Silk? Silk?!?!

Today was the muchly anticipated return to the West lake for shopping for presents. As the automotive journalists visited an Audi dealer, the rest of us went to a coffee shop, although immaculate in surroundings and presentation, the ludicrously priced and slow service brought us down. You wouldn't get that in Starbucks.

Then onto the silk district, beautiful as it was spending more than 5 minutes in this place was torturous, especially as everyone wanted everything but silk. But we powered on and got back on the coach for our desired destination.

The automatic rush to McDonalds was even quicker as we knew where to go. After a satisfying meal we walked back down the street for gifts. Monies spent, it was back to the hotel to complete our photobooks.

Wuzhen Wowzhen

Wednesday's trip was to the old water village of Wuzhen. First of all we were lucky enough to get a boat ride down one of the small rivers, and with rustic houses on either side, our Chinese boatman singing along and the sheer relaxing beauty, the atmosphere was wonderful. Off for lunch (including a proper pork joint I tell you) and afterwards we had many hours to walk leisurely around this humble village.

Immediately there was a bombardment of shop sellers shouting out, but we did not let them deter us. Everyone practiced their bartering skills, and we were also able to admire the hard work that goes into making many products, such as combs, fans and jewellery.

When we got back we were encouraged to go into the classroom to work on projects because of the promise of take away pizza. This didn't transpire, so once I had completed the photo gallery for cutoday we headed off for a huge Chinese feast from the campus shops. Highlight was the pancake filled with meat, tofu, egg, lettuce, chilli and hoisin sauce, and watching it being made was nearly as good as eating it.

Design stuff - at last!

Today we had the opportunity to have a more in depth discussion to the Chinese design students.

The first topic was to compare the olympic logos, Beijing 2008 and London 2012, which happened to be quite a nice coincidence. We came to the conclusion that the Beijing logo had a strong identity, the typography was in a calligraphic style and the use of red in the picture represented their culture well. The layout was very conventional though, many logos before had used the picture, name, olympic logo technique. I was worried that the Chinese students were very proud and weren't very critical of their own work, but was happy to see them give good and bad points for ours. I haven't really liked our logo, the same opinion as a lot of other people, but the more we talked about it, and understood the idea, the more successful a logo it became. In a way the two logos are totally opposite; ours breaks the tradition and pushes boundaries, where as we have little connection to the olympics or our own culture. but the sheer controversy has made our logo what it is.

The lecturers then did a small presentation on their own countries inspiration for design. I like how there are more relics, stories and symbols in China than in the UK, but it can sometimes be a bit much. And example is red being a lucky colour; I think that there is more focus on the meaning than on the aesthetics, and this way maybe design isn't being pushed as far as it could. It is nice to have links to traditional and sentimental things, but also they could have a bit more variety.

In the afternoon Kung Fu was organised for the British students. It used a lot more strength, focus and precision than I had first imagined. The moves were fenomenal, and I can understand how China excel at these sports that require concentration and no room for error.

Shanghai-five!

An early start and on the road to Shanghai. First stop was a small art district, a place full of little eclectic shops. Also quite a tourist area, it was quite strange to see other nationalities, but a real comfort to get a decent cup of coffee. A successful yet quite restrained shop, we headed off for lunch, before going to the 5 mile shopping street which sees 1 million visitors everyday. Something that everyone was looking forward to, the sheer crowds immediately hindered our spirits. A few purchases were made, but I think everyone was relieved to get back on the coach. Last stop for the day was another set of shops near a temple which sadly was closed for refurbishment. These shops were cheaper, but assistants were definitely going for the hard sell. With some good bartering, we went to a lovely hotel, for a nice early night on a rock hard bed.

