A Study of Sugiura Kohei’s and Kan Tai Keung’s Graphic Design Works Using Lao-Tzu’s Philosophical Thinking of ‘Tao, Being and Non-being’

• Main Authors: Yih-Fang Chen, 陳誼芳
• Other Authors: Yu-Yen Chan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/472j2q

碩士 === 國立臺中科技大學 === 商業設計系碩士班 === 100 === The traditional culture has a long history and produces an effect on all aspects of life. The Taoist philosophy has a profound and broad effect on the field of arts and design. And, Lao-Tzu’s philosophical thinking is of groundbreaking significance and his concept produces an effect on the creation of many designers. However, most of the related studies aim at investigating Taoist Zhuangzi’s thinking and only few of them focus on Lao-Tzu’s philosophical thinking. Therefore, it is necessary to study it. Kan Tai Keung, a designer from Hong Kong who well knows the Chinese cultures, arts and aesthetics, and Sugiura Kohei, a designer from Japan who is very familiar with Asian images and cultures, are deeply affected by the Chinese cultures and Taoist philosophy. Both of them have their own excellent works and outstanding personal style in the field of design. Their threads of thought are worthy of being investigated. Therefore, the present study aims at clarifying the concept and meaning of Lao-Tzu’s philosophical thinking of ‘Tao, Being and Non-being’, investigating the relations between Sugiura Kohei’s and Kan Tai Keung’s design works and Lao-Tzu’s philosophy and discussing the concept transformation and creation in this context as well as the similarities and differences between the two designers’ concepts, symbols and practices. Through a theoretical exploration of Lao-Tzu’s philosophical thinking and the related Chinese and Japanese aesthetic ideas, images and psychological forms, and then an analysis of the two designers’ personal background and creative history, seven creative ideas and expressions in relation to Lao-Tzu’s philosophical thinking are summarized as follows: ‘Round Sky and Square Earth’, ‘Yin and Yang’, ‘Tao Gave Birth to All Things’, ‘Harmony between Heaven and Man’, ‘Chaos’, ‘Blank’, and ‘Nature’. For the parts of ‘Round Sky and Square Earth’ and ‘Harmony between Heaven and Man’, Sugiura Kohei and Kan Tai Keung use respectively the Buddhist and Taoist cosmology and the Taoist operation laws pursuing harmony and simplicity; as to the representing methods, Sugiura Kohei uses Mandala, cosmic mountain and five-color meeting while Kan Tai Keung uses round and square forms and the concept of ‘unity of object and subject’ from Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream, which is expressed by the elements of butterfly, lotus and dragonfly. For the parts of ‘Yin and Yang’ and ‘Blank’, both of them use the concept of Yin and Yang and the space arrangement to express aftertaste. For the parts of ‘Tao Gave Birth to All Things’, ‘Chaos’ and ‘Nature’, Sugiura Kohei’s design contains the presence of cosmic power and the multi-subject view of the world while Kan Tai Keung’s design contains the representation of the status and rhythm of the generation and returning to nature of all things through Shi-Tao’s ‘A Painting Theory’. In their works of design, both of them apply the concepts and techniques, such as ‘One Is All’, ‘Tai Chi and Yin and Yang’, ‘The False and the True Complement Each Other’, ‘Harmony between Heaven and Man’, ‘Round Sky and Square Earth’, and ‘Blank’; however, they have different cosmologies, reference theories and preferred symbols, for example, Sugiura Kohei often adopts the Buddhist cosmology of Primordial Chaos and expresses it in the forms of Five elements, Mandala and Sumeru while Kan Tai Keung makes use of the Chinese cosmology and cultural values to represent the viewpoint and idea of the primordial, natural and pure simplicity in ‘A Painting Theory’ and he also prefers to use the Four Treasures of Study, objects in daily life, red points and round stones as the main elements of his design.