Ding Yi: Hermes, Hermes, The First Chinese Designer.

There are several pigments on the windbreaker and a bottle of old whisky in his pocket. Ding Yi, a 45 year old painter from Shanghai, shows the unique temperament of an artist.

In April 9th, in a studio on the riverside of Suzhou, reporters saw Ding Yi, the first Chinese designer to design products for the world's top brand Hermes.

There are several pigments on the windbreaker and a bottle of old whisky in his pocket. Ding Yi, a 45 year old painter from Shanghai, shows the unique temperament of an artist.

In a studio near the Suzhou River, the reporter saw Ding Yi, the first Chinese designer to design products for the world's top brand Hermes.

"Let me change my style?"

Impossible "

Not every artist can keep his true colours in the dazzling aura, but Ding Yi can be extraordinarily calm.

A silk scarf "Chinese rhythm" designed by him is fresh.

It will be launched in September 7th at the 10th anniversary celebration of Shanghai's Hermes in China.

Take a look at Ding Yi's performance. From the end of the 80s to the end of last century, there are more than five exhibitions of paintings every year in France, Germany, the United States, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Croatia.

His paintings were bought and collected by many art galleries.

Ding Yi, formerly known as Ding Rong, graduated from Shanghai College of Arts and Crafts and Academy of Fine Arts from Shanghai Univer.

The original Chinese painting has solid composition and color.

17 years ago, when he walked out of the campus, he liked abstract painting and even changed his name with a simple style.

This style of art accompanied him for 17 years.

It is no wonder that when the Hermes came to Shanghai and found him, his first reaction was so fierce: "to draw your stuff?"

Do you want me to change my style?

Impossible! "

There are eight paintings in his studio, each of which is three or four meters wide and two meters high, and is painted on a block of Scotland style square cloth.

When the nails are painted on the picture frame, they can be seen in five cm square lattice.

Then he began to fill in the "meter" in each grid with different colors.

Viewed from a distance, there are only regular and irregular matrix colors in the painting.

Each painting usually takes two weeks to complete.

These eight paintings are the masterpieces he has accumulated over the past 13 years.

"I choose companies with artistic details."

Compared with Ding Yi's studio less than 20 meters away, it is a famous gallery, the shanner gallery.

Many foreign painting collectors have come to fame.

In the winter of 2006, a well-dressed foreigner came from the gallery. He was the art director of Hermes and a member of the Hermes family.

The huge "Mi" painting in the gallery attracted him.

Less than a week later, the head of the Shanghai District of Hermes found Ding Yi and conveyed his wish to design silk scarves for Hermes.

The invitation was only attended by people from Shanghai. The location was in Portman's Japanese restaurant. The head of the company brought about almost all the information they had on Hermes, explaining the long tradition of Hermes.

Ding Yi used to know little about brands, so he listened very vagueness. He thought only: "they are more powerful in management, design restrictions are many, and they are also challenges."

About two weeks before Christmas, AI Fang made further moves. Ding B was invited to visit the headquarters of Hermes in France.

On the first day of the evening, the plane arrived.

At 8:30 on the second day, Ding Yi went to the Hermes scarf factory in Lyon and visited the semi manual craft.

The staff also produced a historical manuscript a century ago, telling him about the development process of plate making and hand drawing, and the characteristics of traditional hand-painted process.

In the afternoon, Ding Yi marathon entered the printing and quality inspection section. "I don't think it's a silk scarf. It's printed on silk screen."

Ding Yi regrets, "if there are 26 colors on the scarf, they will print 26 times", and usually the clothes are simply printed in four colors.

On the whole production line, every worker tracks a silk scarf production process, manual printing and dyeing, manual curling.

"This is why their scarves are kept in the sea for a whole year."

Such an atmosphere is deeply infected with Ding Yi. He has long been thinking about choosing a company with an artistic background and a long history, and Hermes is undoubtedly the object of his ideal.

"Cling to the plate is in the work of a meal".

On the third day of France, Ding Yi returned to the headquarters of Hermes in Paris.

The manager of the design department met him, and showed him unreservedly hundreds of years of Hermes products, including his horse accessories, leather bags, costumes, scarves and so on.

There are many empty seats in an eye-catching display cabinet, with the names of the times and product names, which are still being sought by the Hermes repurchase department.

"History can not be forgotten. Seeing these things will bring new design inspiration."

Ding Yi agreed.

With the arrival of the important lunch hour, the emergence of the art director of the Hermes world suggests that the real negotiations are about to begin.

The director gave out an album of the Hermes family. This photo album, which records the legend of the family, has such an interesting picture: a photo taken by an art director and a famous designer. Two people in the picture are discussing the pattern of a beautiful silk scarf.

"This is my grandfather. He was the art director of that time, and he was the most respected designer."

The director smiled and said, "who do you think is in the second photo?"

It was a very similar picture. Ding Yi knew that the picture was about the scene of scarf when he became an art director.

"I hope we can have a picture like this too!"

The director smiled and looked at Ding Yi with expectant eyes.

"Cling to the plate is the time for a meal."

Ding Yi smiled and told reporters.

The final emotional offensive is obviously very effective.

At 3 p.m., the manager, lawyer and Ding Yi of the design department began to talk about the contract.

After reaching agreement, the director patted Ding Yi on the shoulder and said that the largest flagship store in Paris is in the world. There are four statues of horses on the roof outside the shop, which is the symbol of the Hermes brand.

Each horse has two flags on its back, a total of eight sides. It is the most popular scarf pattern ever written by Hermes. "We hope that one day your scarf can be hung on the horse!"

Remembering these, Ding Yi's face with a confident smile, he was not satisfied after he became the first Chinese designer of the world's top brands.

