Asian Art Museum

We put out a call to Bay Area artists, designers, and illustrators to design the packaging for our upcoming MATCHA program starting in June. And you heeded the call!

We were thrilled with all the different submissions, and grateful for everyone's enthusiastic participation. From photography-based entries and original artwork to tech savvy explorations, you wowed us with your clever creativity and vision. We enjoyed seeing how you interpreted MATCHA in all sorts of unique ways while stepping up to the visual and conceptual challenge. Thank you so much for making our contest a success.

We carefully sifted through all the entries, and even though it was a tough decision, we are delighted to announce the winner of the MATCHA 2009/2010 design contest: TAMMY CHANG !

Tammy's description of her creative process revealed a thoughtful understanding of MATCHA. In fact, she explains better than we can why our popular mixer program is aptly called MATCHA. Her design is flexible, handsome, and simple, yet leaves room for interpretation as well. Congratulations Tammy! That's her winning entry right above

We'd also like to congratulate our runner up JEFF FANG / JONATHAN RATCLIFF, who teamed up and presented an entire suite of compelling, tech savvy iterations of their design. Click here to check them out.

Stay tuned as we ramp up for MATCHA: Sake + Tea on June 18 to kick-off our Lords of the Samurai exhibition.

Again, many many thanks to everyone for rising to the challenge. A lart part of MATCHA's mission is to foster community and engagement, and your help in this contest definitely played into it. Thank you for being part of OUR community!

I used Japanese old playing card "Hanafuda", as a motif of the design, replaced/added San Francisco/California symbols, California poppy, Golden Gate Bridge, Trans-America building, and the rainbow flag. The ward on the red paper is "Kiri-yoroshi" (Fog is good), in the original playing card it was "Aka-yoroshi" (Red is good).
Black border is also the style of the playing card.

Hello, here is my design for the MATCHA design contest. I chose to go with a self-contained illustration that was detailed enough to provide information about the upcoming MATCHA events, but also iconic enough to function like a logo. I believe this image can be utilized effectively for anything from t-shirts to pamphlets to posters to banners. The part of the image containing the MATCHA! text can be isolated and used as a small logo or header for informational paragraphs accompanying other images. The image can also be re-cropped to focus on aspects associated with different events. I hope you enjoy it!

You can contact me at sheisept@gmail.com. Thank you for your time!

- Sophia Foster-Dimino

   

I created a graphic identity for Matcha in the form of a logo mark which can be used across multiple formats and media, including merchandising items.  Here are two iterations of a poster design for Matcha events - the idea is to keep a consistent layout, and use a visual element (photograph or illustration) pertinent to each particular event. The background band behind the logo as well as the leaf element can change color depending upon the context. The shirt and mug images show examples of other applications of the Matcha mark.

         

This set of submissions for the 2009/10 Matcha design competition uses a combination of hand-created elements and code-based randomization to capture the Matcha spirit. First, we hand-drew elements inspired by upcoming Matcha events, and Asian culture.

Then, we converted them to line art on the computer, and fed them through a custom Flash-based app, which generated layouts of our illustrations in creative ways. The app allowed us to 'play' with the composition through simplified editing. It's modular, and really easy to change what's being laid out; by stating colors, backgrounds, and swapping out artwork.

It's a lot of fun to see how arbitrary layouts take shape. Compositions come out of the program that a designer might never dream of doing. And because it's all based in Flash, we can deliver the experience via a standard browser. Output from the app remains in vector format, lending itself to print executions, banners or even t-shirts.

The poster generator got us thinking... wouldn't it be cool if the elements were animated? And what if you could interact with the elements via motion detection? See the DJ Interactive Animation and the rest of our Matcha ideas here: www.jefffang.com/matcha

We are a handful of designers and programmers who like to make things that are... well, cool. Drop a line, we like feedback!

Best,
Jeff Fang / Jonathan Ratcliff
jeff@jefffang.com / contact@jonathanratcliff.com

www.jefffang.com/matcha

PS. If you would like to embed our videos, here are the embed codes:

<br /><a href="">Matcha: Poster Generator</a> from Jonathan Ratcliff on Vimeo.

<br /><a href="">Matcha: Interactive Installation</a> from Jonathan Ratcliff on Vimeo.

     

jilee0612@gmail.com

The theme of this poster is " revealing the hidden treasure".

The concept comes from a very popular drawing technique
that I enjoyed as a youngster, crayon scratch drawing,
this technique is ideal for bringing vibrant colors to an art.
MATCHA offers variant events where different aspects of
Asian culture are explored. This poster brings out
the different layers the culture have but in a subtle way.
This poster wide range of flexibility. By simply altering the
background color of the poster, different moods could be evoked.
I choose the symbol of the dragon because in Asian culture it represents
mystery and power. This easily conveys an Asian theme to its viewers.

p.s. I am attaching two posters, the second one is just an example of
how different background color can change the whole mood.

   

My objective was not only to create a "strong and simple" unique image, but one that could successfully be used on all of the events in the 2009-2010 program. Keeping in mind that Matcha is about many different Asian cultures, I avoided using any kind of overtly "Far-Eastern" or "Oriental" imagery that would end up being limiting for the program.

To me, the concept behind Matcha comes down to the conversations we have with friends and family, shared over drinks. I'm reminded of the feeling of cradling a hot cup of tea, or swirling glass of wine to release its bouquet. My design is essentially an abstract beverage. It is simple, clean, gets the message across, but also leaves room for interpretation. I've included 2 examples of a poster that use the same image but use color to get a very different effect.

Regards,
Tammy Chang

tcchang7[at]gmail[dot]com
www.tammychang.com

       

Grace Zheng