Bringing the World Back to Wenzhou
把“世界”带回温州
llustration for《恰天光 VOL.3》
One of the interesting things about illustration projects is that you often get to explore areas you wouldn't normally encounter in daily life.
This time, the illustration commission was to create illustrated maps for the third issue of the Wenzhou local publication《恰天光（kha thi kuɔ）》. While called maps, they serve more than just marking locations and routes. The four maps represent four routes for exploring Wenzhou, and they also act as the publication's table of contents, unfolding Wenzhou from four different perspectives.
In the conceptualization process, I aimed to maximize the sense of "worldliness" that Wenzhou creates by piecing together various elements: a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, a Malaysian menu, a coffee shop filled with crystal chandeliers and replicas of famous paintings, or an elderly band playing the erhu and cello in a park. Between these elements, I placed "the people of Wenzhou," connecting them to form this pieced-together "world."
The maps are designed to twist and fold; folding them inwards reveals a textual overview of the four routes, while unfolding them reveals the route scenes pieced together from the elements. The front features an illustration, while the back includes a route map and information labels.
在插画项目中，有趣的事情是你经常可以跟随项目去了解本来生活中不太会接触到的领域。
这一次接到的插画委托，是给温州在地刊物《恰天光》第三期绘制插画地图。它说是地图，但也不仅仅只承担标注地点和路线的作用。四张地图代表了探索温州的四条路线，它们同时也是刊物的目录线索，是从四个不同角度展开的温州。
在构思的过程里，希望最大化体现出温州用各种元素拼凑出的“世界感”：可能是复制的凯旋门、是来自马来西亚的菜谱、是充满水晶灯和复制名画的咖啡店，是在公园拉着二胡和大提琴的老年人乐团。在元素和元素之间，我把“温州人们”放置其中，串联起这个拼凑的“世界”。
地图被设计成可折叠的方式，往内收缩看到四条路线的文字概览，往外展开则看到元素拼凑成的路线图景。正面是插画，背面是路线地图和信息标注。
*Image 01 was taken by 恰天光（kha thi kuɔ）.