With the cooperation of Hermes, Ding Ding was so close to a giant business stage for the first time, he said, "business?

I'm not interested.

I still like drawing. "

He allowed Hermes to compromise.

"Creation, everything is up to me."

Artists have a common character and freedom of creation.

Ding Yi is no exception.

When the negotiations entered the theme stage of design, Ding Yi's attitude became unexpectedly strong.

"I will not compromise with art in order to cater for other people's style, or else it will not be me."

Ding Yi did not give any room for maneuver to explore the theme of creation.

This is also a difficult decision for the design department of Hermes.

On the one hand, they trusted the director of global art, believing that he chose the best partner for Hermes, but on the other hand, he was the first and only painter, not professional designer, among all the designers chosen by Hermes.

The final compromise is the Hermes side.

When the design manager took out a white paper in front of Ding Yi, he accidentally drew a square. "Your boundary is this square, 88.5cmX88.5cm," the manager suddenly raised his head and smiled at him. Then, in the middle of the square, he wrote down a large string of English word mother freedom, "in the boundary, it is your freedom."

The confrontation between designers and artists, Ding Yi won the battle, which is also the first time in the history of Hermes.

No wonder Ding Yi said proudly: "creation, everything is up to me."

"This is the most confidential creation."

When he returned from his trip to Paris, Ding Yi devoted himself to the intense creative process.

But as an artist, he is somewhat unaccustomed to strict business behavior.

At ordinary times, he used to create freely in the big workshop of 200 square meters.

It is common for artists and Tibetan friends to visit.

This time, he had to hide in the cabin.

The head of the Shanghai area often looks at the progress of the painting and asks for strict protection of the copyright of the works. After all, once the design drawings are entered into the production process, the investment will be considerable.

The painting took three weeks, and it was a long holiday.

"I only stayed at home for thirty years and two days in the first day, and then came back to work." Ding Yi was in high spirits in the face of the new challenges.

The works were officially delivered at the end of February.

For security and security considerations, the international Art Company's carrier directly went to Ding Yi's studio to draw and seal.

Customs clearance has been used for a whole week.

"This is the most secret art creation I have ever met, hahaha."

Ding Yi thought he was very funny and laughed very happily.

"I want to express the rhythm of the city."

In order to fit the 10th Anniversary Theme of Hermes in China, it brings consumers more Chinese impressions and concepts. Ding Yi's final work is named rhythm of China, Chinese prosody.

Just when the reporter interviewed, a courier mail was sent to Ding Yi's hand and opened it. It was a confirmation letter from the French headquarters in Shanghai, which was forwarded by the Hermes district.

There is a picture in the letter that is the final finalization of the silk scarves, so the reporter first saw the new color drawings coming to the market in September with Ding Yi.

This work is quite different from other paintings in Ding Yi's studio.

Considering the difference between the size of the scarves and the visual impact produced by the large paintings, he scaled down to make the color and composition more delicate.

Although he is still his "Mi" character structure, he gave up the recent painting style of bright pink, bright green and digital sense. Instead, he used black as the bottom and inlaid with mysterious colors such as brown, light brown and dark green. The tone is similar to the Dai style clothes, so that people can think of beautiful and moving minority dance at a glance.

Ding Yi said, "in fact, I want to express the rhythm of the city, just like the rhythm of the busy and beating city in Shanghai."

Ding Yi also pointed out to reporters carefully that in the two corners of the scarf, he changed the word "Mi" to "H". "This is also a special alteration made for Hermes."

In Ding Yi's view, this is a big concession.

The design fee is equivalent to half a picture.

Speaking of remuneration, Ding Yi said, "for me, this economic return is nothing."

According to his own introduction, the cooperative income is divided into two parts, the first is the design cost, the second is the royalty of 50 years, that is, the amount of specific royalties for each sale of a scarf, and Ding Yi will not disclose: "no way, this is the rules of the industry."

"Design cost, to be honest, is equivalent to the market price of my half picture, so I really don't care."

Ding Yi now has more than 200 square meters of studio size, only tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate, plus revenue from exhibitions and paintings every year.

The proportion of the cost of design in its assets is almost negligible.

"I didn't think about money."

Ding Yiru said.

This may be the artist's helplessness, because he really has no time to bargain with businessmen or lawyers, which may be his shrewdness, because cooperation is always started step by step.

In the mail received by Ding B, the reporter also saw an important message. Hermes is trying to convince him to use this scarf as a cloth for men's shirts this autumn.

The VERONIC NICHIAN is a famous French man wear designer who has been in the design of Hermes for 17 years.

The letter said: "we believe that you can wear your work, it should be a very proud thing."

"Now they are asking me about the royalty issue to Paris headquarters. I wonder if there will be second cooperation."

Ding Yi's words seemed to be more cautious, but his confident smile and understanding eyes revealed his full assurance.

"My goal is the Pompidou gallery."

"I believe that no artist will hang his works on other people's neck as his highest goal."

When Ding Yi said this sentence, his expression was very serious. "I still hope that my works can appear in the Pompidou Gallery, ha ha, that is certain."

Ding Yi is currently a professor at the communication design division of College of Visual Arts, Fudan University. Recently, he is planning to open an art design related major in the University, specializing in business related to fine arts.

"I need such a case and the opportunity is coming. Now it seems to be my biggest goal."

In September, step by step, Ding Yi has become an important figure in the 10th anniversary celebration of the Hermes, not only because of this scarf, but also because he is a native of Shanghai.

The celebration, which was originally set up in the urban planning hall, was changed to the Shanghai art gallery under Ding Yi's suggestion.

"Because there is more art."

This is also a tribute to Ding Yi as a Chinese painter for art.