‘滄海一粟’ literally means a hulled millet in the blue ocean. It implies that something will have little effect because it is small and mostly insignificant.
This idiom originates from the literature of Su Dongpo, one of China's greatest poets and essayists. He was also an accomplished calligrapher and a public official of the Sung Dynasty. He states “Our life is as short as the life of a dayfly, and our body is as tiny as a millet in the blue ocean”. This comment expresses Su Dongpo’s nihilism and yet may also be a self-reflection on the sense of modesty.
The designer introduces the cartoon dialogue balloons as a representation of visual language, with two colors, cyan and yellow, in order to convey the idea. The dialogue balloon has been one of the major elements of the designer's works at the time. Each balloon can illustrate a person’s voice as well as his/her own being. The designer attempts to translate ‘滄海一粟’ into a concept not only having a sense of vanity but also a little flash of hope exhibited in the small yellow dialogue balloon in the illustration. The designer wishes to show how difficult it is to have one’s voice heard in a group and how important it is to keep it.
This poster image was created for a book of Chinese characters and idioms. One hundred asian designers worked together on this project.
- Poster
- Hanja, chinese character book cover
- Hanja, chinese character book
- exhibition | MUIPBIENNIAL 2012, Istanbul, Turkey / The 8th Asia Graphic Design Triennale, 2012, Daegu, Korea / Museum of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, Dalian, China, 2012 / Patti and Rusty Rueff Gallery, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 2007 / Chinese Character International Exhibition, Taiwan, 2005
- 707mm x 1000mm | 2005