Local designer and paper artist Joe Wong collaborated with a century-old sauce brand, using his unique paper sculpture aesthetic to depict the bustling scenery of Victoria Harbour, capturing the city's landscape within a small frame.
Although the art of paper sculpture can be traced back over a thousand years, it has gradually fallen out of contemporary daily life. Wong's designed product series for this collaboration includes a "taste of Hong Kong" blind box set of local specialty sauces, "Hong Kong spirit" premium first-extract soy sauce, and a special edition XO sauce gift set. The exterior designs all feature the "colorful auspicious clouds" theme, showcasing dynamism and vitality, with lines that carry the unique aesthetic of paper art.
He explained: "The colorful auspicious clouds symbolize the integration of the diverse cultures within the Greater Bay Area (GBA), while auspicious clouds in traditional culture also carry the beautiful wish for good fortune and luck."
Collectible urban memories
The core of this creative endeavor is also anchored in the unique identity of "Hong Kong, a gourmet capital." Wong distilled deeply ingrained local flavors, such as char siu, clay pot rice, and egg waffles, into highly representative cultural symbols, cleverly integrating them into the blind box design. This allows the "taste of Hong Kong" to be not only savored but also become a collectible urban memory.
Perhaps the most ingenious touch in the design is the meeting of fencing and street food on a magnet: the slender tip of the foil pointedly and perfectly skewers a fish ball, creating a humorous picture that combines movement and stillness, spanning sports and daily life.
"We hope to introduce Hong Kong's food culture to more people through this theme," Wong explained. "Let everyone learn about our culinary characteristics while enjoying the events, and maybe even try them firsthand – this kind of soft cultural dissemination can often yield unexpected results."
The special edition XO sauce gift set showcases Wong's distinctive paper sculpture art: he uses intricate and precise layered cut-out techniques to create rich depth and plays of light and shadow, meticulously depicting the vibrant scene of Victoria Harbour. From Chinese junks and the Star Ferry pier to the Central Ferris wheel, iconic buildings and scenes leap off the paper, while the dynamic form of a leaping dragon echoes the energetic atmosphere of the National Games, showcasing Hong Kong's vitality.
This piece, which merges local landscape with sports spirit, is a testament to "cross-boundary collision." He expressed: "For local cultural and creative brands and designers, focusing solely on local tourism elements in souvenir design can be somewhat limiting. But by combining it with the sports theme of the National Games, different inspirations can clash and spark, making creative subjects richer and more diverse, thereby injecting new vitality into the entire industry."
Giving paper limitless vitality
After graduating from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2010, Wong resolutely started his own business, plunging into art and design and developing a special fondness for paper art.
"Actually, I've always been involved in graphic and interior design. I chose to study Mechanical Engineering at university because I wanted to understand the principles behind product manufacturing," he admitted. This background, he said, allows him to precisely understand the craftsmanship and structure of products.
"Creators often face a core question: how to turn fantasies in their minds into reality? For example, if I want to complete a large sculpture, where do I start? Or, when designing a product package or a wristwatch, how can paper sculpture art be seamlessly integrated?" He believes the foundational knowledge from mechanical engineering became the key to answering these questions. "Precisely because I was exposed to different types of manufacturing processes, my creations are no longer limited to paper, but I began exploring combinations of paper with various materials like glass, metal, and wood. This opened up richer and more diverse creative paths for me, allowing fantasies to be realized in more three-dimensional ways."
The three-dimensional paper artwork exhibited at Art Central this year originated from Wong's dream fantasy: in his dream, plants grew from paper; in his hands, the dream transformed into a 2m x 2m three-dimensional garden. Using only a single paper color, he captured the flow of light and shadow through the subtle curves and gaps between layered petals, creating a surprising sense of three-dimensionality.
"Paper usually gives people a monotonous, flat feeling, and I wanted to make paper come alive, to show its inherent vitality," he said. Vibrant images like plants, vases, and dragons became vehicles for him to explore this concept. He infused the vigorous vitality of the natural world into static paper, making every flower and every leaf burst forth "growing" amidst the interplay of light and shadow, becoming a tangible dream. His next plan is to create a series of three-dimensional paper sculpture paintings themed on plants, allowing these artworks to carry life force to no longer be confined to large exhibition halls but to more lightly integrate into everyday spaces.
Persisting in doing unique things
Regarding the paper sculpture art he loves, Wong has shown persistence for nearly 13 years. "That fire hasn't changed to this day." Although his style has evolved, constantly incorporating new ideas, the core remains the same. Whether in commercial design or artistic creation, he firmly believes: once you identify the direction, you should focus on moving forward, concentrating on delving deep, without spreading your energy across too many fields. "Paper art holds special meaning for me," he explained. This work is not just about creation; it's also about promoting and revitalizing traditional paper art and opening up new creative platforms for it. "This has become a goal and direction engraved into my bones." He believes that when a person concentrates all their energy on one field, people will eventually feel that passion.
He stated frankly that in the early days of his entrepreneurship, many people wondered why he focused solely on paper art, "even though designers can do anything." However, it was precisely this focus that led his design company to be repeatedly favored by international brands when it was only two or three years old. "What they valued was not just the design, but also the heart and passion we invested in our work." To this day, many clients still choose to collaborate because of his single-minded persistence, unwavering for over a decade.
In today's era of AI, he is even more convinced: "Things that are highly universal are easily replaced, whereas relatively niche paths have instead allowed us to find our own place." He hopes that when people mention Hong Kong paper sculpture art, they think of his work – after years of deep cultivation, such results come naturally.
For young people aspiring to engage in creation, his advice is sincere and firm: "If you like something, don't overthink it, just do it! The more you do, the clearer your direction will become. In this era, persisting in doing unique things is very important."
(Source: Wen Wei Po; Journalist: Cynthia Cheung; English Editor: Darius)
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