Now: Album Design by Yijia Xie

Exploring the Fusion of Chinese Characters, Collage, and Generative Coding

This album design, titled "Now," explores the musician's self-awareness, beliefs, truth, and choice. Consisting of six songs, each telling a unique story about dreams, growth, and love, Yijia sought to integrate Chinese characters with modern design elements in the album's artwork. She selected the most meaningful Chinese character from each song title, such as Universe, Rain, Believe, Eyes, Moon, and Star.

Yijia's innovative approach involved merging Chinese characters, collage, and generative coding. Through a combination of print design, digital collage, package design, and generative coding, she created a visually captivating album that pushes the boundaries of traditional design practices.

The album's packaging features generative collages, which were created by inserting the design elements into computer programming and generating thousands of different graphics. Each album receives a unique packaging wrap, providing a personalized experience for the listener. Yijia expertly fused the musician's music with these moving collages, resulting in a harmonious blend of traditional elements and modern technology.

Yijia's design process involved experimenting with random collisions and producing exciting and unexpected outcomes. By mixing traditional elements with generative coding, she achieved a delicate balance between randomness and order, creating a design that is both visually striking and conceptually meaningful.

The "Now" album design project took place from September 2021 to January 2022. Yijia's research for this design explored the intersection of Chinese characters, typography, graphics, collages, and computing. The challenges she faced included finding the best way to combine each Chinese character with the graphics and images to tell a compelling story.

The "Now" album design by Yijia Xie has been recognized for its excellence and innovation. It was awarded the Iron A' Design Award in the Graphics, Illustration, and Visual Communication Design category in 2022. This prestigious award is given to well-designed, practical, and innovative creations that meet professional and industrial requirements. Yijia's design stands out for its integration of industry best practices, competent technical characteristics, and its contribution to a better world.