PROJECT INFO: JICC Exhibition | Blossoming Flowers in Japanese Art & Poetry
PROJECT SCOPE: Solo designer, print & digital design, art direction, photography
PROJECT DURATION: September 2022 to May 2023 (8 months total; 3 months of design work)
DESCRIPTION:"Ichigo-ichie (一期一会) or 'a once-in-a-lifetime meeting.' This four-character idiom encourages us to cherish each fleeting moment and encounter just as we cherish the cherry blossoms before they fade."
The Japan Information & Culture Center (JICC), Embassy of Japan, presented "Blossoming Flowers in Japanese Art and Poetry" in Spring 2023. It was an in-house exhibition featuring the artistic talents of DC-area students alongside official reproductions of art from the Embassy's private collection and hand-selected haikus. As part of the 2023 National Cherry Blossom Festival, this unique collaboration highlights the “blooming” creativity of students when drawing inspiration from the symbolism of flowers in Japanese art and poetry.
As the cherry blossoms bloom across DC, they signal a new beginning. We admire them as they frame our landmarks and decorate the streets with cascading shades of pink and white, momentarily transforming the landscape. Through this brief existence, cherry blossoms exemplify the Japanese philosophy of "ichigo-ichie." This exhibition hoped to show that even through the impermanence of the season’s most famed flowers, strong community ties can flourish. The opening of this two-month exhibition was celebrated with a live "ikebana" (or "Japanese flower arrangement") demonstration led by David Komeiji of the Ikebana Saga Goryū-North America Branch.
In addition to handling all the design and illustration-oriented tasks for this collaborative exhibition, I was also tasked with scaling photos of the Embassy Art we featured in this exhibition. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we could not install and display the original pieces in the two weeks leading to the exhibition's opening, so I was in charge of creating accurately resized high-res replications in order for the artworks to be re-produced on giclee prints and hung on custom framing.
ASSETS MADE & TASKS: 1/8" thick PVC panels for exhibition (48x48"; 36x24"; 24x24"), opaque adhesive-backed vinyl decal cut backwards for window display (48x18"; 48x20"; 50x6"), low-tack sticker banners,
limited edition exhibition pin, worksheet, promotional postcard, Instagram posts and stories, press kit, high-res photo scaling (rendered through AI) for giclee prints reproduction
TOOLKIT: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Lightroom
