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

珍妮弗·贝利/文　丁婷/译

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.

拼貼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.

對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.

从当下纸张拼贴趋势看，它不打造无缝图像，而是让图书封面设计师自信地利用纸张撕痕及其投射在作品上的阴影，使其设计的图书封面在书店里格外显眼。俏皮的纸张拼贴兼具表現力和艺术性，因而也成为编辑性插图和杂志封面的理想选择。

Editorial collage design

编辑性拼贴设计

As we mentioned earlier， collage design works perfectly for editorial illustrations because the layered elements make images feel like they’re jumping off the page. You’ll find collage illustrations in glossy10 fashion magazines， newspapers and blog posts.

如前文所述，拼贴设计完美契合于编辑性插图，因为层次分明的元素让图像呼之欲出。光泽熠熠的时尚杂志、报纸和博文中都能见到拼贴插图的影子。

Color blocking11， psychedelic12 layering and colorful paper cutouts stand out and encourage the reader to pause on the page and enjoy the article. In many editorial collage designs， the collage is used to create a sense of movement that brings the article it’s accompanying to life.

色块、引发幻觉的分层设计，以及彩色剪纸图样，无不夺人眼目，促使读者停留于页面，从而欣赏全文。在很多编辑性拼贴设计中，拼贴都用于营造动感，让所配文章变得更加鲜活。

Collage in brand design

拼贴用于品牌设计

The inherent arts and crafts nature of collage design shows consumers that any product bearing it is alternative and designed with boutique13 buyers in mind. This kind of beautifully designed packaging sticks out to people who are inclined to spend extra on luxury quality goods， which are often goods handcrafted in small batches.

拼贴设计固有的艺术性和工艺性让消费者看到，任何带有拼贴元素的产品都是别具一格的，是有意为精品店的买家而设计。这种设计精美的包装十分醒目，足以吸引那些有意花高价购买上乘奢侈品的买主，而这些奢侈品往往是小批量手工制作的。

There are lots of ways brands can use collage art to communicate that their products aren’t the same as their competitors： playful paper-cut characters， organic paper textures， vintage imagery， layers upon layers of different colors and patterns and juxtaposing contrasting images to create intriguing combinations.

品牌方可采取多种方式利用拼贴艺术来表现其产品不同于竞争对手之处：俏皮的剪纸人物、自然的纸张质感、复古风图像、层层叠叠的不同颜色和图案，以及并列排布的对照图像，都可用于生成令人着迷的组合。

Collage in music artwork

拼贴用于专辑封面

In recent years， there’s been a huge resurgence of vinyl sales. A big part of that resurgence is that with records， the album artwork is often almost as prized as the music itself.

近年来，黑胶唱片的销量大幅回升，其中一个重要原因在于，就唱片而言，其专辑的艺术设计往往与音乐本身几乎同样珍贵。

Similar to book cover， editorial and brand design， collage art is a popular way for designers to make album artwork stand out in the crowd and entice audiences. Both analog and digital collage lend themselves well to14 alternative music genres because they can visually represent the music on these albums.

与图书封面设计、编辑性设计和品牌设计相仿，专辑封面设计师也酷爱用拼贴艺术使专辑的艺术设计独树一帜，从而对受众产生诱导作用。模拟拼贴和数码拼贴都非常适合于另类音乐风格，因为二者可在视觉上表现专辑中的音乐。

A common feature of collage design is its psychedelic nature. Using contrasting elements of photography gives an album an otherworldly feel; an atmos-phere you can’t quite put your finger on15.

拼贴设计的常见特点在于其致幻性。形成反差的摄影元素赋予专辑超凡脱俗之感，营造出一种难以名状的氛围。

Get a one-of-a-kind16 look with collage art

拼贴艺术打造独一无二的外观

Collage design is a joyful， expressive and freeing form of art. Using collage art in your design is a sure way to signal to viewers that you are offering something unique， something that was created with care， rather than something mass-produced.

拼貼设计是一种愉悦心情、富有表现力且不受拘束的艺术形式。在设计中使用拼贴艺术一定会向观者传递如下信号：你展现的是独一无二、精心打造的作品，绝非批量化产物。

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者；单位：中国进出口银行）

1 flesh out以细节（或信息）充实。

2亨利·马蒂斯（Henry Matisse，1869—1954），法国画家，20世纪首个现代艺术流派“野兽派”创始人。20世纪40年代马蒂斯开始剪纸，其作品以简洁的造型、大胆的色彩、和谐的构图、优美的装饰效果著称。  3 just so（做或安排得）井井有条，有条不紊。  4 take on sth呈现某种特征。

5 beast（含诙谐意）有特定性质的事物。  6 印度淡色啤酒，全称India pale ale，最早见于18世纪早期，由英国向其印度殖民地出口。该酒颜色较淡，具有浓郁的香气和独特的苦味。  7 kaleidoscopic万花筒似的，千变万化的。

8 sacrilegious （对圣物或圣地）亵渎的。  9 visceral（未经过认真思考而）出自内心的，发自肺腑的。

10 glossy 光滑的，光彩夺目的；有光泽的。  11 color blocking色块，指对色轮上相反颜色的选择，并将它们配对以形成有趣的互补色组合的艺术手法。  12 psychedelic 引起幻觉的，使人精神恍惚的。  13 boutique 时装店；精品店。

14 lend itself to适合于。  15 put one’s finger on 准确地指出，发现，点明。  16 one-of-a-kind 独特的，独一无二的。