By: Kelvin Yu
At the crossroads of cultural heritage and contemporary design, OriginForce Creations stands as a shining example of how traditional artistry can be reimagined for the modern world. Recently honored with the China Creative Packaging Design Award, the project fuses centuries-old ritual iconography from Yunnan’s Jiama (甲马) folk art with the sensibilities of modern visual communication, transforming packaging from a simple commercial object into a vessel of living culture.
Cultural Origins: The Spirit of Jiama
Jiama, also known as the “paper horse” or “divine horse,” is a unique form of woodblock print used for ritual blessings among Yunnan’s ethnic minority groups. Historically, villagers burned Jiama prints to send prayers to deities — acts of gratitude, healing, or protection. Each motif carried layers of spiritual symbolism: tigers represented courage, cranes longevity, dragons authority, and various deities watched over wealth, health, and family.
But with industrialization and changing spiritual habits, Jiama gradually receded from everyday life. The practice of burning prints, once an integral form of communication between people and the divine, has become environmentally unsustainable and culturally distant. What remains are fragile prints and fading memories — precious fragments of an art form on the verge of obscurity.
Against this backdrop, OriginForce Creations was conceived as a cultural revitalization initiative that seeks not only to preserve Jiama’s aesthetic legacy but to activate its narrative potential in new contexts — from temples to tablets, from rituals to retail.
The Concept: “Origin + Force”
The name OriginForce Creations encapsulates the project’s philosophy. Origin refers to the source — the deep cultural and spiritual roots of Yunnan’s folk art — while Force symbolizes the creative energy propelling those roots into the future. The project is not a replica of tradition, but a dialogue with it.
Led by designer and educator Jun Mao, the team approached Jiama as both a visual language and a cultural system. They studied archival prints, interviewed local artisans, and analyzed motifs from The Compendium of Chinese Woodblock Prints: Yunnan Jiama Volume, identifying recurring formal traits: bold outlines, flattened composition, and symbolic exaggeration of human and divine forms.
Using these features as a foundation, the team reinterpreted Jiama through a contemporary design vocabulary — transforming ancient woodblock reliefs into geometric illustrations with high-saturation color palettes, playful compositions, and scalable vector precision suitable for packaging, exhibition, and digital applications.
Design Innovation: Packaging as Cultural Storytelling
Rather than treating packaging as a decorative afterthought, OriginForce Creations repositions it as a narrative and educational platform. Each package becomes an artifact that invites interaction, curiosity, and reflection.
- Reconstructing Visual Symbols
Through detailed analysis, mythological figures such as the God of Wealth, the Wenchang Emperor (patron of knowledge), and the Goddess of Blessings were redrawn withyouthful vitality. These characters, once confined to temple walls or ritual paper, now appear on colorful boxes, pouches, and cards that celebrate joy and renewal. - Designing for Experience
Packaging structures feature interactive elements — pull-out layers, concealed prints, and embossed textures that replicate woodblock grooves. Opening a box becomes an act of discovery, mirroring the uncovering of cultural memory. - From Ancient Blessings to Modern Wishes
Traditional auspicious phrases such as Peace for the Four Seasons or Harmony at Home are reimagined through contemporary idioms like Ride to Success, Luck in Bloom, and No More Villains — resonating with the humor and optimism of a new generation while maintaining their symbolic roots. - Typography and Color Language
Custom typefaces mimic the tactile rhythm of hand-carved woodblocks, each stroke echoing the uneven beauty of knife marks. The color palette — inspired by temple murals and festival banners — juxtaposes vivid vermilion, indigo, and gold against neutral backdrops, evoking both sacred warmth and contemporary vibrancy.
Together, these design decisions turn OriginForce Creations into more than an object — it becomes a cultural conversation between past and present.
Recognition and Resonance
The China Creative Packaging Design Award, one of the nation’s most respected honors in design innovation, recognizes projects that combine artistry, sustainability, and commercial viability. In the 2025 edition, OriginForce Creations stood out for its approach to incorporating intangible cultural heritage into modern design systems and its innovative use of packaging as a medium for artistic storytelling.
The jury noted how the project transcends the visual domain, functioning as a model for educational and participatory design. Its success demonstrates that cultural heritage can thrive not by remaining static but by engaging with global design languages — proving that innovation and preservation are not opposites but partners.
Beyond the Box: Extending Cultural Experience
Following the award, OriginForce Creations launched a series of derivative products and public engagement initiatives designed to bring Jiama culture into everyday life.
- The Jiama MINI Experience Kit lets users print their own woodblock Jiama at home. The compact set includes carved wooden plates, ink rollers, handmade paper, and a cultural guidebook introducing the meanings behind each symbol. This transforms cultural appreciation into hands-on participation.
- Perpetual Calendars and Art Postcards translate the visual motifs into lifestyle items — spreading Jiama blessings across desks, bookshelves, and correspondence.
- AR and Digital Extensions are in development: scanning the packaging may soon reveal animated deities and immersive audio stories that bridge folklore with technology.
Each product is designed around the project’s central belief: “When design becomes interaction, heritage becomes alive.”
Cultural Sustainability and Social Impact
For Jun Mao and the design team, OriginForce Creations represents more than a design experiment — it’s a case study in how creative industries can contribute to cultural sustainability.
By collaborating with Yunnan’s local craftsmen, they ensured that traditional carving and printing methods remained integral to the design process, supporting artisans economically while preserving their skills.
Moreover, by adopting eco-friendly materials and eliminating the practice of burning ritual paper, the project redefines spirituality through environmental consciousness — an essential alignment with global sustainability values.
In interviews, Jun Mao often emphasizes that design education should not isolate aesthetics from ethics:
“Cultural design must ask not only what looks beautiful, but also what deserves to endure. Our work with Jiama is about continuity — making sure the stories, symbols, and craftsmanship of our ancestors still have a role in contemporary life.”
Looking Forward: Designing the Future of Heritage
With recognition from the China Creative Packaging Design Award, the team now looks to expand the project internationally. Collaborations with museums, cultural foundations, and design schools are already underway to showcase OriginForce Creations as a model for heritage innovation.
Plans include a traveling exhibition titled “When Prints Breathe Again, combining traditional woodblock demonstrations with immersive projection mapping — inviting global audiences to witness how Jiama transcends its ritual origins to become a shared language of visual storytelling.
Conclusion: When Tradition Meets Tomorrow
In an era when globalization often homogenizes cultural aesthetics, OriginForce Creations demonstrates that the local can be the new universal.
By merging ancient symbolism with forward-thinking design, the project doesn’t just repackage history — it rewrites the narrative of how design can sustain identity, community, and creativity.
As Jun Mao reflects:
“To design is to remember, but also to imagine. Our goal is not to freeze tradition in time — it is to give it a new pulse that beats in rhythm with our generation.”
Through OriginForce Creations, Yunnan’s Jiama culture continues to speak — not from the ashes of ritual fires, but through the living medium of design itself.
And as each package is opened, what emerges is not merely a product — but a story of revival, craftsmanship, and the enduring force of culture made new.
