In today's world, some might say, the world is going paperless with the advent of the digital age. But in reality, we are still a long way from a paperless world. Paper has never been more widely used than it is today. Whether it's the invitations we receive, the postcards we send to family and friends when we travel, or even the stamps and seals we use to mail letters, it still serves its purpose and brings beauty to people.

Paper and ink are real things that can be seen, and the outlines and folds on paper tell the story of its unexplored characteristics. In terms of materials, manufacturers are expanding the limits of paper and creating new possibilities. Thanks to their efforts, paper can be heat-resistant, washable, tear-resistant, metallic, translucent, velvety, glossy, and even embroidered. In the visual arts, many designers and artists have rediscovered the fascination of paper and have demonstrated its enormous potential. They turn the seemingly mundane and uninspired into something memorable, clever and even eccentric. In an effort to break the inertia of thinking about a piece of paper or an email, designers have created a sense of wonder in these everyday things.

In this issue's special feature, designers from around the world challenge the design of these paper pieces and succeed in making them professional examples of the graphic field. We look at several aspects of invitations, postcards, stamps and seals to tell you these visual narratives related to the mail. When people receive mail, the touch of opening the mail, smelling it, smiling, laughing, crying or reminiscing after reading it ...... The recipient gives weight and life to the letter after completing this series of actions. Before that, from the moment you see the stamp on the top and touch the seal on the surface of the envelope, you enter into the miniature story built by the designers. The designers build a delicate visual language in this palm-sized flat space and invite the recipient to open it one by one.

Invitation design: a time to be taken seriously

Invitations are often used for major life events: weddings, anniversaries, family birthdays, etc. In a world where cell phones are constantly ringing, tweets and emails are flooding your eyes, and attention is drawn to information everywhere - a personalized, handwritten invitation is as precious as a breath of fresh air. When you receive a paper invitation, you feel special and respected, a guest who has been cordially invited. This is because mailing invitations requires addressing, stamping and mailing, all of which take time, which is why the invitees feel this way.

For the average person, it is the wedding invitations that they receive the most. The time and place are often the important information in the invitation. How can you make your guests remember this important information? That's where the designer's skills are put to the test when it comes to wedding invitations - Marion and Darren are a French couple living in Paris who decided to reunite with their loved ones and get married on the Italian island of Capri. French design studio Allons-y Alonso created a travel guide specifically for their wedding. The invitation, which looks like a passport, is actually a folded, hand-drawn map with all the details of the wedding. It's easy for guests to take with them once they receive it, but also easy to open to get lots of information about the wedding. "And who would have thought you would get a map-style invitation? It's hard not to remember." Marion's mother says with a smile.

In addition to the map, there are also many couples who have made their wedding invitations attractive to their guests. For example, Chu Chi-ming, a designer from Hong Kong, designed a special invitation for Evita Tsai and Tim Lin's wedding. The cover of the invitation is a Chinese herb called oroxylum indicum, which means "wood butterfly". It symbolizes the groom's work and the meaning of love. The entire invitation design is a blend of Chinese and Western elements, such as the Chinese brushstrokes forming the word "life". A loop of twine was wrapped around the invitation to symbolize the couple's strong relationship. Guests of Souad and Sylvain's wedding were also lucky enough to receive a "golden ticket". Inspired by the movie "Uncle Charlie's Chocolate Factory," the invitation was printed on platinum metallic paper. In addition, an envelope with a hand-drawn map provided additional details about the wedding location like a treasure map.

In addition, with advances in technology, creative designers can now mix 3D forms and different materials into the design of wedding invitations. For Valentina and Thomas' wedding invitations, the couple used the traditional Brazilian element of Bonfim. Using various weaving and knotting techniques, the designers showcased the marriage bond in blue and pink graphics. There was also a wedding invitation designed by Spanish design studio SUBMACHINE for their friends Panka and Andris that used screen printing and laser cutting techniques. These fun invitations are cut into different shapes in the middle and can be combined to form a rabbit and a bear, which represent Panka and Andris.

Written invitations date back to the Middle Ages, when they were popular among wealthy families. With the development of printing technology, postal systems and graphic design, invitations are becoming more and more widely used for cultural events and business functions. In the fashion world, the first place that comes to mind where invitations can be used is at a fashion show. As the first part of the fashion show experience, show invitations carry a lot of weight. It has to stand out from the pile of similar cards and capture the hearts of fashion editors, but it also has to be able to present the brand image and reveal the design focus of the new season. The theme of Japanese fashion brand URBAN's Spring/Summer 2016 collection is "Landscape. In this theme, "landscape" refers to a space viewed from a certain angle. Designer Hiroe Nakamura used lines and geometric forms to express such a concept. The green circular object is a scent label. When guests receive this invitation, they can feel, smell and see the theme.

Fashion galas are also where the fashion world needs the most invitations. As part of the brand identity for the inaugural fundraising gala for the non-profit Fiji Fashion Foundation (Bula Ball), the invitations were made on a heavy-weight, matte-textured specialty paper, Bula meaning "life" and "hello" in Fijian. The designers created an elegant stencil display font with a range of embellishments and motifs to give a sleek, modern look that made the evening highly anticipated.

