Inspiration Development of Environmental Art Design

Fan Cunjiang

Art College of Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan, 475000, China

Keywords: Environmental Art, Design Inspiration, Personnel Training, Inspiration Development.

Abstract: Concept of environmental art has emerged early in China. However, environmental art design is still an

emerging industry due to short-time development as a discipline. As a multidisciplinary and wide-ranging

interdisciplinary subject, environmental art design has new higher requirements for practitioners. The work

analyzed environmental art design and the essential quality and design inspiration development of its

designers, thus providing help for cultivation of design talents and development of environmental art design

industry

1 INTRODUCTION

Environmental art design covers areas of urban

planning, environmental aesthetics, architecture and

gardens. The development of environmental art

design plays an important role in landscaping and

harmony between human and nature, promoting the

improvement of people's life quality and sustainable

development of economy and society.

Environmental art has emerged in ancient times.

People began to explore the harmony between

human and nature, using related knowledge to

construct a series of major projects conforming to

modern environmental art. For example, the existing

"Tai Chi Villages" reflect the harmony between

human and nature in planning. However, with the

blind pursuit of economic development, emphasis on

the environment has been decreased, thus leading to

a series of discordant problems. Recently, people

began to re-examine their own behavior with the

increasing conflict between human and nature,

regarding environmental art design as an urgent

mission.

2 ENVIRONMENTAL ART

DESIGN AND ITS

DEVELOPMENT

The term environmental art has emerged for a long

time, but there are vague understandings and

misconceptions on environmental art design in

reality. The term environment can be referred to the

entire universe as well as a small house.

Environmental art design includes environmental

beautification and reform, and harmony between

human and nature. It is an interdisciplinary and

multidisciplinary subject, involving many disciplines

and fields of art, decoration, gardening, architecture,

urban planning and environmental aesthetics.

Back in the primitive society and slavery society,

people began to use existing natural conditions for

villages planning and urban layout. This is the first

case of environmental art design. For example, the

capital of Shang Dynasty, Yin, was formed along

Huan River; the Eastern Han capital Luoyang was

reasonably located between Mangshan and Luoshui.

People took the initiative in the environment design

based on harmony with nature and use of nature.

Besides aesthetics, environmental art design

should follow natural laws in favor of harmony

between man and nature. The book "Zhou Yi" with

study of Yin-Yang can be seen as the first teaching

material of environmental art design. Moreover,

ancient China had designed a series of villages using

Yin-Yang theory, such as "Tai Chi Village". These

beautiful villages were consistent with the laws of

nature, facilitating people's lives.

However, entering modern history with the

development of Western civilization, people paid

more attention to economic interests. They began the

predatory exploitation of the nature, more concerned

about maximizing benefits rather than environmental

art and harmony of human and nature. This behavior

and ideology led to tensions of relationship between

man and nature. With the development of economy,

the rapidly deteriorating environment sounded the

alarm to people again and again. Finally, the

304

Cunjiang F.

Inspiration Development of Environmental Art Design.

DOI: 10.5220/0006024803040307

In Proceedings of the Information Science and Management Engineering III (ISME 2015), pages 304-307

ISBN: 978-989-758-163-2

importance of sustainable development was realized

by people, thus resulting in the development of

environmental art design as a major.

3 CHARACTERISTICS OF

ENVIRONMENTAL ART

DESIGN

3.1 Integrity and Systematicness

Environmental art design can be classified into

indoor and outdoor environmental design. If further

subdivided, it also involves fields of landscaping,

gardens, urban landscaping, urban planning,

architecture and decoration. Therefore,

environmental art design possesses strong integrity

as a profession or as an industry. The different areas

and knowledge cannot be isolated from each other

since it is a major, thus environmental art design has

systematicness.

3.2 Scientificity and Artistry

Environmental art design firstly involves

"environment". Environment should be insistently

protected in line with harmony between human and

nature, conforming to the laws of nature. Therefore,

one requirement of environmental design is

scientificity to enable its feasibility. Different from

simple environmental protection, environmental art

design should comply with the laws of nature,

possessing artistry, ornamental value and sense of

beauty. Environmental art also pursues beauty as an

“art”, seeking another kind of harmony. Thus,

environmental art design is a subject focusing on

scientificity and artistic beauty.

3.3 Novelty and Creativity

Stereotyped environmental design will lead to

aesthetic fatigue, without satisfying the

characteristics of times and practical needs. As a

mature and practical discipline, environmental art

design has novelty and creativity, thus ensuring the

achievement of other features and healthy growth of

environmental art design.

3.4 Pertinence and Profession

Environmental art design includes indoor and

outdoor design, natural environment and cultural

environment, as well as urban planning and garden

design. Different areas have different specific

requirements. Environmental art design makes

targeted and professional programs according to

characteristics of different areas. In other words,

current environment design is no longer the practice

spontaneously or simply following the nature as the

ancient times, but forming a major as well as an

industry. Conducted by professional environmental

art designers, environmental art design reflects the

profession of work forms and contents. The

pertinence and profession are conducive to division

of labor and enhancement of efficiency, ensuring the

quality of environment art design.

4 NECESSARY QUALITIES OF

ENVIRONMENTAL ART

DESIGNER

Any work is done by people, thus the efficiency and

quality of work are directly determined by

personnel's quality. Environmental art designers

need to have necessary qualities.

4.1 Professionalism and Enthusiasm

Professionalism and enthusiasm are necessary for

practitioners of any industries, thus mobilizing every

cell to contribute him into work. Environmental art

designers also need to have professionalism with full

love in their work, integrating themselves with

environmental art design.

4.2 Innovative Spirit

Environmental art design has features of scientificity

and artistry as well as novelty and creativity.

