We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Jessica Zhengjia Hu about their original and creative Tea Tin Cans design work. Jessica Zhengjia Hu is an award-winning communication designer, that makes our world a better place with their original tea tin cans works.
Jessica Zhengjia Hu ("JZH") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Yuchuan Ming Tea Tin Cans. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
JZH : This project is a series of Blue-and-white tin cans for tea packaging. The main decorations on the sides are mountain and cloud figures resembling the style of Chinese ink wash landscape paintings. By combining traditional patterns with modern graphic elements, abstract lines and geometric shapes are blended into traditional art styles, providing refreshing features for the cans. The tea names in traditional Chinese “Xiaozhuan” calligraphy are made into embossed seals on top of the lid handles. They are the highlights which make the cans more like artworks in some way.
JZH : Designing practical, functional, and artistic tea packaging is my basic purpose. But I am also seeking answers for these questions, “How to blend modern elements into traditional cultures smoothly? How to interpret traditional styles in more creative and appealing ways? How to build up relationships and connections between the past and the future? And finally how to transform these ideas into reality so people can get the essence and beauty of the tea, porcelain, ink wash painting, and modern graphic design from the products at the same time.”
JZH : I hope there could be chances to launch these products into the market.
JZH : About one and a half month.
JZH : As native Cantonese, tea drinking is a daily routine of my family. One day I saw a small Blue-and-white porcelain cup while I was trying to make some tea. The inspiration popped up and I thought it would be a good idea to design tea cans which had a Blue-and-white porcelain-liked appearance. They would still be tin cans, but using only blue and white colors and somehow resembling Chinese ink wash painting styles. The purpose is to mimic the look of Blue-and-white porcelain, so the cans can be used as decorative containers or art pieces as well.
JZH : This design is an in-house project for my own design studio. It has not been produced or used yet. However, I do wish there could be opportunities to launch them into the market, maybe by leasing the production rights or collaborations.
JZH : As a native Cantonese, I grew up under deep influence of the Cantonese Kongfu Tea. Tea drinking is a daily routine of my family. Chinese Tea Culture has a history of thousands of years. As a young generation tea drinker, I want to inherit this tea culture and interpret it in new innovative ways.
JZH : I am inspired and deeply impressed by Chinese ancient traditional blue-and-white porcelains and ink wash paintings.
JZH : Tea drinkers and art lovers.
JZH : How to draw customer attention when there are so many selections of the same type of tea products in the market? A classy and attractive package may help a lot in this way. Imitating a Blue-and-white porcelain-liked surface adds deluxe features to the external appearance of the tin cans. In addition, the landscape figures and traditional pattern decorations on the sides emphasize the artistic value of the cans. And the highlight is the traditional “Xiaozhuan” calligraphy embossed seal on top of the lid handle. This style of seal is frequently used in actual Chinese ink wash paintings and artworks by many traditional artists. Therefore the embossed seals make these tin cans more like real artworks when presenting to the customers. In China, tea is usually associated with art events and cultures. And I hope people can enjoy the beauty within all these Chinese traditional art cultures while relishing the mellow taste of Chinese tea.
JZH : Yuchuan is an alternative name of tea originated from the Song Dynasty in Chinese history. It is said that a scholar in Song Dynasty once compared tea to a friend called “Mr Yuchuan” in his book. The name “Yuchuan” has passed on since then. And the word “Ming” means tea as well. So I combined the two words and came up with the project name.
JZH : I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to design the graphic images and patterns. I built the 3D product models with Solidworks. For retouching and rendering, I use 3D Max or Cinema 4D.
JZH : In this project, the major designs are tin cans with blue and white colors and features resembling the Chinese traditional ink wash painting of landscapes. On top of the lid handles are embossed seals of the name of each tea. These seals are made of “Xiaozhuan”, a traditional calligraphy style from the Qin Dynasty. The major landscape images on the sides are mountains and clouds. With the ideas that tea grows in the mountains, and clouds express the peaceful and relaxing feelings that tea brings us. Traditional Chinese patterns and modern graphic elements are blended into the concept of ink wash painting. With abstract lines and geometric shapes, modern elements combine with traditional Chinese art styles, providing refreshing features for the packaging works. In addition to the tin cans, hexagonal outer boxes are designed under the same concept features and methods. The outer boxes are a set of external packages for the tin cans as well.
JZH : I design them myself.
JZH : The 3D modeling software and technology largely improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the design and mockup testing process.
JZH : My researches are mostly about historical and cultural backgrounds. I went through category of different types of Chinese tea and selected four popular ones as representatives for my projects: the “West Lake Longjing”, “Tie Guanyin” which is a type of Oolong tea, the “Biluochun” and the “Puer Tea”. Then I had to associate their origin, tastes and qualities with the shapes and features of ink wash landscape paintings. In addition, I also looked for interesting tea traditions and stories in Chinese history for inspirations.
JZH : The challenge of this project is the interaction between traditional art forms and modern creative styles. Combining different forms of traditional cultures is my first attempt. The important part is to make balance between all these art cultures so they will not be separated or taking over each other.
JZH : Instead of working for a company or being a freelance designer, I finally founded my own design studio in China this year. The “Yuchuan Ming” project is the first official project of my new No.72 Design Studio. I believed taking the advantage of this great opportunity to challenge the A Design competition would be a good starting point for the studio and a big breakthrough for myself as a designer.
JZH : After making several mistakes, my 3D modeling skill got practiced and improved during the product developing progress. And I kept learning new skills and techniques in each projects.
JZH : If we want to improve, we should never be afraid of exploring new methods or making mistakes.
