Provenance

Out of line

Located in the Hangzhou old town, Hong Shi Ban Farmer's Market was revamped by way of space design and rebranding in the summer of 2018 to attract new and younger patrons and increase revenue for its vendors. To freshen up its tired image, the market's visual identity and signage system, such as signs indicating the name, price, and weight of the produce, are redesigned. The design team disrupted the linearity of written language, so the bilingual logo and sign contain Chinese characters and letters of the alphabet that are scattered along the edge or arranged in between one another to form an intriguing visual and semantic logic. As such, convention-defying promotional signs such as "today' sale" excite interest as Chinese and English words intermingle with and the exclamation mark. The typefaces in two languages are designed to direct customers' attention to each semantic unit, and different sizes help customers distinguish a piece of information from one another. Reading signs is turned into a brain teaser game that makes us see the world around us a bit differently. Exploring the potential of handicap and multiplicity, visual communication at Hong Shi Ban refreshes our relationship with language in everyday life.

Hong Shi Ban Farmers' Market is a traditional farmers' market in the old town of Hangzhou, which was hoping to attract a younger clientele. It was completely modernised and refurbished in the summer of 2018 and the Hong Shi Ban Farmers' Market branding was redesigned. The new branding takes the Chinese word as the main visual recognition, inspired by the original visual relationship and usage. Based on an arrangement of Chinese and Western bilingualism, the text sequence and arrangement are disrupted to form a new flat language system and interesting visual experience.

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