Year of The Dragon

When Wellington’s Strategy Design approached Watermark to illustrate a graphic dragon for the Christchurch Chinese Lantern Festival, Philip leapt to the challenge.

Integrating the Asian styling of two dragons into a tessellating pattern to create one continuous image was Philip’s biggest hurdle. However, investigating the history of these ancient mythical creatures helped enormously.

‘Researching a job is critical to getting a better understanding of the project and what is needed to effectively communicate an idea or experience,’ says Philip.

‘Our views of dragons in the West is opposite to the East, where they are revered as powerful and wise creatures. Not surprisingly, they became the symbol of the Chinese emperor.’

In the Zhou Dynasty, the five-clawed dragon was assigned to the Son of Heaven, with three- and four-clawed dragons left to the lower ranks of nobility. Philip made sure the festival dragon received the full quota of five claws.

The dragon theme was ideal for the festival, he says. ‘Two dragons often appear in early Chinese art circling a flaming pearl - a symbol of good fortune - which seemed an appropriately positive symbol for the Lantern Festival and the heralding of the Chinese New Year... the year of the Dragon of course!’

The images proved to be such a hit around Christchurch, many were ‘acquired’ for private collections.