Field Journal

At the first journal, I claimed the problem about the ten-dollar banknotes of Hong Kong. Time is running out, as this is almost the end of all the journals. I think that this is a really good ending since I’d like to put forward the success of graphic design in Hong Kong with in this post.

It seems that all of the Hong Kong people live in art museum, since we have so many wonderful designs around us. The Mass Transit Railway, so called MTR, is like an art museum. There is amazing Chinese calligraphy on the wall of every single station in Hong Kong. The calligraphy is not the classic one. The calligraphy has modern shape and lines because the artists used circle to replace some lines within the characters. The informal Chinese calligraphy is very enjoyable because it makes every station carry their own personality.

I hope you notice the color use. The colors of each station don’t exist randomly. The color use is really functional due to the fact that every single station has its own color. Thus, the passengers can distinguish each stop by just a peek when they pass by. If you need to get down in one certain stop, you just need to remember the color of it. In fact, it is so hard to miss the stops since they are so obvious with its color.

The colors of each station exist for some reasons certainly. The upper image shows the wall of 油麻地 station. 油麻地 means the ground of sesame in Chinese. We can see the tiny brown dots that present the sesame on the design. Yes, they color is well related to the meaning of each station.

As you see, the station is the memorial of Prince Edward, who is 太子. The silver truly shows the mood of noblesse.

This is a bit tricky here. 油塘 means oil field, as the place it located used to be the industrial field of oil production. Do you feel the yellow like the color of oil?

Obviously, 彩虹 is the Chinese word of rainbow, and the color of 彩虹 station is designed as a rainbow. Again, the color use is functional.

When reading chapter 23, I know much more about new aesthetic of modern Chinese graphic design. As a Chinese, I am really proud of it. In the place I live, even every one of the MTR station is incredible. Beyond artistic, they are useful. I appreciate that they all carry two visual levels with modern Chinese calligraphy and colors.