Winning honor for vocational schools
Wearing a pair of black-framed glasses and cutting a refined figure, Chen Yanting is a true representative of the talent often overlooked in Taiwan's vocational schools.
"Yanting was always such a good boy, and he could really draw, even as a child. He was never a particular standout student, almost always just ending up above average no matter how hard he worked. I even got a call from his teacher complaining that he spent too much time off in his own world in class." So says Chen's mother, an outgoing and vibrant woman, of her son's time at school. After taking the Senior High School Entrance Exams, she says, Chen scored highly enough to get into Songshan Senior High in Taipei, the fifth most popular choice of high school in Taiwan, but instead she and her husband encouraged Chen to enroll in the advertising design program at Erh Shing Senior High School's vocational section, given his talent for design.
This parental practicality ultimately gave Chen a head start on his peers in terms of finding his direction, and over his three years at vocational school he was able to develop his skills in art, printing, and computer-assisted design. In the end, he graduated first in his class, testing into National Taiwan University of Science and Technology's Department of Industrial and Commercial Design.
Over his first three years at NTUST, Chen says he focused primarily on building his basic skills. Driven by a tremendous passion for learning, he enrolled in more courses than necessary, taking on all the knowledge he could find and adapting it to further his own abilities.
His graduation project in 2007 was a turning point for Chen; "I felt like the time had come, and I figured I needed to do something with some real power, so I decided to go with something most people are unfamiliar with-traditional paper cutting. I hoped that this way, as well as creating a strong piece, I could also do something to promote awareness of this nearly lost art both in and out of Taiwan," says Chen.
In order to learn paper cutting, Chen paid several visits to renowned paper cutting artist and award winner Lee Huan-chang. Not only did Chen learn this complex art under Lee, he also had the chance to discuss with Lee his decades of work and experience.
Upon hearing Lee's frustration that traditional paper cutting seemingly has no place in modern cities, Chen was struck with inspiration and determined to try and combine the two. For his short film Cutting he used computer animation and real-world sets, using the role of "paper-cutting magician" to merge modern cityscapes with traditional paper cutting patterns, transforming modern streets into winding cuts in paper, the gaps between buildings into detail work. With the magician's every cut, new street scenes are opened up, metaphorically showing how with the efforts of commited people, paper cutting can add a new kind of beauty to city life.
Chen's paper cutting animation and poster, creative and thought-provoking, also earned him recognition from the international design community, boosting his confidence and inspiring him to turn his eyes abroad.
During his year at the Pratt Institute, Chen was constantly challenged and inspired by the wealth of resources and tremendously skilled students, and his creativity continued to flow. He created a series of environmentally conscious posters that earned international awards in Mexico and Poland, as well as an Adobe Design Achievement Award.
Taking as his inspiration the iconic logos of car companies like Saab, Ferrari, and Dodge, Chen created satirical versions with the lion, horse, and ram poisoned, taking a jab at the companies' heavy responsibility in creating greenhouse gas emissions; this earned him a gold award in ACM SIGGRAPH's Space-Time Student Competition and Exhibition, with judges commending it for its effective use of simplicity to make a strong statement.
This piece, an IDEA winner, is a jar with a silicon lid that can be depressed with a simple touch to create a funnel to pour sugar, salt, or similar without fear of spills.