Second day of Shanghai started with a hearty breakfast of BREAD and fried eggs, although I was unfortunate to miss the bacon. Proper coffee and orange juice set us up for the day, starting at looking at the EXPO sight. Not knowing what to expect, when we crossed the bridge I think the whole coach was stunned. All sorts of funky and interesting buildings installed to advertise different countries. We then headed off for the Shanghai World Financial Centre, the tallest building in China and the highest occupied floor in the world. Even before we entered we saw plans for the next tallest building in the world, right across the road. Needless to say the views were breathtaking. On a day with a bad forecast we were very lucky that it was sunny and moderately clear. A trip to the loo saw toilets in a whole new light; heated seats with optional rear cleaning saw us spending a bit too long in the cubicle. I now fear that normal toilets will no longer be satisfactory, let alone holes in the ground.

Chinese picnic - perfect cure

Friday meant that we needed to complete our newsletter. I had seen the previous one produced by Chloe who really wasn't happy with the design because she was forced to change it, so I went into the studio prepared for what was coming. I tried to stand my ground but it wasn't so successful. The one thing that bothered me was how unable the design students are to experiment and really enjoy these projects, and expected to do generic and unoriginal work. I know that it is hard to accommodate both design and journalist students, but I still feel that the projects are quite biased.

We went for lunch with the Chinese students, who took us to the most amazing park to eat various foods, my favourite of which was the sticky rice wrapped in a leaf. I felt very close, as if we'd known everyone for ages. We spent a few hours walking round, as we turned every corner there was something new and fascinating. After anticipating a whole day in the classroom, I end up totally sunburnt.

We returned to the classroom quite late, I understand it was bad on my part but to be perfectly honest I didn't care. The articles were finally written, and so I put everything in place, taking longer than I thought it would.

Looking back it was a very hard layout to work with, with a bit more time and interest I probably could have achieved a better standard, but with experimenting its always a learning curve, and I feel like I have learnt a lot more doing it this way, than your bog standard 3 columns.

Evening meal was a "hot pot", a heated pan which first came with chicken, then was filled with stock to cook various vegetables and meats. It was a really fun way of eating, and a brilliant test of our chopstick skills, which are getting better and better by the day.

KTV anyone?

Our first day of the Buzz Newsletter and there wasn't a lot that we were able to do, as the stories needed to come from what happened in that day. Phil told me to look at different newsletter designs, something a bit more diverse than the normal newspaper columns. I thought about changing the shape of the columns, which then developed into a broken glass theme. One of the Chinese students, Li, said that it looked like the earthquake, or the volcano that had just erupted, so we had a good link. The chinese students worked really well and didn't need much guidance; their end layout design with the chinese lucky charm was clean yet quirky, and had a lot more thought than past designs.

In the evening, we had the karaoke. This I was not looking forward to, but with the help of a few beers, by the end of the night, I went with most of the GDers to sing Bohemian Rhapsody, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the courage of the chinese people, regardless of talent, really helped to give me that push. We later went out for tea, I had "the best noodles in Hangzhou" and all in all was a really good day.

Drowned at West lake

Today was our trip to the West Lake which I was looking forward to. It was a gorgeous and tranquil place, and the low mist added a hint of mysteriousness. I kept telling myself that the rain was adding to the atmosphere but by the end of the day with soaking socks and shoes all I did want was a warm blanket. I'd been looking forward to seeing curled up roofs, and more traditional decorations such as golden dragons. The trees hanging down from the lake swaying in the wind were beautiful too. After a walk along Bai causeway passing Hangzhou's top restaurant, museum and art gallery we got back to the coach.

We drove onto the city centre for shopping. Being utterly disgraceful, we all rushed out into the rain in a search for a McDonalds. I've had my yearly fix of McDonalds in the space of 5 days. Ergh. I'm not denying that it was one of the best I've had though! Anyway, shopping was a bit of a wash out so we're all eager for Shanghai now.

