Graphic Design 2.1: Professional Practice, Project 7: ‘Cultural Identities’ Exercise 1
Exercise 1: Bon Voyage!
Using your research into a global language we would like you to design a set of visual touchpoints for a duty free store, located in an international port.
The aim of this exercise is to celebrate cultural diversity. We want you to explore and champion national visual culture through ideas and themes that touch on lifestyle, attitudes and distinctive language.
Duty free stores are usually airside or beyond security and often a first or last chance to purchase a momento from your travels. This brief provides you with an opportunity to design a distinctive identity that resonates with the diverse travellers passing through the airport and also captures the unique cultural identity of the country in which the duty free store is located.
Firstly, list 4-6 countries other than your country of birth or residence. Once you have a list, strike off any country from the list where the primary spoken language is the same as your native language. For example, if you are from the UK, then strike off the USA.
Next, research the major cities with international airports in each of the remaining countries. Select the one where your duty free store will be located. You can give your store a name. The name of the duty free store is up to you and this need not be in English.
Next, develop ideas in your sketchbook on the touchpoints listed below and then record these on your learning log. The set of touchpoints are a follows:
A duty free store sign: for this you will need to determine the appropriate text – is it just the store name? Do you include a message for passing travellers? What language(s) does the text need to be written in? Also consider the size, determine if it is static or digital and ensure the sign is visible to the passing travellers.
A duty free carrier bag: you will decide the size (or range of sizes) and material. Ensure it can easily accommodate a bottle of the local tipple and some celebrated foodstuff or condiment.
The reverse side of a printed till receipt: for this component you are limited to two colours. The length is also variable, so consider that the receipt is on a roll and therefore will be torn off at different points.
Finally work up your final designs and present them as mock-ups and in situ.
I began this task by listing countries that’s main language is not English and began to research their major cities with airports, I then chose 1 major city airport for each country.
FIGURE 1: JAPANESE AIRPORTS
Japan: Japenese- Narita International Airport in Tokyo.
China: Mandarin- Beijing Capital International Airport.
Brazil: Portuguese- São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport.
France: French- Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
Russia: Russian- Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.
Saudi Arabia: Arabic- King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.
I then moved onto collating visuals of famous landmarks, traditions, shops, signage, clothing and local wildlife. I wanted to study the potential visuals, patterns, colours and styles of typography used throughout local Beijing and Chinese culture.
FIGURE 27:
I researched animals and wildlife native to Beijing and China. I came across various animals and flowers that could be good visuals to use to represent Beijing. I also read into how depictions of animals in certain ways are offensive, which lead me to seeing that the chrysanthemum flower in Chinese culture, symbolizes longevity, endurance, and resilience but is often associated with funerals and memorials in other countries (figure 29)- as this would be within an airport, all cultures have to be considered when designing a logo, it must appeal to as many people as possible whilst representing Beijing.
FIGURE 35:
Figure 38 shows various duty free store fronts in Beijing Airport. The use of neon/bright lights is interesting and again something to be considered when designing. Notes 4 shows some of my initial ideas/notes regarding names and visuals.
This sparked some further research of ‘The Heirloom Seal’ and interesting printing methods (figure 42). This helped bring forwards further design ideas and styles to explore.
I decided to move forwards with the name ‘capital charms’. I decided to use a more metaphorical name as opposed to directly naming an area, item or anything traditionally related to Beijing or China in order to avoid any cultural issues, whilst aiming to celebrate Beijing culture. I liked the alliteration of the name and the word ‘charms’ which could reference anything the store would sell related to Beijing, but encapsulates them in a positive way.
Firstly I tried using a wet brush, then the end of a cocktail stick, finally getting the best texture using a dry brush with watered down ink.
I liked the idea of having a hand drawn element within the shop logo/signage (which was particularly inspired by figures 43 and 44) as it brings a more authentic feel to a shop in an area that is very commericalised and inauthentic (figure 38).
I decided to design my duty free store for Beijing, China. I have very little understanding of Chinese culture and history and wanted a challenge to try and create a design that celebrates cultural diversity within an area I have little-no understanding of.
I began to research the history of China/Beijing, starting with the youtube video in figure 7 then figure 8. I made notes, highlighting key moments, areas and significant cultural elements of Chinese history to reference when designing (notes 1, 2 and 3).