Environmental art designer is the direct perpetrator

of environmental art design. Only with innovative

spirit and the courage to break the routine and

stereotypes can they make the design accord with

characteristics of the times and customer

requirements.

4.3 Keen Observation and Strong

Learning Ability

Keen observation is necessary for environmental art

designers to deeply analyze the environment and

relationship between environment and designing

project, thus designing a program as perfect as

possible. Meanwhile, others’ work is also the

reference of making design. Designers should

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Inspiration Development of Environmental Art Design

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possess strong learning ability, seeking advantages

and lessons from others’ work through careful

observation and analysis. Using these strengths and

lessons in their own work, the advantages can be

fully played with reduction of unnecessary mistakes.

4.4 Strong Ability of Computer

Application

The renderings of design need to be completed by a

computer. The computer-generated renderings are

conductive to customers’ better understanding and

acceptance of the design. Meanwhile, the rationality

of design needs to be inspected, but practice of every

test will cause irreparable loss. Computer technology

can be used for simulate test, discovering the

strengths and vulnerabilities for modification. Thus,

the advantage can be expanded with bug fixes,

ultimately achieving optimal results of the design as

much as possible.

4.5 Strong Expression Skills

The design should be expressed through language

and other forms, achieving understanding and

acceptance of customers. Thus it requires strong

language skills of environmental art designers.

Meanwhile, consumer psychology need to be

studied, which is conducive to the enhancement of

ability and effect of language and expression.

4.6 Perfect Knowledge Structure and

Excellent Operational Capabilities

Only with perfect knowledge structure and excellent

operational capabilities can environmental art

designer fundamentally solve problems in design.

Thus good program can be really designed with

customers’ acceptance. Meanwhile, perfect

knowledge structure and excellent operational

capabilities are also basis of other capabilities

above—namely other capabilities will be useless

without these capabilities.

5 INSPIRATION DEVELOPMENT

OF ENVIRONMENTAL ART

DESIGN

People are familiar with Edison's “Genius is one

percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent

perspiration”. However, perspiration will not work

without inspiration. For environmental art design as

an "art", inspiration is inseparable. Then how to

develop inspiration?

5.1 Enriching Knowledge and Literacy

The advents of famous achievements are inseparable

from inspiration, such as the inventions of Thomas

Edison and Newton's discovery of laws of

mechanics, popular poetries of great poet Li Bai, and

Titian's famous paintings. However, inspiration

cannot be generated without rich knowledge—far-

fetched fantasy cannot be applied into reality.

Environmental art designers should have deep

"skills" with broad range of relevant knowledge.

Inspiration will be generated by chance when the

knowledge is absorbed. In other words, rich

knowledge is a preparation for developing

inspiration. Only with wealth of knowledge and high

artistic accomplishment will inspiration no longer be

generated by coincidence.

5.2 Developing Design Inspiration in

Life

The design separated from life will not last for long

time as water without source and tree without roots.

Designers should often deeply feel the true meaning

of life, continually absorbing nutrients and

inspiration from life. Any art forms are difficult to

achieve success without realistic life.

In addition to mastering relevant theoretical

knowledge, a qualified environmental art designer

should go deep into life with better understanding. It

is necessary to understand people's aspirations with

regular social practice, field trips and experience,

helping designers learn wisdom and inspiration from

life.

5.3 Obtaining Inspiration in Careful

Observation

Cultivation of any skills and ability is inseparable

from careful observation. Only with careful

observation can designers discover beauty with

inspiration. Scientificity of environmental art design

requires careful observation to discover the laws of

nature, the relationship between design and natural

environment, as well as cultural environment and

customer needs, thus generating required and

scientific inspiration.

Art emphasizes on delicate operation and

observation, so does environmental art design.

Designers can appreciate the beauty of targeted

object in careful observation, generating design

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inspiration in the experience of beauty with true

artworks.

5.4 Obtaining Inspiration in

Appreciation and Learning

The ability of appreciating the beauty is necessary to

create beautiful things. Environmental art designers

should appreciate the beauty of nature, city and

building, thus discovering beauty with creation.

Great achievements are not produced in closed

doors—inspiration is difficult to be generated in

single research without learning. As Newton said,

his great achievements resulted from “standing on

the shoulders of giants”. Environmental art designers

should also make use of "giants". Qualified

environmental art designers are personnel with

meticulous observation and careful appreciation,

learning scientific and excellent parts from others’

achievements. Meanwhile, deficiencies and

omissions in others’ design should be supplemented,

thus making own design inspiration into practical

use through learning from others' achievements.

5.5 Grasping Inspiration and Insight

Inspiration and insight have a very important role in

environmental art designs. In addition to cultivation,

inspiration and insight should also be timely grasped

to function due to their short-time and accidental

emergence. Designers should make full preparation

with hard work. The inspiration should be timely

recorded with application, avoiding disappearance of

the hard-won inspiration.

6 CONCLUSIONS

In summary, the importance of environmental art

design will be increasingly significant in future

social development. It has a great impact on

promotion of harmony between man and nature, as

well as improvement of sustainable development

and people's living standards. Environmental art

designers need to have a range of qualities and

abilities, including the indispensible design

inspiration. The development of design inspiration

should be focused from various aspects for qualified

environmental art designers.

REFERENCES

Mao Wenshi. Environment Art Design of Cultural

Buildings. Art Science and Technology, 2014 (04):

284.

Tong Yue. Effects of Behavior Patterns under Low-carbon

Economic Background on Environmental Art Design.

Art Science and Technology, 2014 (04): 283.

Wang Zhuoyi. Study on Ecology of Environmental Art

Design, Min Ying Ke Ji, 2014 (06): 276.

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Inspiration Development of Environmental Art Design

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