Hong Kong Design Institute – Logo competition

The Hong Kong Design Institute held an international competition to design their new logo. Every individual could enter up to 3 different proposals that reflected the values and interests the Design institute seeks to promote.
The following are the 3 proposals that I submitted to the competition.

This logo is both an abstraction of the letters H and K and of a human figure that symbolizes how the people are central to the design practice in general and how the students are the institute’s biggest asset.

All the shapes converge in a central area to represent the bringing together of different areas of expertise to work for a common goal.

The custom made font used for the text, is clear and legible, and has a stylized dynamic look achieved by a balanced use of both curves and straight edges, which can be seen as a reflection of the creative and the professional side of the design practice respectively As a whole, the use of only two main colors in the logo (red and black) and its simplicity, means that it is very flexible and usable in different media and materials. For example it can easily be translated into a grey scale without losing its distinctiveness.

This logo is an abstraction of a butterfly, an animal often associated with beauty and perfection, two concepts that reflect the artistic and professional aspects the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) seeks to promote in the design practice of the region.
It is also meant to symbolize how the HKDI nurtures, prepares and drives designers towards perfection, as an analogy to the metamorphosis process a butterfly undergoes in its cocoon, before emerging as a fully developed adult.

The butterfly is also closely related to Chinese culture (the famous ‘Butterfly lovers’ legend is a clear example of this), and to Hong Kong’s fauna (close to 20% of all butterfly species present in China can be found in Hong Kong). This, along with the use of the color red, links the logo to a national identity since it is both the national color of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the regional color of Honk Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

The butterfly shape is composed of abstraction shapes of the letters ‘H’ (left wing and thorax), ‘K’ (right wing and thorax) and ‘I’ (thorax). These are a reference to the initials of the Hong Kong Design Institute.

The thorax is made by a brush stroke to symbolize the artistic aspect of the HKDI. The gradient of red used for the wings and the way they seem to be moving towards a single, converging point, symbolize how the different departments of the HKDI work together towards a common goal.

The custom made font used for the text, is clear and legible, and has a stylized dynamic look achieved by a balanced use of both curves and straight edges, which can be seen as a reflection of the creative and the technical side of the design practice respectively.

As a whole, the use of only two main colors in the logo (red and black) and its simplicity, means that it is very flexible and usable in different media and materials. For example it can easily be translated into a grey scale without losing its distinctiveness.

This logo is based on one of the petals of the Bauhinia blakeana, the regional emblem of Hong Kong, and the color red is used as a reference to the main national and regional color of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the HKSAR (Honk Kong Special Administrative Region) respectively.

It represents a propeller, to symbolize the role of the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) as a thrust provider for the design practice in the region. Each of the ‘blades’ has a slightly different shade in a scale of reds, to give an impression of movement and dynamism.

The 3 ‘blades’ and the way they converge in a central area, represents the 3 departments which where brought together to form the HKDI (Design, Fashion & Textiles, and Printing & Digital Media). They also give an impression of being connected in an infinite loop while still being open to outside influence; this symbolizes the openness to the world while working together.

The custom made font used for the text, is clear and legible, and has a stylized dynamic look achieved by a balanced use of both curves and straight edges, which can be seen as a reflection of the creative and the professional side of the design practice respectively

As a whole, the use of only two main colors in the logo (red and black) and its simplicity, means that it is very flexible and usable in different media and materials. For example it can easily be translated into a grey scale without losing its distinctiveness.