On walking into the exhibition hall, everyone’s attention was immediately caught by a variety of innovative products. Human body model made of wasted bottles, colorful plates with totems of Chinese family names, comic books adapted from Chinese ancient mythology…All these products are designed by graduates from School of Urban Design, School of Printing and Packing and Advertising Department.

On June 8th, 2015 WHU Creative Graduation Design Festival opened, held by the undergraduate school, undertaken by School of Urban Design. The design products of this year’s graduation are being displayed in Wanlin Art Museum and the College Entrepreneurship Center, in an exhibition lasting for 21 days.

At the opening ceremony, Vice President Zhou Yezhong pointed out that the innovative graduation design products demonstrated the strenuous efforts of graduates throughout four years and the good results of the teaching work and the personnel training of the schools. Impressed by the vigour and creativity of the products, he was convinced that graduates would be able to serve society with their knowledge and skills, making their alma mater proud.

The festival consists of three parts: graduation design product exhibition, public defence and academic lectures. In addition to the exhibition, outside experts will be invited to attend the public defence and a group of well-known scholars from home and abroad will deliver lectures on special topics. Through a series of creative cultural activities, the festival aspires to build up a creative platform for college students to showcase themselves and exchange academic ideas.

The magic tea table with board games

The creative graduation design exhibition attracted hordes of visitors. Almost everyone was thrilled by the products. When asked which product was most appealing, Jiajing Gu, a junior student from School of Economics and Management replied without hesitation, “The tea table.” She excitedly pulled out the flat drawers of the tea table, which turned out to be chessboards, and showed some other popular board games attached to the table. “It’s very practical and funny. I’d like to have one at home.”

The plates with colorful totems of Chinese family names

A sophomore from School of Law, Ya Tian preferred the plates with totems of Chinese family names. The designer extracted the elements of some common Chinese family names’ to create totems, and then integrated those  into the characters of the family names through design and transformation. “It shows the ancient totems and origins of some Chinese family names, narrowing the distance between us and our ancestors,” He also added, “I hope more creative activities like this will be hosted. It’s very inspiring and meaningful.”

Human body model made of wasted bottles

(Rewritten by Min Song, edited by Diana & Sijia Hu)