Dessert Flower

Desert Flower was created during my first month after moving from Taipei to Los Angeles in 2019. The dry air, intense sunlight, and desert landscape felt almost alien compared to the humid tropical density of Taiwan. I remember waking up and seeing the shadow of a tree move across my bedroom wall - something unfamiliar to someone raised among Taipei’s dense high-rises.

Using locally picked flowers and experimental image-making techniques, this project became a reflection on displacement, environmental change, and how landscape shapes visual language. The work was developed alongside my research on California graphic design history through Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936–1986, exploring how climate, geography, and culture influence
aesthetic identity.

Book Review

Book Title: Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936-1986
Authors: Louise Sandhaus, Denise Gonzales Crisp, Lorraine Wild

Glaciers, Geysers, Typhoons, and Tropical Islands

What is the origin story of digital art? How did California become the home of pioneers that pushed the experimentation of digital art from image design to video productions? To understand the background of the graphic design industry in California, Lousie Sandhaus writes in detail on what sets Los Angeles apart from the east coast, and even European modernism design styles that set the precedent. Every location has special characteristics, like climate and human capital that create cultural hotspots we will compare to understand the specializations of the golden state, California. To settle on a certain category of design, motion graphics is a great example of organic California produce, and we will serve dishes of heirloom history and modern day hybrids for a taste of where the field is going. And finally, the dinner would not be complete without a word from the chef, many female designers that have taken advantage of the freedoms in California to set styles and break boundaries for new designers to follow their lead.

1. Disney to Dieting: The Land of Image Worship

When we think of the west coast, Disney has long been a representation of the imagination, creativity and the willingness to dream first and then make reality happen according to that plan. Why can such a visual-forward culture be so successful here? Even today, the importance of image and appearance are evident in lifestyles representative of the region such as athleisure to high end fashion, bodybuilding to yoga, and from nail manicures to plastic surgery. The spirit to boldly shape and design your image runs in almost every aspect of life, especially in this beach body environment. In terms of designers practice, “Lustig recognised California as a place free from the burden of the European cultural ideas that dominated the east coast, and he credited this liberation for his ability to ‘see freshly and unencumbered’” writes Sandhaus in describing Alvin Lustig’s “crucial role in giving American design a modern face.” The fact that California began to originate new and unconventional styles was faced with some criticism from the established design community. On the works of Merle Armitage: “He was considered by traditional designers to be an outlaw and was often criticized, but he could not have cared less. He helped liberate American book typography from convention.” The printing industry at the time, was primarily located on the opposite coast of the US, so the fact that design progress could occur without being located in the heart of this industry shows that these outlaws didn’t need to be in the center of the production to start making an impact on the American vernacular. You need to know the rules in order to break them. The maverick spirit in California was not
without respect for the fundamentals, in fact Keith Godard and Louis Danziger, of CalArts, are credited with beginning what may be the first class to teach the history of graphic design in the entire United States.

2. Glaciers, Geysers, Typhoons, and Tropical Islands

Regional influence on aesthetic vernacular is an insightful way to compare the independent styles and factors that give California its unique palette. How does the landscape that artists reside permeate into the work they create? To expand along this line of inquiry, I will draw comparisons from two opposing ends of the geographical spectrum: my home country of semi-tropical Taiwan, and the subpolar oceanic nation of Iceland. Starting from the top, Icelandic visual arts and media have always been in the back of my mind because of their floating rhythms, muted earth tone colors, and surreal 1Bjork-esqe costumes that contain distinctive, almost spiritual charm. California, on the other land, and its love for sunset-sherbert-citrus orange can be partially attributed to the oceanside landscape and year round beach going culture that has grown along the west coast. For example, the emblematic poster by Jon Van Hamersveld: The Endless Summer. This visual inspiration contains more though, “The bright palette refers not only to sunlight and reflections and flora, then, but to the local culture(s) and an extreme degree of social diversity, too.” For example, California is also the mixing pot of eastern, western and indigenous american cultures, with a social “temperature” warm enough to melt into a distinct style. Turning the temperature up a few more degrees, our next destination approaches: Taiwan. In contrast to the steady stream of good vibes in Cali, Taiwan is a torrent of sensations: scorching summer heat, frequent powerful typhoons and sweltering tropical humidity. This spirit appears in the visual language of our traditional ceremonies. Temples are adorned in a rainbow of intricate caricature sculptures, costumed Din Tao performers take on the form of giant gods with face paint designed to frighten ghosts, and the show often includes the intense sounds, smell and smoke of firecrackers exploding in piles of fire and light. It is not uncommon for Han Dan performers to be burned, bruised or temporarily deafened in the mayhem of celebration. The modern example of this spirit can be seen in 2Taiwan Pavillion’s Eatopia video for the London Design Biennale, showing traditional culture applied to the post-modern future.

3. Mercury, Mars and Earth

When I first arrived at Calarts in the dry summer heat, the desert landscape scenery could have been Mars, and local artists certainly have created some “far-out” designs. Dating back to Harry Smith, whose pre-psychedelic short film Circular Tensions, was a prophetic visualization of the hallucinogen inspired visual language soon to be born in the free and funky California. In the notion of each of these design cultures as alien planets, Iceland would be the barren, isolated Mercury with even more out of this world experimentation, like 3Sigur Rós taking their celestial music and videos into an obscure vacuum-like, deconstructive dimension. The design style of Iceland is not only about simplicity, but rather a clean style that emphasizes its focal point. Imagine, a vast monocolored glacier guiding the observer's attention to the powerful waterfall slowly cutting through the ice; the experience of something so huge becomes encapsulated in the slightest environmental sensations like that of mist on our face, or the echoing sound of this scene. Then, of course what appears like planet Earth to me would be Taiwan because its lush greenhouse climate and densely packed urban landscape is where I grew up. A distinguishing factor of the design industry here is that we don’t have a media corporation like Disney, etc to unify such large scale teams of designers. Our network of local studios primarily focus on small projects until collaborations are arranged for an international event, like the Golden Horse Awards that make Taipei a cultural Hollywood for the greater Chinese community. In terms of local, indie artists, I have collaborated with the band 4Amazing Show to create a modern interpretation of the local specialization: sensory overload. Using an abundance of LEDs packed into custom electronic instruments, the band experiments with natural sound, programmed light and costume teleported from eras-past to bring our nostalgia into the future. This is the impact of cultural landscape on design language.

1 Björk's music as art: https://www.dw.com/en/bj%C3%B6rks-music-as-art/a-18303597

2 Shikai- EATOPIA 修龍 : http://www.shikai.tw/eatopia

3 Double J- How Sigur Rós' music expresses what language cannot: https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/music-reads/features/sigur-ros-j-files-feature/11182438

4 Taiwanbeats- The Amazing Show: https://taiwanbeats.tw/archives/artist/the-amazing-show

In Conclusion

California, the home of entertainment in film, print and parks and its ecosystem of supporting production teams has provided a fertile ground for new styles of design to take root. From the pioneer John Whitney taking an experimental leap to open the era of computer art, and then to David Theurer taking digital art to the next level of immersive experience in the I, Robot arcade-game graphics. The radical freedoms and rebellious local spirit encouraged designers here to take on new missions to discover aesthetic possibility thus blossoming into distinguished, stunning desert flowers.

Lily Yeh

Lily Yeh

Dessert Flower