Thesis Statement
To create an exchangeable item that will encourage people to use the language of flowers again, while being long lasting, easily available, and personal. I will create a set of six hand-crafted notecards, each with a different flower on the front and the common name with the different cultural meanings on the inside.
Additional Project Images
Thesis installation – Final six cards with packaging, informational booklet, and polymer plate
Top Row (left to right): Lily, Lotus, Peony
Bottom Row: Narcissus, Camellia, Michaelmas Daisy
Inside text for the Camellia
A slipcover for the box containing the cards and booklet
Ribbon for extracting cards and booklet
Inside of the packaging
Presentation Video
Project Narrative
Background Information
My curiosity for this unique form of communication began after I read the fictional novel The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I wondered if this form of language actually existed at any point in history, and if so, was it location specific? This lead to further research, and eventually it is what fueled my senior graphic design thesis.
Research
In history, many cultures share the idea of exchanging specific flowers which hold special meanings. There are a limited number of them who use this concept; the most common ones to participate are Japan, China, Korea (where flowers usually symbolize the four seasons), and France / England during the Victorian Era (which was usually used for courting or conveying intimate emotions). France My intention was to make an exchangeable item that was more readily available and that has a longer shelf life. France went so far as to circulate dictionaries that would give flowers a common meaning, and could be accurately interpreted between individuals.
Jack Goody's book of flower etiquette, and John Ingram's Flory Symbolica
Kate Greenway's dictionary of flower meanings
As seen in the images above, these are some examples of books used in France. The first one by Jack Goody was more of an etiquette book, on how to properly use the language of flowers or how to present the flowers correctly, but it was widely used. The second set of images was a dictionary of flowers and their meanings from France, with black and white decorative line drawings used as embellishment. Finally, in the second row, there is a dictionary by Kate Greenway that includes colored illustrations of flowers in use. There are other books written for the culture of Japan, China, and brief mentions of flowers from Korea in The Language of Flowers: A History by Beverly Seaton. Seaton also gives a more in depth historical synopsis of the language of flowers, and goes as far as to give a comparison chart between the Eastern and Western world. After all, not all flowers are found in every part of the world due to the climate it needs to flourish in.
Intent
My intention was to make an exchangeable item that was more readily available and that has an infinite shelf life. These notecards are the solution... Each individual one was designed and handcrafted with precision and care, focusing on six flowers that display a wide variety of meanings and cultural overlaps. These cards are meant to enhance the sender’s meaning based on each flower’s cultural significances; you can find the name of the flower with the different meanings on the inside flap of each card.
Design Process
I started with collecting images of flowers found in each culture and adding the cultural meanings underneath it. From there, I organized the images into groups based on appearance, so I could narrow down the amount of flowers based on appearance and meaning. I grouped large clusters of small white flowers together, clusters of blue or purple flowers in one category, yellow flowers found on trees in another, and so on. From there I narrowed them down based on meanings, trying to find a range of different emotions or ideas, and finally, I picked flowers that held a range of colors.
Flower images and meanings grouped based on appearance
Next, I found the specific image for the flower I would reference, and digitally traced it. That didn’t have a very hand-crafted feel, so next I printed each flower largely and traced the main petals, adding hatching marks for depth last. From there I separated the petal tracings from the hatching tracings so I could scan them in at different times and digitally trace them again. I considered adding contour lines of the foliage at one point, but over the design process I didn’t think the marks were needed.
Reference images
Tracing the flowers
When creating the flower illustrations, I knew they would be turned into polymer plates for the letterpress and had to find a way to simplify the image enough where I could make a single color print effectively. The more plates (layers) I created for a single flower, the more expensive the project would be and the more time consuming each card would get (with me hand mixing the colored inks).
Design process for the Lotus
Design process for the Camellia
Design process for the Lily
Design process for the Peony
Design process for the Michaelmas Daisy and the Narcissus
In between ordering the plates and laying out the type, I had considerations of card size, typeface (I chose from the fonts available at school), point size of the type, location of the type, and location of the imagery to make. The card size had to be able to fit in a standard envelope, so there would be no extra charge when mailing.
Next, I spent a couple days working in the letterpress room with the type and illustration plates, created the slipcover box that holds all the cards and saddle stitched the informational booklet together. Finally, the last step was to press the small book and let the ink dry on the cards.
The printing process
Conclusion
I set out to create an extremely personal artifact; I wanted to make an object that held the same concept as using the language of flowers, but something that had a longer shelf life and was more readily available, and I did. There were limitations though – time, money, and experience; I wasted a lot of time designing each flower, I took too long to focus on a direction for my project, the polymer plates were expensive, and I also had only used the letterpress once before. In the future I would like to create sets for each culture, instead of one set for multiple cultures.
Bibliography
Articles
Doyle, S. (2003). The Language of Flowers: Knowledge, Power and Ecology in Precolonial Bunyoro. History in Africa Hist. Afr., 30, 107-116. doi:10.1017/s0361541300003168
Koehn, A. (1954). Chinese flower symbolism. Tokyo: Lotus Court.
Say it with flowers! An fMRI study of object mediated communication. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X08000977
The Flowers Personified: Being a Translation of Grandville's "Les Fleurs ... : J. J. Grandville , Alphonse Karr , Taxile Delord , Nehemiah Cleaveland , Raban, Alphonse de Candolle, J. N . Gimbrede : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from https://archive.org/details/flowerspersonif00gimbgoog
Books
Diffenbaugh, V. (2011). The language of flowers: A novel. New York: Ballantine Books.
Greenaway, K. (1884). Language of flowers. London: G. Routledge and Sons.
Ingram, J. H. (1870). Flora symbolica: Or the language and sentiment of flowers. Place of publication not identified: Warne.
Powell, C. (1977). The meaning of flowers: A garland of plant lore and symbolism from popular custom & literature. London: Jupiter Books.
Seaton, B. (1995). The language of flowers: A history. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Images
Narcissus spp. Plant Profile. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://floridata.com/Plants/Amaryllidaceae/Narcissus spp./897
Piedmont Carolina Nursery » Blog Archive » Camellia japonica ‘Greensboro Red’. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.piedmontcarolina.com/plants/camellia/camellia-japonica-greensboro-red/
Pink flower European Michaelmas Daisy (Aster Amellus) on green.. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.123rf.com/photo_3346598_pink-flower-european-michaelmas-daisy-aster-amellus-on-green-blurred-background.html
Visiting a Flower Farm -- Lots of Irises & Peonies! (2013). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://janiceperson.com/travel/iris-peony-flower-farm-garden/
White Lily Stock Photos and Images. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/white_lily.html
Websites
Boxcar Press | We live and breathe letterpress. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from https://www.boxcarpress.com/
Floriography: The Language of Flowers in the Victorian Era - ProFlowers Blog. (2011). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.proflowers.com/blog/floriography-language-flowers-victorian-era
Flower Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/vanessa_diffenbaugh/flower-dictionary/
Language of flowers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_flowers
