
- Visual design, poster design, layout design, key visual design, graphic design.
- Production Technology
- In adobe photoshop, the designer could choose a blend mode group.
She used lines to make two different shapes of images and combined them with adobe photoshop's multiply and color dodge to make the violin with phoenix's wings.
Besides, She made darken blue background with lines that look like waves. - Design Challenge
- To create a poster without any real picture was a new challenge for 2021's poster design because, in 2020, the designer used the real violin's image to be the main character. This year she had to create the whole picture by herself.
- Research
- The trance-formations in eastern music performance are natural and flowing music style, floating clouds, and flowing water.
The shape in the background represents the feeling of flying in music and waves of music.
Besides, The center image combines music waves and a violin shape image, and it looks like a phoenix spreading its wings. The orange-colored waves in the center of the poster represent a flying phoenix. The phoenix represents hard work and the enthusiasm of musicians and all the staff. - Inspiration
- The designer designed another key visual poster for Taipei Music Academy and Festival in 2020. She used the real violin's image to be Taipei Music Academy and Festival's main visual, so the team decided to use lines to communicate the abstract music feeling this year to separate the difference between 2020's key visual poster and 2021's poster.
- Project Duration
- The project started in September 2020 in Taipei and finished in December 2020 in Taipei, and it was exhibited in the United States in July 2021 due to Taipei's pandemic.
- Operation Flow
- When people look at the poster, they see the phoenix and violin combined image first.
When viewers follow the background's blue lines, their eyes will see the date, activity's name, and then sponsors' names on it.
Every image has logic to put in its place. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Te-Sian Shih, 2020.
- Image Credits
- Designer Te-Sian, Shih, phoenix, 2020.
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