(Design) VIS for Taiwan's biggest design exhibition in 2023.
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Geographically, New Taipei City is a city without a center. It has the most administrative districts in Taiwan, and also contains the largest residential population in Taiwan. There are hundreds of industries running at high speeds there, with industrial networks that can be independent from or linked to each other.
This huge ring-shaped city is always running and not resting, very upright in its words and behavior, yet also very tactful in its actions. In 2023, when New Taipei City is about to become the main stage for Taiwan’s largest design expo, Ultra Combos takes on this important task to create this year’s image identity, as well as tell a story with the themes centered on “city” and “design” through visuals.
The general curatorial concept of the 2023 Taiwan Design Expo in New Taipei City began with people, with “○” as the core image of the city. “○” contains the concept of “round,” which is an adjective, and “surround,” which is a verb. Connotations include the round and ring-shaped city appearance of New Taipei City, the ring-shaped elevated roads that connects various nodes of the city, the manner (khut-sè) of drivers controlling the steering wheel, the constantly rotating axis in the factory, and the connection between the two ends of the urban spectrum. The chief curator closely adheres to the core concept of “○” and develops different meanings and connotations of “○” in New Taipei City through subject matters, such as mountains and rivers, folk customs, ethnic groups, industries, art, life, urban governance, and social design.
If New Taipei City represents the city of many people, then it will not only have one appearance and one voice, but a MIXTAPE composed of the voices of many people. In order to present this MIXTAPE of New Taipei City, as well as to go along with the theme, a large number of circles were used in the visual to form its tone. Just like the fine reflections of albums and records, we delicately use countless words to present the humanistic features, natural ecology, and various industries of New Taipei City - just like a symphony composed of the voices of many people.
In response to the spirit of the city of people, the color composition breaks away from a single color variation and we adopted the representative colors of New Taipei's five aesthetic corridors, including: red from Yingge Pottery, blue from the sky and coast, yellow from the gold mines in Jiufen, green from mountains and forest, and gray from urban exploration. These colors use a composition with no single representative color and no center to present the unrestricted, diverse, and inclusive urban characteristics of New Taipei City. The animation of the main visual also uses digital tools, where huge amounts of text from stories about New Taipei City are captured through program coding, and then scattered on the light waves of the main visual, creating a visual feast that continues to flow around.
In response to the design concept of “○” and to enhance the image of connecting all kinetic energy and surrounding endlessly, we designed one system with 24 signs using the indicator ○, and further developed them into a kinetic pictogram system, and using “high-speed rotation,” “full energy,” and “constant changes” as the interpreted core feelings of the animation.
This way, whether online or offline, digital or analog, screen or printed, visitors can constantly discover the symbol that encircles everything during the exhibition. This can further deepen the impression of the exhibition in everyone's mind, and extend the kinetic energy of New Taipei City to its fullest, ○ everything.
Generally, we hope that through the main visual design, everyone can get to know the temperament of the exhibition. However, the Taiwan Design Expo has been around for a long time and has a great reputation, so we no longer need to explain the reasons for the Expo; therefore, we proposed that “design comes from observation” and then extended it to a proposal of “design interactive behavior” - starting from a certain point, these pink circles began to appear on New Taipei City’s streetscapes, in MRTs, and outside buildings. Each person expresses their own definition of the circle, and the meaning and connotation of the circle have caused many discussions. And this is an example of a design attracting attention in a city.
Through large and small circles, we condense the visual elements into ○ that can be freely interpreted and defined, guiding the public to explain, discuss, even debate and reinterpret, and, thereby, spreading the word about the Taiwan Design Expo in New Taipei City.