He gets up in someone else's dream, writes for two or three hours, and then the day begins.
It’s four o’clock in the morning, the night is dim. At this moment, the whole world seems to be asleep, and the surroundings are so quiet that you can hear your own blinking. Ye Genyou got up on time without relying on any electronic devices. After washing up, making a cup of strong tea, you can sit down at the table and start writing.
He picked up a brush casually, dipped it in some ink, and then started writing on the rough-edged paper. Each word came out of his pen in a steady stream without any thinking or pause, just like speaking. nature. He wrote regular script, then running script, and then cursive script, which are the handwritings he is best at.
Having almost warmed up, he started to get down to business, thinking about a new font recently. The initial design of each font is often the most difficult.
He is not like many font designers who can use changes in lines on the computer to design a new font. He used the most primitive method, which was to write and draw one by one. Sometimes, he had to write countless words before he could choose the most satisfactory one.
Therefore, this requires the author to have great patience and a calm mind, otherwise a set of 6,763 characters in a font will not be considered a success if even one character is different.
This is also the reason why Ye Genyou likes to write at this time in the early morning, because it is quiet enough. After writing for two or three hours, his day really begins. And he has lived this kind of writing life for a long, long time.
Ye Genyou hollow simplified font, Ye Genyou sailing simplified font, Ye Genyou non-mainstream font, Ye Genyou blade black grass, Ye Genyou round fun cartoon, Ye Genyou Shengong font, Ye Genyou children's font, Ye Genyou Olympic font...
Since the first set of "Ye Genyou Hollow Simplified" fonts was launched in June 2007, the number of Ye Genyou's own handwritten font series has increased to more than 30 types, not including those currently being designed. People who have never used calligraphy fonts cannot understand the usage evaluations of different styles of calligraphy fonts in the vast circle of netizens.
Many people praised him. Teacher Ye is so amazing. How could he design so many fonts that are both good, evil and fun?
Ye Genyou shook his head and waved his hands, but he admitted that he was just better at observing the details of life than some people. In fact, the inspiration for many of his fonts is around us. When he went to a certain place on a business trip and saw the words on a hotel sign, he would think about whether he could design a font. When he watched Korean dramas and saw the names of TV dramas written in Korean, he would think about whether he could learn from them and design a font. Even when he sees a cup in a convenience store, he will think of designing a cup-shaped font.
The set of "Ye Gen You Children's Style" designed in 2010 was inspired by an accidental opportunity to see the words in the primary school students' homework books. "I found that although the words looked irregular, they had some meaning." The bookish style was there, childish but free, so I came up with the idea of ??writing a set of fonts in this style.”
So, this set of fonts was deliberately designed to imitate the writing style of primary school students. , looking a little childish, but very cheerful.
Hollow calligraphy emerged in the Tang Dynasty. Since there was no printing technology at that time, calligraphy enthusiasts wanted to preserve the ink treasures of famous artists. Some people used rubbings, while others came up with the idea of ??using lines to outline the characters. method to maintain the same effect as the original. Hence the hollow word was born. That is the copying post we often see.
While many people were practicing filling in the hollow characters of these famous artists with pen and ink, Ye Genyou was thinking about how to copy the outlines of these characters. Even more extreme, he created his own conjoined hollow characters and wrote the entire work in one continuous stroke. No matter how many characters there were in the work, he could always ensure that it was fresh, elegant, strong and powerful.
In October 2002, he participated in the Guinness Record Challenge in Wenzhou and wrote continuously for 17 hours and 13 minutes. On a piece of paper 80 centimeters wide and more than 100 meters long, he wrote 7659 "continuous strokes" Hollow Words" set a Guinness World Record. From then on, Ye's conjoined hollow characters became one of his symbols.
Many works are collected by calligraphy enthusiasts, including Lien Chan, Soong Chuyu, etc.
But compared to this, creating the plot content of "Snow Wolf Lake" and the 31 lyrics of "Snow Wolf Lake" for Jacky Cheung and giving it to his idol seemed to make him happier. thing. You know, Jacky Cheung has remembered him as a fan since then, and even invited him to his concert through his agent.
In addition to Jacky Cheung, there is of course Andy Lau. In 2005, knowing that Andy Lau was coming to Xi'an for an event, Ye Genyou, who was still working in Xi'an at that time, spent two and a half months using his spare time to design 999 kinds of "Andy Lau" in order to get his signature. Different styles of signatures are delivered to the event site.
The types of signatures include four series: meticulous cursive writing, character modeling, flower and bird modeling, and exaggerated personality. Each series has a different image. Later, Andy Lau personally signed another one, turning the 999 signatures into 1,000, adding a perfect finishing touch to the work.
Influenced by his father, Ye Genyou started practicing calligraphy at the age of 5. When he was young, he never thought about whether he would become a very famous calligrapher in the future. But when he was in junior high school, he once By chance, he saw the Shutong font used in computers. He had thought about how great it would be if one day the calligraphy he wrote could also be used in computer input methods.
So, a long time ago, he had the idea of ??designing a font, and he vaguely had the initial design template for the later "Ye Gen Youshen Gongti". This idea originated from his work in 2004 Before actually touching a computer.
It was a small, even whimsical wish in the eyes of others when he was young, but it was realized by him many years later. He was very satisfied. Although it was hard work, others could not understand it.
Normally, in addition to the design of Ye's fonts, he also inscribes the mastheads of many media and the names of many product packaging. But these, like the "three strokes in the same calligraphy" and the "five strokes in the same calligraphy" that he had practiced hard for many years, were just interests and hobbies. What he really cared about was his attainments and progress in calligraphy.
Because he is a calligrapher, not a font designer.