Zhou Yanyang, upon completing her undergraduate studies at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University in 2004, pursued further education at Politecnico di Milano in Italy. In 2010, she joined the faculty of Department of Industrial Design, Exhibition Design specialization, at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, where she specializes in corporate exhibition hall design and design for children.
Sentiment of the exhibition: inspiring and impressing people
Exhibition design is indeed a highly integrated discipline, intersecting architecture, design, and art. Its charm lies in synthesizing diverse knowledge and drawing from the strengths of various fields. On a deeper level, exhibition design is a profession that requires inspiring and moving people, immersing them in the exhibited environment to absorb the conveyed information.
A crucial aspect in Zhou Yanyang's perspective on exhibition design is the mastery of time, emotion, and narrative pace. She finds it intriguing to convey the designer's message without relying solely on words and images, and to create an immersive experience beyond didactic content.
During her doctoral studies in Milan, Zhou Yanyang harbored a deep affection for museum systems and expressed her determination to her supervisor to dedicate herself to the study of exhibition design. At that time, the world was transitioning into the information era, where information was easily accessible through screens. In contrast, medium-to-large-scale exhibitions often required investments of tens of millions of dollars and construction periods spanning several years. Against this backdrop, exhibitions seemed cumbersome compared to advanced information dissemination methods, prompting Zhou's supervisor to question, "Do you really think exhibition design will still have a place 20 years from now?" Although Zhou Yanyang herself could not provide a definitive answer, her deep-seated affection for museums drove her to persist on her research path. Fortunately, exhibition design has continued to thrive, and Zhou Yanyang's passion remains unwavering.
Display Design Project Works
Probably one of Zhou Yanyang's favorite sayings can answer the reason why she loves display design so much: “If you tell me, I will forget; if you show me, I will remember; yet if you merge me into it, a heartfelt understanding will come to me.” The third level of this sentence is the very reason for the existence of display design: in a relatively short period of time, it allows the visitor to intensively and profoundly feel the message that the designer wants to pass on to him in this precious life experience. Condensing all kinds of colorful in a moment, calling a moment of resonance with a true heart, this is the ultimate pursuit of display design, and also the consistent perseverance of Zhou Yanyang.
"Presentation and the Contemporary: An Effect Attainable Only by Exhibition"
"When engaging in exhibition design, to what extent must we strive? We must aim for an effect that is attainable only by exhibition—one that can only be fully realized through this medium."
To effectively communicate what one knows and feels to the visitor is not an easy task, and therefore the practitioner of the exhibition design profession needs to be very creative and able to express the message precisely in the atmosphere of art. Display design gives practitioners a great sense of happiness in this process : knowing the space and putting their creativity into the space at the same time. In addition, the charm of the exhibition design profession also lies in the fact that every time a project is completed, the practitioner can enter a new field, meet new people and understand new industries, especially the most professional and core aspects. Only after fully grasping the knowledge of related fields, display designers can express the information in the most accurate and pertinent way, which is a lifelong learning process.
Display design is extremely delicate in detailing, requiring a balance between artistic creativity and engineering materials and many other factors, requiring a lot of time and effort, while the time constraints of exhibitions increase the challenging nature of the design, with a very low tolerance for error. Exhibition designers must pay close attention to every step of the design, from every material to every detail, without the slightest slackness. For example, when designing a floor, we may see that all the walls are made of the same materials and specifications for consistency. However, in display design, each of these walls will be unique. Especially when designing an experiential display, every inch of space is meticulously designed and every square centimeter is different in order to create a unique visitor experience.
Integrating the creativity in mind into the space
Introduced by Zhou Yanyang, the exhibition design profession is currently undergoing a very drastic change. Nowadays, many functional needs can be met through online platforms, making online spaces an important platform for cultural exchange and information transfer, this trend poses a challenge to the traditional display function centered on information transfer and cultural exchange. However, this trend is also driving the growing demand for spatial experience and immersion. Display design used to be focused on the exhibition halls of museums or art galleries, but today it has widely penetrated into all corners of cities and communities.
The inch-by-inch distance of the display design integrates many details
According to Zhou Yanyang, this just reflects the core concept of display design - closely linked to human life. Given that display design focuses on the planning of physical space, many commercial spaces in the future will tend to integrate display and art. Zhou Yanyang eagerly hopes that students interested in exhibition design can join this field, which is very different from the traditional exhibition design, following the cutting-edge thinking, can effectively solve many challenges in urban space. Zhou is passionate about display design, and she firmly believes that as times change, a new tomorrow is coming.
Teaching and inheritance: passion and ideals can't be failed
“Hopefully, the students who come out of the academy will uphold a heart of research and explore the real internal logic behind the surface phenomena.”
Zhou Yanyang puts her passion for display design into teaching, always adhering to the principle of integrating teaching and practice closely, and brings the industry's cutting-edge information and the latest challenges directly into the classroom for discussion. This allows students to clearly understand which concepts are feasible for future work and which may not. Zhou focuses on the seamless integration of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, a core point of her teaching.
Display design is a highly detail-oriented profession, and many subtle insights are difficult to be elaborated in the classroom, and require students to accumulate them gradually in their daily lives. Zhou Yanyang believes that although there are many ways of accumulation, the primary thing is to guide students on how to accumulate effectively so they can be faster and more organized. Both in classroom teaching and extracurricular tutoring, she upholds a rigorous attitude, clearly organizing every point for students.
Call for thousands of resonance with one heart's passion
Many new challenges are bound to come to the whole design industry in the age of AI, and the field of display design is also bound to undergo major changes. When facing the current turning point in history, designers especially need to maintain a research-oriented mindset to practice. What Zhou Yanyang often says to her students is that today's answer to display design is on the way. She hoped that students engaged in the display design profession should be psychologically prepared, because it is a glamorous but very physically exhausting profession. She hoped that they could actively explore the real internal logic behind the surface phenomenon, keep enthusiasm, not afraid of suffering, and solve the problem in response to the problem without being too egotistical.
Furthermore, she emphasizes that in addition to maintaining rational thinking, it is crucial to retain a highly emotional side, possess a vast imagination, and exhibit strong creativity—these are the foundations for excelling in this field.
Just as the saying goes, "Dare to ask where the road lies ahead," Zhou Yanyang and her students continue to explore on the path of exhibition design, driven by their passionate hearts, evoking resonance from countless souls.
This is the power of a teacher.
