Editorial/
Installation/Motion design
(2023)
In 1990, designer Robert Slimnbach created the classic serif Minion, which has been selected by Adobe InDesign as the default English font and is still used today. minion was one of the first fonts in the world to be digitized, and as an anchor, graphic design entered a new era of possibilities along with an explosion of new technologies.
Unlike today's often cutthroat cyberpunk futures in books, games, movies and television, the future imagined in the 1990s was vibrant and full of promise. However, decades later, people regretfully realized that this future did not materialize as expected. This false promise, along with the unique sci-fi aesthetic of the era, eventually faded in time.
(The technology developments
during 1990-2000)
Focusing on typeface and typography, rather than relying on any image, this project started with Minion, a “basic typeface”, and aimed to show the future fantasy aesthetics of the people of the 1990's from today's perspective.
(The tech devices
and advertising posters in 90s)
{Type specimen}Print on paper
The challage of design type specimen is how to create visuals from pure text. By deconstruct the letters and use and special characters in Minion, combined with basic geometric shapes, I made this page looks like a PCB board. The gradient color of the background gives the design a silver metallic look, which was common on tech devices in the 90s.
In some pages, I created images from text by constructing 3D outlines for the typefaces. The layout design draws inspiration from instructional manuals, aiming to help users better understand the font. Visually, I made full use of grids to ensure clarity, rationality, and strong logical structure, aligning with the style and concept this project seeks to convey.
The advertisements for electronic products in the 90s had a distinct visual style that reflected the era's characteristics. On this page, I combined the aesthetics of these ads with the visual language of early computer systems. Soft, hazy colors, 3D-style buttons, and pixelated patterns come together and formed this visual style.
(Some other pages of the type specimen)
{Multi-layer type
specimen}UV print on acrylic
This installation is assembled from three layers of transparent acrylic. Transparent materials were widely used in 90s tech products and frequently appeared in the era's visions of the future. Additionally, acrylic shares a similar texture to the glass slides used for making specimens. The layered acrylic can be interpreted as a conceptual specimen, serving as a vessel to preserve a bygone utopia, encapsulating the era’s imagination of the future.
Patterns printed on different layers create a sense of depth for the installation. On the top layer, I made some basic shapes into die cuts to simulate the grooves found on real devices for assembly or heat dissipation.