The Prelude Exhibition of The First Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale – TopoPoster: International Poster Design Exhibition, after six months (June – December, 2025) of planning and preparation, was successfully held from December 13 to December 22, 2025. As one of the larger-scale exhibitions in recent years featuring an international selection of works in China, it showcased over 300 representative poster designs from 153 influential contemporary designers and studios active in the forefront of the field across 28 countries.

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该海报为GDCAward 23书籍封套的邀请设计，该海报折叠后也同时作为书籍内封。拿到这个设计邀请的时候，我正要去看一部电影，我的朋友看着DVD上的海报说，这一定是一部法国片。我不禁去想，GDC的全称是“平面设计在中国”，那么在中国，“平面设计”如今又是如何被设计师/艺术家与观众/使用者所定义的？又是如何与世界其他地方的平面设计产生共鸣和区别的？我想，我们的文字与图像的结合方式、中文语境的信息传达、文化中的美学的视觉呈现、以及这个时代的思考方式与关注重点都与其有关，但也不仅仅只是这样。在我的回应中，我愿意用一种非常通用的传统平面设计技能，以一种非常基础的排版形态来再现我对平面设计抽象的某些直觉——在我没有刻意去意识到它们的时候，这些东西就已经根植于我了。

This poster was designed as an invitation for the GDCAward 23 book cover, and when folded, it also functions as the book’s inner cover. When I received this design invitation, I was on my way to see a film. A friend glanced at the poster on the DVD cover and remarked, “This must be a French film.” That comment led me to reflect on the full name of GDC—Graphic Design in China—and to consider how “graphic design” is currently defined in China by designers and artists, as well as by audiences and users. How does graphic design in China resonate with, and differ from, graphic design elsewhere in the world? I believe these questions relate to, but are not limited to, the ways text and image are combined, how information is communicated within a Chinese linguistic and cultural context, the visual expression of aesthetics rooted in culture, and the modes of thinking and concerns of our time. In my response, I chose to employ a set of highly conventional, traditional graphic design skills, presenting my ideas through a fundamental typographic structure. Through this basic form, I sought to re-articulate certain intuitive, abstract understandings of graphic design—intuitions that have already taken root within me, even before I became consciously aware of them.

Lobbin Liu

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