Stack Glyphs A Tipografía De Caracteres by Te-Yang Tang and Yi-Hsuan Lai

Stack Glyphs A Tipografía De Caracteres by Te-Yang Tang and Yi-Hsuan Lai is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award de Prata in Deseño Gráfico, Ilustración e Comunicación Visual Competition Category.

PrataGráfico· 2023

Stack Glyphs A Tipografía De Caracteres

by Te-Yang Tang and Yi-Hsuan Lai

Client: Department of Visual Communication Design, YunTech

A' Design Award de Prata Winner in Gráfico Category

34,432
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #149585

Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Stack Glyphs A Tipografía De Caracteres

Na cultura chinesa, un tipo especial de carácter chamado Stacked Character refírese ao carácter formado por glifos superpostos. A maioría destes caracteres superpostos son pouco comúns e son substituídos gradualmente por caracteres de uso habitual na actualidade. Para que Stack Glyphs construíu os personaxes usando símbolos gráficos, recolleu estes personaxes chineses perdidos.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Prata

Stack Glyphs A Tipografía De Caracteres gañou o A' Design Award de Prata, un recoñecemento enormemente prestixioso outorgado a deseños de gama alta, fermosos e impresionantes. Os gañadores Prata son obras tremendamente brillantes e sumamente creativas que ilustran a pericia, o talento e a agudeza sobresaíntes dos seus deseñadores. Espérase que Stack Glyphs A Tipografía De Caracteres sexa unha obra marabillosa, escaparate de oficio, notablemente profesional e profundamente innovadora. Este deseño gañador do A' Design Award de Prata é unha invención moi notable e admirada que beneficia e fai avanzar os límites da arte, a ciencia, o deseño e a tecnoloxía. Stack Glyphs A Tipografía De Caracteres é unha creación moi envexada que esperta desexos, achega sentimentos positivos e prende asombro e marabilla.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Characters are the carrier of culture. In Chinese culture, a special type of character called Stacked Character refers to the character formed by overlapped glyphs. Stacked character can be constructed to express the meaning of accumulation and mass of the word. Most of these superimposed characters are uncommon and are gradually replaced by commonly used characters nowadays. So that we constructed the characters using graphical symbols, collected these lost chinese characters.
Dimensions & Packaging: Main visual poster size: 890mm x 420mm, Guide Book Package size: 280mm x 215mm x 40mm, Guide Book size: 200mm x 100mm x 7mm, Pileup size: 25mm x 25 mm x 25mm
Tags: visualized, chinese culture, character, symbol, glyphs, guide book, poster
Production Technology: Iconic Representation of Stacked Characters. Drawing on the ancient Chinese script before the standardization of characters, which relied heavily on pictographs, we aim to recreate the classic history of Chinese characters. Through this, viewers can experience a sense of immersion and gain an understanding of the ancient methods of character formation.
Design Challenge: We collect rare stacked characters, which are gradually being replaced by commonly used characters. Therefore, we often encounter problems of missing characters or unknown pronunciations during the sorting process. To overcome this challenge, we extensively collect stacked characters excerpted from historical ancient books and use a design approach to reconstruct some lost stacked characters, creating the art piece Stack Glyphs.
Research: The sampling of stacked characters focuses on the text superposition of positive forms. We collect stacked characters excerpted from historical texts such as Analytical Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and transform individual characters with specific meanings into icons, which display in different styles depending on how the characters are stacked. For example, with the character Mù means wood, two-stacked character Lín means forest, three-stacked character Sēn means dense forest.
Inspiration: As time passes, the culture of stacked characters gradually becomes lost, with these characters rarely used and even unable to be displayed in computer fonts. They are gradually being replaced by commonly used characters. The unique cultural characteristics of these Chinese characters lack dissemination and may face the risk of extinction in the future.
Project Duration: Stack Glyphs project began its conceptual proposal in June 2022, entered design production in October 2022, and held a design joint exhibition in Yunlin, Taiwan in April 2023. It was followed by an exhibition at the Young Designers' Exhibition in Taipei in May, and Vision Get Wild in Kaohsiung.
Operation Flow: We studied these overlapping synonym and analyzed their morphology, phonics and cultural contexts. Integrated the result into our icon design, and convert it into NFT, hope to preserve its cultural value. Through the Stack Glyphs Concept Guide Book, the viewers can understand the cultural connotation of superimposed characters. Meanwhile, the interactive designed Stack Glyphs seal Pileup is an extension of our concept that allows viewers to create their own pileup characters.
Team Members: Te-Yang Tang
Yi-Hsuan Lai
Image Credits: Image #1: Kuei-En Chou, 2023.
Image #2: Kuei-En Chou, 2023.
Image #3: Kuei-En Chou, 2023.
Image #4: Kuei-En Chou, 2023.
Image #5: Kuei-En Chou, 2023.