The design industry in Hong Kong forbears diversified innovative explorations. Design professionals can adopt the cultural elements of both China and the West to search for a visual language called "original Hong Kong creativity". There is no doubt that the current design products in our city are deeply affected by the ever-updating trend of digitalization. But, the design professionals still bear in mind with the principle of aesthetic harmony, no matter in compositions, distribution of iconographies, photographic effects and typographies.

1. N S S V I S U A L A R T S C U R R I C U L U M
A R T A P P R E C I A T I O N – D E S I G N P A P E R
( S P E A K E R : V I N C E N T L E E K W U N - L E U N G )
The Designs of Hong Kong

2. Chinese-styled designs
 Advertising slogans: Utilize ancient calligraphies, such as
oracle-bone scripts, semi-cursive scripts and clerical scripts, as
fonts to highlight a visual respect of that particular product to
the traditions of Confucian / Taoist heritage.
 Brand-mark: Adopt seal-engraving to highlight the legitimacy
and authority of that particular product : Ensure clients a
guaranteed reward
 Reserve the complicated and decorative patterns from the
structures of paper-cutting or architectural engravings in the
design background, which enhanced the level of “empirical
royalty” and attracted the upper class to attempt a purchase

3. Chinese-styled designs
 Grandeur but harmonious combination of subject matters: gave
clients a comfortable vision
 Adopted color with auspicious implications due to the superstitious
beliefs of Chinese society, for example:
 yellow represents Chinese civilization and empirical royalty;
 red represents heroism, revolution and celebratory events like wedding, lunar new
year and new births;
 green represents purity, retreat, agriculture and natural life;
 oceanic blue represents optimism;
 dark blue represents death and grievances;
 purple represents bourgeoisie flavor;
 black represents mysterious predications;
 white represents purity or death;
 brown represents minimalism and martial-art monasteries.

4. Chinese-styled designs
 The idea of "civilian-based and approachable
promotion": honored the practical purpose for the
goodness of people’s livelihood but harmonious
combination of subject matters: gave clients a
comfortable vision
 Preserved an admirable sense of craftsmanship
 Manipulated the similar rhythms or intonations
between traditional idioms and contemporary phrases
to deliver some convincing messages

5. Chinese-styled designs
 Harmoniously merged the ancient fairy characters, like
the Birthday Gentry and God of Wealth, with the
contemporary secular episodes, regardless of impossible
and illogical combinations : bridged the gap between past
and present
 Associate the products with martial arts to boost up the
public morale for more purchases
 Adopt the fortune-telling visual elements to persuade
clients the emergency for purchase

6. Chinese-styled designs
 Change particular strokes within a Chinese character
into some iconographies to deliver exceptional
implications
 Greater focus on the distribution of detailed
typographies
 Distorted typographies to deliver a sense of comedy
and fantasy

7. Chinese-styled designs
 Exaggerate a particular iconography with a convincing
slogan, but reserves a great extent of emptiness in the
background, to highlight the significance of that particular
product in the enhancement of people’s livelihood.
 Government advertisements in Hong Kong or Macao:
Using the wholesome behavioral interactions from
middle-class families for educating citizens’ obedience to
“civic responsibility”: to ensure an international image of
a civilized, transparent, just, uncorrupted, literate and
democratic bureaucracy

8. Paper bag and mooncake box design
 Lots of contemporary-styled
hotels in Hong Kong, which
establish their own Chinese
cuisines, tend to design the
covers of paper bags and
mooncake boxes with a
digitalized mode of symbolic
Chinese visual elements.
 The digitalization does not cause
a ruin on the “engraving-liked”
Chinese decorative patterns.
Rather, a prior emphasis is put
onto the colour selections for the
logo, the lines and the
background. Minimalism is the
key of success in leaving clients a
deep impression.
 (Source: www.orijen.com)

9. Neon-lighted sign board logos
 The neon-lighted sign board
logos are a typical reflection of
Chinese culture. The red colours
symbolizes auspiciousness,
whereas the “regular scripts”
(楷書) are presented with bold
calligraphic strokes.
 “Double happiness” is an idea
that is often adopted by the
institutions which operates
wedding, banquet, mahjong and
pawn-service businesses.
 (Source: creativeroots.org)

10. Dragon-based design for tourism
 Hong Kong is often regarded as
a hub for inheriting the legend
of dragon.
 The colourful patterns of
dragons’ bodies are often
adopted for postcard or
bunting designs to promote
tourism of Hong Kong among
the foreigners.
 (Source: creativeroots.org)

