How Collage Design Creates Layers of Meaning拼贴设计如何生成多层含义

The beauty of collage design is that there are no rules. It is an extremely freeing form of design with endless possibilities—each added element fleshes out1 the new world you’re building on the page or the screen.

拼贴设计之美在于不讲究章法。这种设计形式不受任何拘束，具有无限可能——每添加一种元素，都会使你在页面或屏幕上建构的新世界更加丰富。

It’s no surprise that collage continues to be a popular and widely recognized form of contemporary design， constantly evolving as new technologies enable it to evolve.

并不意外的是，拼贴这种设计形式在当代依然盛行，并且广受认可，新技术助其不断改良。

You’ll see less carefully placed vintage imagery and more of an “anything goes” attitude： playful mark-making， abstract photography clippings and tons of texture.

你看到的复古风图像并未经过精心排布，更多地流露出一种“随性”的格调，通过俏皮的标记绘制、抽象的摄影剪裁、厚重的质感得以呈现。

In a world where climate and economic realities drive us to be more resourceful， contemporary collage design utilizes the materials all around us and boldly illustrates our modern culture.

世界所面临的气候和经济现状迫使我们想办法物尽其用，而当代拼贴设计正是利用我们身边随处可见的材料来大胆呈现现代文化。

In this article， we’ll look at how new collage trends are being used in today’s graphic design.

本文将一睹拼贴新时尚是如何应用于当今平面设计的。

Types of collage art

拼贴艺术的类型

There are many different styles and expressions of collage， ranging from its humble arts and crafts beginning to cutting edge graphic design and illustration.

拼贴风格迥异，表现形式多样，既可见于早期的简易手工艺，也出现在最前沿的平面设计和插图中。

Paper collage

纸张拼贴

Paper collage， otherwise known as analog collage， is the original form of collage art.

纸张拼贴也叫模拟拼贴，是拼贴艺术的最初形式。

Whether you are cutting images out of old books or working like Matisse2 and cutting shapes out of painted paper， paper collage is the prototypical form of collage.

无论是从旧书上剪下图片，还是像马蒂斯一样将彩纸裁出不同形状，纸张拼贴可谓最原始的拼贴形式。

It’s also the kind of collage art that’s trending most now. Ripped， raw paper shreds are a clear contrast to the seamless， tidy look achieved with design software. It feels authentic because this kind of art requires the creator to work with their hands， physically tearing paper and arranging it just so3.

这也是时下最流行的一类拼贴艺术。带有自然撕痕的纸片与那种用设计软件美缝后的整齐外观形成鲜明对照。纸张拼贴给人以真实感，因为这种艺术需要动手实操。制作者要将纸张撕开，然后将撕得的纸片按设计条理排布。

Designers are fairly limited with paper collage in that they can only compose with the materials they can find. However， this constraint can drive creativity by forcing the designer to find unconventional ways to express ideas. This might mean combining two separate images to create something completely new， like combining a set of bird wings with a bus for a creative take on4 an airplane or using different colors to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface.

纸张拼贴非常受限，设计师只能用可找到的材料加以创作。然而，这种局限性反倒能激发创造力，迫使设计师通过非常规方式表达思想。这可能意味着将两张互不相干的图像组合起来，创作出全新的作品。比如把鸟儿的双翅拼贴到公交车上作为对飞机的创意性演绎，或是用不同颜色在平面上制造出纵深的错觉。

Digital collage

数码拼贴

Digital collage is an entirely different beast5 to paper collage because there are no physical materials—and none of the constraint that comes with using them. With digital collage design， unique images are created by using software like Photoshop to alter textures， layer multiple photos and illustrations and distort source material. The effect is usually a lot sharper and modern-looking than a paper collage， but it often lacks the tactile quality of paper collage.

数码拼贴与纸张拼贴截然不同，因为它无需实物材料，因而在材料的使用上也就摆脱了局限性。数码拼贴设计可利用Photoshop等软件改变图片的质感、叠放多张照片或插图、改变原材料的外形，从而生成独一无二的图像。相较纸张拼贴，数码拼贴的效果通常更为强烈，看上去也更具现代感，但往往缺少纸张拼贴的质感。

Mixing materials： the key to all collage art

材料混搭：全部拼贴艺术的关键

Although we said earlier there are no rules to collage art， there’s actually one rule： be creative. Designers aren’t limited to paper and photography in their collage designs; many mix drawing， brush strokes and a variety of textures to build their designs.

前文讲到拼贴艺术不讲究章法，但实际上有一条章法：要富有创意。在设计拼贴作品时，设计师不拘于用纸和照片，许多人会将素描、各种笔触和多种质地的材料混搭创作。

The better you understand collage art， the more you’ll notice just how pervasive it is in pop culture and your day-to-day life. That intriguing book cover you saw last weekend， the striking packaging design on the overpriced craft IPA6 you’re sipping， that kaleidoscopic7 album cover you couldn’t stop staring at…collage art is everywhere.

对拼贴艺术了解越多，就越能注意到它普遍存在于流行文化和日常生活中。无论是上周末你看到的令人着迷的图书封面，还是正在啜饮的高价精酿印度淡啤夺人眼球的包装设计，抑或是让人无法移开目光的五彩缤纷的专辑封面，你会发现，拼贴艺术无处不在。

Take a look at a few of the places it’s trending hardest with designers：

不妨看一下设计师眼中最能引导潮流的几个拼贴艺术领域：

Collage in book cover design

拼贴用于图书封面设计

Collage is a great art form for book cover design because with it， there are lots of ways to illustrate a book’s content and touch on its themes. And there’s something a little bit daring about using ripped paper to create a book cover design—so many readers think of tearing book pages as sacrilegious8， so seeing a design made of paper shards elicits an almost visceral9， definitely eye-grabbing response.

对于图书封面设计而言，拼贴不失为一种极佳的艺术形式，因为可以通过多种方式呈现图书内容、触及图书主题。用撕开的纸张设计图书封面略显大胆，毕竟太多的读者会认为撕毁书页属亵渎行为。正因如此，这种纸片设计的视觉冲击力会直抵读者内心，牢牢抓住读者的眼球。

Rather than creating seamless imagery， today’s paper collage trend sees book cover designers confidently owning the rips in paper and the shadows they cast onto their compositions， making the book covers really stand out in a book shop. The expressive， artsy quality of playful paper collage also makes it ideal for editorial illustrations and magazine covers.