The Effect Of Type Design's Cultural Capacity In Branding

Since 2013 or even earlier,type design have been increasingly rising up in the landscape of Chinese graphic design,thanks to the booming development of this area and influence from the design giant of Japan.Graphic designers including Qi Li,Liu Yongquan and Hei Yiyang have brought about various excellent pieces of typeface and typography,which built on success of Chinese commercial graphic design and the abundant visual possibilities offered by the Chinese characters.In the example of Shushui Xiaoguan,type design was applied to the brand image design and the culture capacity of the type design was widely studied,which lead to stronger influence on brand promotion.Started by Song Yuanbo in Hongqiao,Shanghai,this 2015 restaurant chain is a sub-brand under DASHUWUJIE,a company focusing on vegetarian dishes,and rebranded a year later by Wenmei Environmental Design Co.,Ltd.where the author and his teammates worked on the VI design part,particularly on type design of the brand names on restaurant signs,menus,packages,staff uniform and restaurant front.Processes of the rebranding project included understanding brand core philosophy,business ecosystem researching,analysis of competitors of the chain,logo designing,reporting and implementation.Collaboration was required with colleagues responsible for environmental design,soft furnishing design,marketing,advertising copywriting.The VI team acquired insights from logo design cases of other catering brand,and type design cases,and shaped the visual identity with painting,photography,Chinese calligraphy and other graphic design approaches.The visual identity of the restaurant is designed to distinctively convey its essential philosophy to clearly targeted population so as to attract diners.Logo is the visualization of the brand gene,which is the fundamental idea that the rebranding centered around.As the centerpiece of this project,type design is the most difficult part to handle,which however,after successful implementation,highlighted the brand's cultural essence and traditionalness,and enhance the communicational effects.