Back to the Uni and back to work. Luckily the journalism students were pretty nifty with the camera and got some really great footage. The Chinese students found some music about the West Lake, and also informed us of an ancient story that we included into the commentary on the film. Some text was also created by the Chinese journalism student, which was full of information and character. Overall it has been a lot more easier than yesterday, but I suppose this is where people step up when its their expertise and work to their strengths.

Down to work

Today the projects started. Groups were re-arranged slightly but I still had my favourite 3. Our first project was to do promotion material for China students coming to visit Coventry. After a lot of time wasting and confusion, we finally got the right end of the stick and got cracking. Communication was slow, and it was very easy to get confused, but we still worked on.

Yesterday I was quite interested that both logos for the University had birds in them, so I thought that would be a good theme to start. It was quite difficult to get the Chinese students to start getting ideas down, but with explaining, and using visuals, they all came up with one idea each that were actually really good. I didn't want to hurt any of them, so we went through one by one and I said what was good. I managed to merge 2 ideas into one for the logo, which was further developed by the chinese students, and used the other idea as part of an image to be used on the flyer. I made up the designs on Photoshop, and everyone suggested tweaking to the shapes and colours.

For the writing I thought that it would make sense for the media students to take part, especially as we were advertising Coventry so the Chinese students didn't have anything to write about. The one journalist student from China helped us with design ideas and I think she really enjoyed it. In the end I mocked up as much as possible on InDesign, and although the english journalists did do some design work we still ended up with no text. Overall I'm pleased that we had a strong concept and worked quite well as a team.

Here!

Flight over, sleep caught up after 28 hours awake and it's breakfast time. A lot of stodge but nevertheless not bad!

Off to meet the president and the chinese students, and immediately am overwhelmed by their kindness. Forced to find ourselves our own groups, I am surprised to be wanting to stay with my new chinese friend, that I've known for 5 minutes, than people who I've known for 2 years. Groups (kind of) sorted, and we're off to be guided around the campus by our foreign students. Conversation was quite difficult, but didn't deter anyone in any way. They know my name straight away and call me over constantly when their names have gone straight over my head.

After a pretty decent lunch and amazement over the giant container of rice, we visit the media tower of the university, which I suppose was good as the chinese students themselves hadn't even step foot in it before. The view from the top was stunning, for some reason I like the mysteriousness of the fog even though its quick grey and murky. Other visits around the building included various television studious, just a bit more fancy than those back at Coventry uni.

Most upsettingly, the karaoke wasn't on, so out for a few beers before a good nights sleep. Morning seems like a long time ago.

1 day, 17 hours to go...

So I'm sitting in my pig sty of a room, suitcase open, yearning to be packed. This amazing opportunity of spending 2 weeks in China, that always seemed "months away" has finally jumped out of nowhere, and I'm going to be on that jumbo jet in less than 2 days. Wow.

Just one of the tasks to be working on in China, at the Zhejiang University of Media and Communication in Shanghai, is to compare the differences in UK and Chinese in an area of interest within design. I have been quite engrossed with package design within the last few

years, and I think this will be a wide and diverse area to study. I was traveling on the train today and also thought that road signs, health and safety signs could also be an interesting subject, especially as I expect these to be extremely different.

I already have a good idea on what package design I like, and have been collecting bits and bobs for a while now. For extra research, I have been browsing lovelypackage.com, finding both Chinese and British pieces. Of course, the main aim is to sell the product and make it stand out well on the shelf, and recently, designs have been becoming

much more minimal to do so. In a way, its coming back round to early packaging in a way, the name and essentials would be displayed with not much thought to anything decorative. What I am expecting is that a lot of packaging design in China will be bright and intricate, extremely beautiful, yet may result in quite a busy shelf. Another important thing to discover is their traditions, such as colour. I have been reading up on some of the culture, and even the colour of what presents are wrapped in is very important to get right, as each colour stands for separate things, so I wonder if that plays any part in package design too?

Anyway, here are a few examples of my favourites on lovelypackage.com, and hopefully, my next post will be from China!!!