Figure 26 gives some examples of traditional clothing, I focused on the patterns/colours used to see if there were any particular shapes/colours that stood out or were repeated.
FIGURE 26:
Figure 27 shows some prominent symbols found within Beijing and China- I took notes of imagery and shapes.
When researching famous landmarks within Beijing I came across ‘the forbidden city’ and found a video tour of the inside of one of the museums there which displayed interesting ceramics with various patterns (figure 34 and 35).
A video related to figure 34 was figure 36 showing some calligraphy performance art by Liang Xiao Ping. The use of calligraphy/more expressive calligraphy could definitely be a fun visual to explore for my sign/branding.
FIGURE 37:
FIGURE 38:
I continued to research tourist attractions and interesting areas of Beijing and came across the ‘China Printing Museum’ which holds all sorts of print-related artefacts from as early as the woodblock printing method circa 9th century (figure 39 and videos figure 40, 41).
Figures 43 and 44 show some examples of designs inspired by the seal and woodblock printing method. These were great visuals that inspired a lot of ideas, I began to quickly sketch any ideas as I researched, alongside some notes.
Throughout my sketches I kept considering a character/mascot like illustration to create, but decided that this could potentially be culturally insensitive, especially if depicting anything of importance to Beijing.
Whilst considering other imagery, I wanted to create the name of the shop/word-mark or part of the logo (which I decided would be in the most common language within Beijing, Mandarin Chinese) referencing Chinese calligraphy. Inspired by Liang Xiao Ping’s (figure 36) performance at NSW gallery in Australia I used ink and various brushes/methods of applying the ink to write out the shop name in Mandarin.
The typography also has the potential to be used within a pattern to use for the carrier bag and till receipt design.
Referring back to my sketches and research for logo/visual ideas I realised that many of my sketches/initial thoughts were quite cliche, e.g. animals, temple etc, which could result in a boring or obvious shop brand.
When considering what imagery would be best appropriate for the logo, I kept returning to the Hongshan Jade Dragon imagery. A version of the dragon is displayed in the National Museum of China in Beijing. The jade dragon is one of the first known depictions of a dragon in Chinese culture, representing artistic skill, technology, natural forces and balance.
When using the imagery of something culturally significant, is it extremely important to not depict it in any way that could be deemed disrespectful.
After my research, I had seen that culturally significant icons are fine to be copied/used and if done respectfully this is welcomed within Chinese culture.
Moving forwards with this in mind and inspired by the seals/woodblock printing (figures 43-44) I used direct imagery of the dragon shown in The National Museum of China in Beijing.
I repeated the image with one facing upside down, mirroring the dragon in the opposite direction. The idea behind this was to create balance. I understood that depicting the dragon upside down may be culturally insensitive, so again after researching I found this to be fine, again as long as it is done respectfully.
The imagery (although in Mandarin Chinese does not visually display this) represents ‘CC’ for ‘Capital Charms’. As English is one of the most commonly used languages in the world alongside Mandarin, I felt this was still effective as it would be immediately noticed by English speakers throughout the airport, plus using an English translation next to it could work in showing the meaning to non-English speakers as the ‘CC’ shape would be repeated. I was still unsure whether having a translated version beside it or above the design would be best for functionality, or whether having a more authentic sign would work best for the environment the duty free shop is in. As the shop would be alongside others, it should be quite obvious to tourists what the shop is, and perhaps more intriguing if solely in Mandarin?
Using my attempt at calligraphy, I layered the text underneath the imagery and used a square box around the edge, again inspired by the seals. I created alternative versions using the textures I had created from ink whilst writing the calligraphy style letters, focusing on the circular shape as this felt balanced and cohesive with the typography.
I printed the design to add texture, letting the ink from an inkjet printer settle onto acetate made for a xerox printer, then printing the ink onto paper pressing the back with my hands and a roller for varied textures.
I wanted to develop a pattern that could be used across both the bag and receipt. I took elements from the logo and arranged them originally within a grid, repeating the pattern and changing the sizing of some of the words and images with an aim to make it more visually interesting.
Looking back at my final designs and design process, I feel that there is a lot I would experiment with further and improve.
