Mandarin MADMEN

New exhibit showcases the work of Chinese advertising students

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The daily inundation of advertisements — on computers, televisions, on the commute — has made it easy to tune out or ignore these constant messages. Visitors to Michigan State University’s Communication Arts and Sciences Building, however, may want to stop and pay attention. “Seeing Differently: Solving Communication Problems from Two Sides of the World,” an exhibit opening Sunday, features works from some of China’s premier advertising students.

While this may not be a traditional art exhibit, organizer Henry Brimmer said visitors still will see a high level of artistry on display.

“We call it applied art,” he said. “Calling it commercial art is too harsh.”

Brimmer, assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Advertising and Public Relations, has developed a fruitful relationship with schools in China.

“I started working with universities in China three years ago,” Brimmer said. “I was invited to present my ArtPrize piece at Shanghai’s WPP School of Marketing and Communication.”

That piece was Brimmer’s 2012 ArtPrize entry, “gravity matters little.” The work featured a human-like figure dangling from a tight rope strung between two downtown buildings — a full 175 feet above the streets of Grand Rapids.

Building on the relationships started at that presentation, Brimmer took eight MSU students to China last year to collaborate with, and compete against, 300 of China’s most talented advertising students.

This year, Brimmer is bringing the work of these Chinese students to MSU’s campus.

“I solicited this work while I was in China,” he said. “These are selections from some of the best university students in the country.”

The works come from the students from more than a dozen Chinese universities, including WPP School of Marketing and Design — a joint venture between Britain’s WPP Group and Shanghai Art and Design Academy — and Shanghai Normal University.

The growth of China’s economy has been staggering, as the nation has opened itself up to the rest of the world and infused its communist philosophies with capitalist principles.

“China has been experiencing an amazing economic boom,” Brimmer said. “There has been a parallel boom in advertising. Their professional work is on par with the rest of the world.”

While he was in China, Brimmer noticed that the opening of China to European and American businesses has flooded the Chinese advertising market with Western influence.

“It’s hard to tell if there is a unique Chinese voice,” he said. “The big agencies have opened offices in China, and their advertising looks very Western. They still follow the branding they’ve established worldwide.”

While these multinational corporations have placed an emphasis on clean, eye-catching imagery, Brimmer noticed a different approach taken by smaller, Chinabased businesses.

“The ads are very text driven,” he said. “Very much in school of ‘more is more.’”

Brimmer believes that the rise of the internet — even the heavily censored version available in China — and the increasing ease of international travel have leveled the playing field for advertising students and professionals in China.

“It’s a shrinking world, with lots of crisscrossing influences,” he said. “The whole world is linked now.”

Seeing Differently: Solving Communication Problems from Two Sides of the World

Mar. 1-June 1 Communication Arts and Sciences Building 404 Wilson Road, East Lansing

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