This project is designed to enable me to use the power of type to spark a conversation, that can develop a better cultural understanding and awareness of. By using the corresponding typeface it highlight the potential areas of the meaning it represents. Before designing anything, I have to explore the particular culture/ community - Hong Kong, in different perspectives and have an overview which can allow me to investigating some aspects in greater detail. Following this, I have to design a unique insight campaign and some relevant artifacts which can tell the story of Hong Kong by following a variety of angles and perspectives form the research.
The mission of this project is to interpret the culture/ community - Hong Kong, in a range of aspects and find out an appropriated typeface to represent and express the meanings, values, and views. Thus, gain a sense of community and an approach which can enable the identity to be strengthened or formed.
This typographic project explores the development of Hong Kong, from a rural outland in the 19th Century, to an international centre of business in the present day. Central to this is the notion of the ‘Hong Kong Spirit’, or as it is more widely known in Hong Kong, the ‘Spirit of Lion Rock’ (獅子山精神). This is said to represent an indomitable spirit - an ability to make ‘something’ from ‘nothing’.
The actual typeface embodies this indomitable Spirit in two distinct ways. Firstly, by using a quintessentially British font as starting point, the project references the historical, and now indelible, impact of British Colonialism on the country’s material culture. Secondly, as the font is broken down into individual strokes, it calls to mind the tradition of Chinese calligraphic mark making. In this sense, the project embodies the inextricable link between Britain and China, and the idea of building of ‘something’ from ‘nothing’