11. Paper-Cutting Designs for Chinese New Year
 The beauty of traditional
paper-cutting is often valued
and its decorative patterns
are revived by the digital
illustration techniques.
 The entire visions of the
graphic designs can be
clumssy, but it can be still
workable for adding different
innovative and cute
iconographies that can
harmoniously coexist with
the peach blossoms, lanterns
and dragons.
 (Source:
hongkongfixedgeargirl.wordp
ress.com)

12. “Seal-engraving-liked” contemporary logo
 A Chinese seal is chopped
through dying the engraved
bottoms of the stones
 The designer attempted to
transform the Chinese-
character base into a vision
that different innovative and
cute iconographies fabricate
around the whole restricted
area of the Chinese seal
bottom.
 (Source:
blog.hermanmillerasia.com)

13. Ancient map with handwriting features
 The ancient map
used for navigation
purposes is revived
through digital
means. The map of
Hong Kong is
composed of
calligraphies and
signboards.
 The calligraphic
typographies
deliver the message
that Hong Kong is a
place stressing
humanistic and
neighborhood
sentiments.

14. Red semi-hemisphere lamps
 The red semi-hemisphere lamps
are used by hawkers from the
food markets for projecting the
lights onto the frozen chicken
wings, frozen sausages, frozen
hams, seafoods, vegetables,
fruits. Housewives can observe
the details of these food
products more clearly to ensure
that they are fresh and of
trustworthy qualities.
 Such electronic appliances is
very Chinese in styles. The
designer made a breakthrough
by transforming the hooked
lights inside a contemporary-
styled shopping arcade into a
series of red semi-hemisphere
lamps for creating a festive and
auspicious atmosphere.

15. Western-styled designs
 Electric-based fonts and playful icons to promote
animations, digital products, pop music and playful
appliances
 Advertisement on jewellery, fashions and facial-
treatments: Elegant cosmetics on models’
appearances to highlight a sense of royal feminism
 Spacious composition that reserves room for
mysterious imagination

16. Western-styled designs
 Manipulation between monochromes and
contrasting color combinations
 Apply the concept of “virtual interface” to forecast
the significance of that particular product to the
social livelihood
 Typographies with graffiti flavor – youthful and
energetic spirits

17. Western-styled designs
 Geometric patterns of layout graphics – simplicity
implies a sense of beauty which reflects Caucasians’
pleasurable mood to all kinds of aesthetic leisure
 Use astronomical episodes to uphold the legitimacy
of that particular product in human lives
 Proper spatial distribution to highlight the main
focus

18. Western-styled designs
 Overwhelm the universal obstacles
 Uphold a utopian arena that brings hopeful forecasts
to the current generation
 Use marker-drawn comics to bridge the gap between
entrepreneurs and youngsters
 Stress the modernity of a particular product and its
suitability to the up-to-dated interior environments

19. Western-styled designs
 Mechanical counteractions between two contrasting
subject matters
 Spot-color as visual stimulation
 Raise audience’ sensitivity to speeds
 Duplicated illusions of tremendous alphabetical
typographies in the virtual-interface background

20. Western-styled designs
 Precise iconographies: concept-oriented expression
 Honor the idea of cubism, three-dimensional
expression and one-point perspective: a sense of
visual concreteness
 Intentional spatial distribution – rationale in idea
development

21. Western-styled designs
 The episodes of diving, flying, polar adventures,
tropical adventures, mountainous adventures and
desert adventures – stresses the tight coherence of
that particular product with the unreachable
boundaries: motivate people to obtain breakthroughs
from impossibilities
 Advertisement on concerts, orchestras or dramas:
using black background to highlight the solemnity of
achievements from that particular event / by that
particular performer

22. Western-styled designs
 Adoption of collage: delivering a sense of visual
variation
 Pop Art stylish: upholding the playful spirit of
consumerism
 Emphasize the pace of trend
 Mathematical order is adopted in the visual
expressions related to anatomical proportions

23. Western-styled designs
 Masculine features: an identity with self-confidence
 Fonts with musical rhythms: emphasized a
warmhearted welcoming manner for a pragmatic
experience in that particular cultural temperament
(e.g. bars, spaghetti banquets, coffee gathering…)
 Designs related to official documents: Idea of
formalism and structuralism

24. Western-styled designs
 Raising the awareness on public intellectuality
 Experimentally manipulate the transformational
effects of photography to deliver innovative concepts
(mainly rely on Photoshop, Illustrator and In-Design
to process the photos into graphics)

25. Digital collage with cute label clips
 Nowadays, the art of label clips,
with cute iconographies on their
surfaces, are usually applied as
magnetic chips for fixing the
notice papers onto the surfaces
of refrigerators.
 The designer apply the similar
“magnetic chips” concepts
which they can compose a floral
hoop for a youngster to uphold.
 (Source: www.itc.polyu.edu.hk )