In addition to the fashion world, many festivals and store openings require invitations. The opening invitations for the Singapore Film Screening National Archive to commemorate its 50th anniversary were designed by Singaporean design agency The Workbench. The designers divided the different pages into categories and then bound them together to make flyer-style invitations. In addition to using stately dark green and metallic copper elements to anchor the overall theme of these films about stability and progress, complementary warm colors, such as beige and pink, were introduced to echo those of the upbeat narrative films. As an extension of the private screenings, the VIP program can also be easily bound together to ensure consistency in design direction.

There are also special festivals that use fun invitation designs. XIÊC is an annual international circus festival in Vietnam for children ages 5 to 12. XIÊC's 2019 International Circus Festival invitations will focus on the fluidity and rhythm of each of the different shapes of the design. The illustrations in the invitations show the circus artists in action. The bold and plain brushstrokes and contrasting colors show the overall energy of the invitations. In addition, the invitations are folded to form a magic box, evoking a fun experience for the audience. The opening invitations for the dotdotdot film festival by Vienna-based soju design studio are also representative of the fun experience. soju took an interactive approach to the card design. They designed the invitation in two parts: the envelope and the inner piece. On the envelope, soju punched a lot of skeleton dots, while on the inner piece, they made calculations and dotted a lot of black dots on the inside. Guests can make certain combinations of the hollow dots on the surface and the black dots on the inside to create the words "dotdotdot Festival".

Postcard design: the "new" delivery

Postcards, as a unique art form with a long history and full of charm, have long been used for more than just communication and exchange. In recent years, a large number of postcards have been created, both classic and modern, with different themes, materials and printing techniques, combined with the latest visual elements, opening up a new world for traditional postcards.

In 2017, scientists from around the world studying primates published an article titled "Impending extinction crisis of the world's primates", pointing out that the world's primates are on the verge of extinction. The article "Impending extinction crisis of the world's primates" points out that the world's primates are on the brink of extinction, and the culprit behind this is man himself. Using this as inspiration, illustrator Annisa Apriininda designed a series of postcards called Indonesian Primates Postcard Series, with primates as the main characters in the postcard design. She hopes to call on more people to value and protect these lovely creatures. Anisa Apurinda is good at creating light-hearted and fun style, with uniform and childish style, fresh lines and colors, rich and simple illustration texture, presenting the soft and cute appearance of each small animal. The overall color of the envelope is a bright yellow, with forest greenery as the background painting, printed in the form, further highlighting the theme of nature protection.

Under the general premise of greenery and environmental protection, design team O.OO produced a series of postcards with vegetables and fruits as the main theme. Common types of vegetables, meat and fruits were collected and made into a realistic postcard. Unlike the cluttered hues of vegetable markets, the O.OO design team used white as a whole, with food presented in muted monochromatic tones. In the form of printing, the most vivid side of the food is expressed. In an intuitive way, it reminds the eater that every food wasted at the moment has had a life and is worth cherishing.

When you gaze at a botanical painting, can you feel the aesthetic experience of calmness and fleetingness? In addition to the painting of botanicals in realistic style, scientific painting of plants requires a scientific and precise grasp of the details of their flowers, fruits and leaf forms. This kind of botanical portrait, different from oil painting and brush painting, not only pursues the artistic beauty of painting, but also has almost demanding requirements on the accuracy of the work. The design team, Trongtran, has taken the natural blooming process of this plant and expressed it in a hand-drawn, realistic style. At first, this part of the plant illustration was only used for scientific research. Later, the Trongtran team transformed the illustrations into a botanical art publication that offered its expertise to a wide audience. In order to reach a wider audience, a postcard format was added to convey the scientific knowledge of plants to a wider range of interested people. It is worth mentioning that the Trongtran team is good at representing plants with clear lines and strong colors, and the plants drawn have a strong sense of image. This is an art form that combines both aesthetic sensibility and rational science.

In contrast to the realistic style of the Trongtran team, LosTipo-Totems is a set of characterful postcards combining typography, totemic elements and a minimalist color scheme, designed by Italian designer Mattia Zingale. With bold and vibrant colors, large fonts and eye-catching illustrations, the postcards form a new style.The Los Tipo-Totems collection consists of 36 postcards on 200g/m² uncoated paper and in five different colors to meet functional and aesthetic needs. The printed totems in the postcards were designed by Mattia Singer and are inspired by images of totemic figures from around the world. The boxes for the postcards are made of recycled paper to avoid the use of disposable plastic packaging in the repackaging process. In addition, Velcro was used to fix the box at the top and bottom to improve the reusability of the box.

A small postcard is not only a flat visual presentation, but also full of whimsical ideas. In the "Sotheby's Contemporary Art Auction Night", British graffiti artist Banksy's painting "Girl with Balloon" was presented in the finale, and finally sold for £1.045 million, which almost reached Banksy's personal auction record in 2008. As the audience cheered, the alarm suddenly rang and, in full view of everyone, the white paper with the girl and the red balloon in the frame slowly slid down and was cut into shreds through the shredder concealed in the frame. More than halfway through, the shredder stopped and the painting was left in a half-intact, half-destroyed state, leaving a red heart balloon intact. Lesha Limonov used the "Banksy Sotheby's shredding incident" as inspiration to create a creative postcard of the gallery. He designed the postcard to look like a picture frame, with the bottom half of the oil painting cut in a vertical strip to mimic the shredded state of a paper shredder, so that when you remove the photo from the frame, it will also split open. Liza Limonov wants to tell everyone who has this postcard that the friendship or affection in front of them is precious, and to cherish the people or things in the present moment in this interesting form.

Article Source:艺术与设计

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