DU JIANG YAN

都江堰

Visual identities and branding created for city Dujiangyan in China in the year 2014.
Content
About Dujiangyan
The Two Challenges
The Symbol Mark
The Layout Structure
The Typography
The Brand Color
The Brand Structure
Team
Zihan Chen
Art Director
Graphic Designer
Brand Designer
This is an individual project.
Type
Brand Identity Design
Brand Strategy
Typography Design
Marketing Design
About Dujiangyan
Dujiangyan is a city located in the south-western province Sichuan of China.
The city has a population of 700k and a GDP p.c. of 6000 USD.
The county-level city was honored with multiple awards including the "China Habitat Environment Example Prize".
It retains a mixed environment of both natural landscapes and urban architecture.
Dujiangyan is highly regarded for its tourism.
All tourist attractions were built centered around the irrigation system Dujiangyan, which the city was named after, and Mount Qing Cheng.
Existing Logo of Dujiangyan
The Two Challenges
The rich natural and cultural environment of the city calls for a condensation:
A mark for Dujiangyan needs to visually embody both traditional Chinese art and modern design disciplines.
1/2 Abstraction
Visually abstract and integrate all iconic subject matters of the city into one unit in an organic way with a touch of both a traditional Eastern elegance and a contemporary minimal finish.
2/2 Identification
Identity the major components of the city and structure a system that is consistent as a whole while each part distinguishes itself in a way of being self-contained to certain audience.
The Symbol Mark
The symbol of the new logo represents all of the 5 icons of the city:
岷江波
Waves of River Min
River Min, flowing towards to the Yangtze River, is the mother river of the city, where Dujiangyan irrigation system was built upon.
青城峦
Mountains of Qingcheng
Mount Qingcheng is one of the biggest points of attraction for its magnificent views and remarkable heritage of Eastern culture.
苦竹叶
Leaves of Bamboo
Bamboo is one of the most grown plants in the city and the major source of food to pandas, which are native to the areas.
鸟雀翼
Wings of Birds
The city is home to many rare bird species for its unparalleled natural environment and habitable climate.
道士须
Mustache of Priests
The famed Taoism was born in Mount Qingcheng thousands of years ago, continues to influence great thinkers worldwide.
The symbol was inspired from the traditional Chinese architecture and calligraphy.
The curves forming the symbol was repeatedly deliberated to deliver an unforgettable visual impression, on any scales.
The Layout Structure
A fixed layout was used to build a strong consistency and integrity visually.
A majority of Chinese words are expressed in 3 characters or can be shortened into 3 which led to the simplistic and fixed structure of the logo.
The Typography
Han Yi Fan Xiao Ge Li Shu was customized and tailored to be the ideal typography in logo.
Originally designed based on the clerical script, Han Yi Fan Xiao Ge Li Shu (汉仪范笑歌隶书) is a traditional Chinese calligraphy style that is mellow yet heavy.
It resonates perfectly with the symbol and complements its minimal form with fine details and dynamics of line weights.
The tail ends of the strokes are crafted pointy and the overall look appears to be more organic yet imposing. It distinguishes itself from the original clerical scripts by owning its distinctive styles.
汉仪方隶
Han Yi Fang Li: One of the Most Popular and Original Clerical Styles
汉仪范笑歌隶书
Han Yi Fan Xiao Ge Li Shu: The New Clerical style for Dujiangyan Logo
The Brand Color
The color green represents tourism efforts.
The color blue represents the city government.
The color yellow represents urban life.
The Brand Structure
The three major components within the city are clearly differentiated through colors.
With distinctive colors, a clear visual identity system is constructed and is consistent as a whole, while each component can be easily identified and is self-contained.
Placed under each of the three major components are the thousands of identities representing the different functionalities of the city: (Selected works are shown due to a limited space.)
Logo seals are specially designed for the lockups featuring the World Heritage seal: The inclusion of English promotes recognition on a global scale.
Third-party trademarks mentioned on this website are the property of their respective owners. The design proposal was presented to the city government of Dujiangyan with modifications. The design proposal is available in Chinese upon request.
© 2019 Zihan Chen