26. Digitally-composed wearables
 The fashion codes inside a
virtual reality can comprise lots
of impossibilities without a
consideration on textile and
weaving matters.
 From this concert poster,
G.E.M is presented as a
futuristic lady with digitally-
composed wearables,
decorative accessories and
extravagant clothes. What the
designer needed to do was to
reserve G.E.M’s face not to be
covered. For other parts of her
physical body, they can be very
robotic.
 (Source: edge.neocha.com )

27. Genetically-modified biological lives
 It will be an eye-catching gimmick that
a duck has a rabbit-ear and a rabbit has
a sharp duck-mouth. The functions of
two animals are transformed.
 The genetically-modified biological
lives usually imply that the food chain
can be recomposed for suiting the
eating habit or nutritional demands of
contemporary mankind, trying hard to
ensure a harmonious coexistence
among different hostile animal species,
and resolve the problem of food
shortages in the impoverished regions.
 (Source: www.core77.com )

28. Putting four different images together
 Digital “woodblock-printed”
creative typographies, tram, a
fashion model with a “Phantom
of the Opera” mask on the dress,
the horizontal cursive jewellery
and the acrylic bracelet are six
different objects. But they can
be randomly put together as
snapshots and compose
another meaning related to the
endeavoring stories of Hong
Kong.
 Of course, the cored message is
to promote the fashion brand
by claiming that the clothes
represent the cored values of
original Hong Kong creativity,
instead of copying the aesthetic
ideas from the West.
 (Source: www.icsid.org )

29. Two contrasting colours for illustrating the energy of
sportsmanship
 The sharp visual contrast
between the fluorescent blue
and fluorescent red makes
people think about an
enthusiastic pursuit on sport
advancements. The
typographies deliver a speedy
vision.
 The man playing with a
dumbbell by sitting on an office
chair and the man playing the
hockey interlace harmoniously
to show that each athlete must
strive for a coexistence between
competition-oriented training
and personal muscular
development. The designer
seems to note that, sports is not
just for winning awards, but for
a persistence on maintaining
our physical health as well.

30. Your choice of life direction
 Everyone gets confused within
the critical crossroads from
different steps of his/her lives.
But he/she still needs to make a
decision for which turning point
suits his/her future happiness.
 The designer zoomed the camera
len closely upon the piece of
paper and the watercolour
painting tools. It makes people
feel like planning for a treasure
hunt or organizing a band
concert. But, it is just a poster for
a joint painting exhibition.
 (Source: Stephen Yau Wing-
kwong’s Facebook album, a
watercolour artist)

31. Food-composed typographies
 Using vegetables, bread,
pizzas, fruits, melons,
croissants and hot dogs for
composing the alphabets is
an innovative idea for
promoting a self-sufficiency
through local organic-food
cultivations; whereas it
stimulates people’s appetites.
 (Source:
www.inmedia.com.hk )

32. Case study: Joseph Tsang’s designs
 Joseph Tsang
(Nickname: Ah Pang)
recently graduated
from Immaculate
Heart of Mary College.
He participated in the
Umbrella Movement
and strived for a
genuine Universal
Suffrage with
widespread Hong
Kong citizen. He
dedicated his extra
time to the
exploration of
creative design
projects no matter at
his Alma Mater or
from the academia.

33. The Simpson iconographies on graduation biography
 Joseph Tsang wants
to make the profile
form from the
graduation biography
of his Alma Mater as
interesting as
possible. He hopes to
make each piece of
student’s literary
dedication appear as
similar as a featured
column from a
magazine or a piece
of newspaper.

34. Tropical tutorship
 Joseph Tsang dealt with a design
project from “iCon - The Education”.
He played with the paint-splashing
effect through the Adobe Illustrator. He
integrated the splashes with vibrant
fonts and a coconut tree.
 Joseph Tsang thought that, academic
studies are filled with boredom. It is a
torture for them to be requested for
attending the tutorial courses in
summer vacation and sacrificing their
leisurely times. Thus, Joseph hopes to
instill the visual elements of “tropical
rainforest”, “blue sky” and “sunshine
beach” to boost up students’ morale in
encountering the challenges of HKDSE
examinations.

35. Tropical tutorship

36. “Rock’n’Roll-liked” T-shirt
 Joseph loves sports very much.
He designs a T-shirt to search
for the spirit of unity among his
schoolmates in striving for
external sports achievements
and boosting up the reputation
of his Alma Mater.

37. Acknowledgement to the sources of artwork photos and
academic references
 School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
 Hong Kong Design Institute
 DeTour
 Hong Kong Trade Development Council
 iCon – The Education
 The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
 Inmedia.hk
 Hong Kong Design Centre
 Immaculate Heart of Mary College
 The Mira Hong Kong
 Hummingbird Music Limited