Chinese Zodiac Riso Wheel
I was inspired to create a riso piece that was both a tool and a work of art that showed off the color and joy of riso in this interactive Zodiac wheel. I remember growing up and at American Chinese Buffets that had the kitschy placemats that show your birth year and the animal. As much as I enjoyed finding my animal (the dog) on the placemat, the artwork was always the same and usually not drawn to my taste. I wanted to re-imagine this helpful guide as an interactive art piece that people could pick up and share. The pie shape allows the viewer to focus on each animal and can also act as a tool to quiz oneself on each zodiac Chinese symbol and year.
On the front "pie" panel features elements of the Lunar New Year including oranges - gold & wealth, paper lanterns - drive away back luck, paper envelopes - bring good fortune, gold coins - balance.
The inner chart features each zodiac animal, starting with the Year of the Rat and rotates clockwise in the order of the zodiac. It features the Chinese symbol and pronunciation for each animal along with the birth years for each animal.
✨ Fun Facts ✨
• This is the first iteration of this piece, my intention was to use red ink in honor of the luck the color brings during the New Year, but my color drum was not working in time, so I opted for fluorescent pink to represent red. The pink made the piece more vibrant and also nicely showcased the unique character of the risograph color spectrum.
• The playful font used throughout the piece is actually handmade font based off my own handwriting. I used a free tool called calligraphr.com to build a set of letter characters to add to the handmade quality of my work. This is the second instance I've used this font. The first is used in the new backing design on my postcards.
• The (hopefully) one typo I caught after printing is on the back in the first sentence, "12animals" is missing a space between 12 and animals and I had already printed my set before I caught it. I'm resolving that it adds character to the piece, right?
• The playful font used throughout the piece is actually handmade font based off my own handwriting. I used a free tool called calligraphr.com to build a set of letter characters to add to the handmade quality of my work. This is the second instance I've used this font. The first is used in the new backing design on my postcards.
• The (hopefully) one typo I caught after printing is on the back in the first sentence, "12animals" is missing a space between 12 and animals and I had already printed my set before I caught it. I'm resolving that it adds character to the piece, right?
Video demonstration off the wheel in action.