The logo/sign visual itself is interesting, but other avenues and visuals could’ve been explored. I liked the concept of the ‘CC’ Capital Charms visual which I think clouded other ideas, which should’ve been experimented with anyway.
I was apprehensive to create a design that was cliche e.g. a temple/animal and realised that a lot of my initial sketches were within this cliche area of design. Perhaps further exploration at the ideas and sketching stage could’ve resulted in a different and more engaging or dynamic visual.
Colour was the next element to really consider. From my research, red is good fortune/joy/prosperity/happiness, gold is royalty/power/wealth and blue is immortality/eternity/calm. These 3 all seemed appropriate to represent both the dragon imagery and ‘capital charms’ as a name/brand.
I experimented using various versions of each colour. I was particularly drawn to the gold colour, despite the red being the strongest visually. Red to other cultures may have more negative connotations, which is also something to consider, perhaps gold is more globally accepted as a more positive colour representing wealth? The gold also works well with representing the word ‘charms’.
I continued to experiment with the colour, using mock ups to help me decide which works best visually. The gold colouring in all shades combined with the white was less visually striking than other colours. Finally, I decided to move forwards using the red, despite my considerations about other cultures perceiving it as negative. The colour red references the woodblock printed seals and within Chinese culture means good fortune and prosperity, this also links with the name ‘Capital Charms’.
When looking at the final pattern used with fresh eyes, the visual size differences I was aiming for to create an interesting/dynamic pattern are not very obvious. the use of the text within the pattern alongside the dragon imagery are not very clear or legible from further distances (especially when shown smaller on the back of the receipt). To improve here, an alternative pattern/more bold illustrative pattern referencing both the imagery and text could be designed, or even an abstract calligraphy style pattern. I feel that this will definitely be an area I go back to and improve on, especially as over time more ideas regarding the brand pattern have come to mind.
I am still unsure whether it was the correct choice to not use any other translations within the signage. I debate between whether this may cause confusion for tourists, or have a more positive impact and feel more authentically Beijing.
Overall, this task was very challenging, when considering designing a duty free shop brand within a culture that I was almost completely unfamiliar with was a hard task, but was a fun way in order to think about alternative ways of displaying culture in a respectful way but using more ambiguous and less cliche visuals.
Resources:
Figure 1: Wikipedia contributors (2024) List of airports in Japan, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_airports_in_Japan&oldid=1223721975. (Accessed 20 June 2024).
Figure 2: Major airports in China (no date) Chinadiscovery.com. Available at: https://www.chinadiscovery.com/china-flights/airports.html (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
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Figure 4: Major French airports (No date) Goindigo.in. Available at: https://www.goindigo.in/airport-directory/france.html (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
Figure 5: List of International Airports in Russia (2024) GeeksforGeeks. Available at: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/list-of-international-airports-in-russia/ (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
Figure 6: Wikipedia contributors (2024) List of airports in Saudi Arabia, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_airports_in_Saudi_Arabia&oldid=1227206142. (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
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Figure 17: 7 amazing sights to experience in Beijing, China - Chili House: San Francisco’s best Peking duck & Chinese food (2018) Chili House: San Francisco’s Best Peking Duck & Chinese Food. Chili House SF. Available at: https://www.chilihousesf.com/blog/7-amazing-sights-to-experience-in-beijing-china/ (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
Figure 18: Wikipedia contributors (2024) Temple of Heaven, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Temple_of_Heaven&oldid=1226603550.
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Figure 25: Alamy Limited (no date) Beijing signs hi-res stock photography and images, Alamy. Available at: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/beijing-signs.html?sortBy=relevant (Accessed: 21 June 2024).
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Figure 35: Asant (2024) Exploring ceramics at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China | tradition, craftsmanship & more. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZziz2cNbCE (Accessed: 21 June 2024).
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Figure 38: Bronstein, P., Nikada and Clarke, M. (no date) 255 Beijing Airport Shops stock photos, high-res pictures, and images - Getty Images, Gettyimages.co.uk. Available at: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/2/image?page=3&phrase=beijing%20airport%20shops&sort=best&license=rf%2Crm (Accessed: 21 June 2024).
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sign mock up: Wall square Sign Mockup (2023) Mockuptree. Available at: https://mockuptree.com/free/wall-square-sign-mockup/ (Accessed: 1 July 2024).
