Hanzi Analysis (documentary) PDF

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Summary of the Hanzi, the documentary...

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Hanzi: What did you like about the documentary? What did you dislike? Identify 1-3 ideas or concepts that you could take away from the documentary regarding your own work. I will admit, I was a little leery of this assignment before I began watching the documentary. I assumed it was about ancient typography within the Chinese dynasties which wouldn’t have been as interesting to me, but I was pleasantly surprised when I realized it was about typography in the current Chinese language and culture. This documentary was packed with fascinating information about Chinese typography. I have never personally been exposed to the Chinese language or culture in terms of graphic design, which made this documentary so informative. For instance, I never even thought about fonts in other languages, especially one that contains a more pictorial language. I appreciated their way of explaining how the language has evolved overtime, such as the traditional script which was simplified by the communist party in the 1950s. The speakers really drew me in when they began discussing how different figures combine to make different things. For example, the Chinese word for ‘big’ features a person stretching their arms wide. This idea of interpreting pictures instead of lines would not only make it easier to understand and comprehend the Chinese language, but also influence my work as a graphic design student. Graphic design heavily relies on typography, so being able to better incorporate type and visual elements into my work will bring me toward more successful designs. In terms of what I disliked about the documentary, I found it very difficult to take notes while watching this video because I was not able to read subtitles and write at the same time. In all, I really enjoyed this documentary and look forward to researching how typography is prevalent in other cultures.

You touched on some really important points that I also recongized while watching the documentary. You noted the part of the film that discussed fonts as actors, which I thought was fascinating. For instance, my handwriting by no means is traditional. In high school, I would have teachers say my handwriting was too hard to read, but in college, I have professors that praise my unique handwriting and tell me to create a font. The documentary was successful in affirming my own feelings about handwriting and confirmed how different fonts can be used to express different meanings.

I also am guilty of assuming that Chinese is a different language to learn. It was very interesting to see the documentary break down words like ‘big’ and ‘forest.’ Furthermore, I also noted the idea of viewing fonts as actors.

For instance, comic sans and times new roman convey two very different ideas, so as a graphic design major, it is important to recognize what is being conveyed and how it should be conveyed....