Now on show in Shenzhen: FLOW, China’s first international motion design exhibition (until January 5, 2023). The exhibition is a collaboration between “the Chinese curator Liu Gang” of The Pin Projects and motion designer Roy Terhorst, partner at the Amsterdam design agency Thonik. FLOW shows the avant-garde in motion design from three continents.

It is the momentum for motion design that has unleashed a new revolution in the graphic arts field and is growing into a mature culture. The constantly innovative and as yet unexplored, surprising possibilities that this relatively young field offers, and the urge of many creative motion designers to experiment freely and stimulate each other, are the motivations for the two curators to initiate FLOW.

Terhorst: “I have been a fan of the selected designers for a long time and have followed them for years. We follow each other’s work on Instagram and on WeChat. We wanted to bring those two virtual places together in one physical space. This way the designers can meet and inspire each other, they can show their work side by side and reflect on our discipline.”

Liu Gang: “As a Chinese curator, I realized that graphic design has changed from a traditional graphic design to a complete communication and social system. Motion Graphic is not only just serving one company or brand, but changing the history of graphic design. By curating this exhibition, we can provide the audience with diverse viewing angles, and to reflect on the popularity of motion graphics and what changes it brings to the future of design and people’s lives, and thus, discovering more possibilities for design and life.”

The two curators selected a group of about 25 established and less well-known names who share a love for graphic and motion design and together show the breadth and richness of the field – from Korea, Japan and China to Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and the United States.

They are designers who possess a high degree of craftsmanship, who show progressive animated designs or present us a convincing and substantive translation of a message. They are designers who know how to use the new tools in the most beautiful ways and who experiment, such as Zach Liebermann, who, inspired by experimental film and animation from the early days, creates a kind of moving paintings. Roy Terhorst also shows free and experimental work by using new techniques and his love for letters. Some know how to make the most beautiful graphic posters with animation, as the Swiss Erich Brechbühl does. Others take photography as a starting point, such as Dirk Koy and 3D characters, such as Lucas Zanotto. They are all animated works of art that immediately catch the eye.

Come to Shenzhen and see the works of: A BLACK COVER DESIGN, another design, Cecilia Erlich, Connor Campbell, Daniël Maarleveld, DIA studio, Dirk Koy, Erich Brechbühl, Jennifer Sterling, Kiel D. Mutschelknaus, Kyuha Shim, Lucas Zanotto, Ordinary People, ReflexDesign, Rob en Robin, Simon François, Studio Dumbar/DEPT®, Studio Feixen, STUDIO NA.EO, Thonik, Tomohiro Okazaki, Transwhite Studio, Xavier Monney, Yehwan Song, Zach Lieberman.

FLOW, till January 5, 2023 C2 Space, North District, creative hub OCT-LOFT, Shenzhen, China www.octloft.cn