Leyan Chen (Elza)

‘Time and Dots’ offers an explorative journey into the narrative of time, employing the materiality of dots – from flat graphical representations to three-dimensional structures and spatial topological manifestations – as narrators. This project weaves a tapestry of temporal themes visualised through four seminal works of magical realism, engaging with profound interpretations of time as a concept both elusive and tangible.

Here, time pauses in perpetual stillness, fractures into chaotic fragments, branches into an infinite web of possibilities, and cycles through endless loops, each narrative capturing a unique temporal phenomenon. These temporal narratives are examined through the lenses of philosophy, semiotics, and astrophysics, enriching the understanding of time as an illusion, the immediacy and perpetuity of moments, the relativity and flux of temporal experience, and the discreteness and continuity of time’s passage.

‘Time and Dots’ transforms these complex themes into experimental book art, employing the Möbius strip concept to display the eternal and infinite nature of objective time as perceived through human consciousness. This project not only visualises time but also invites reflection on how it shapes and is shaped by human experience, making visible the invisible threads that connect moments across the continuum of existence creation.

This book cover design project, initiated in the early 21st century, is a poetic reimagining of Bei Dao’s publications. Stone, a powerful symbol in this design, encapsulates the essence of his life and literary style. The themes of travel, solitude, the erosion of time, intertextuality, the merging of epochs, restrained tranquility, dialogue, and wandering are intricately represented through the stone imagery. Each of the four books in the series, spanning essays and poetry collections, features a minimalist design that integrates innovative traditional techniques. These designs reflect current market trends in cover art while distinguishing themselves with a profound conceptual depth. This redesign aims to offer a fresh perspective and a renewed identity to Bei Dao’s work, hoping to garner the respect and recognition it merits and to solidify its esteemed place in literary history. The project stands out as a narrative of deep themes and sophisticated storytelling through visual art.

As cnidarians that predate dinosaurs, jellyfish are almost entirely composed of water, an inorganic substance. They live in water and are fundamentally made up of it, creating an ambiguous relationship between organic and inorganic elements. This generative type game focuses on exploring the forms, structures, and life cycles of jellyfish, offering six grids based on these features to open new possibilities for designers in exploring typography.

This grid-based generative type game is designed to probe the organic nature of typefaces. Through this game, type can exhibit soft and transparent qualities, be transient or eternal, structured or randomly variable, and be extremely complex or incredibly simple.

The soft jellyboard is not only a medium for interaction between the type and jellyfish but its sticky interaction with the ink also becomes a process where the audience engages with inorganic materials to collaboratively create an ‘organic’ type.