A Case Study on “We Love Boston Chinatown”: Designing Chinatown Resilience
Context
In the summer of 2020, Boston Chinatown non-profit organizations, businesses, residents, and city officials joined together to respond to rising anti-Asian sentiments that characterized the COVID-19 pandemic.
Role
Sole Designer
Building a “We Love Boston Chinatown” Campaign
The Message
- “Chinatown is Open for Business”— Encourage ordering take-out from Chinatown restaurants and eating outdoors.
- Physical Distancing—Promote safety, masks, and good cleaning practices.
- “Racism is a virus”— A slogan to counter anti-Asian sentiment.
- Celebrate Chinatown’s community, history, and culture
The Needs
“We Love Boston Chinatown” needed a brand identity and multiple bilingual small and large scale signages for public display to signal to all of Boston that Chinatown was open and ready for business.
The Target
- Non-regular visitors of Chinatown
- Young (API) professionals — 20s-40s
- New, non-working class residents of Chinatown
- Visiting families
After brainstorming conversations with core “We Love Boston Chinatown” leaders, we came to these core values for their new brand identity.
The Vibe
- Inviting, Welcoming, Loving
- Supportive & Community-Oriented
- Hopeful & Resilient
- Traditional & Classic, but also Trendy & Contemporary
- Family-Friendly
Part 1: Brand Identity
Brainstorming
Based on these standards, I brainstormed potential logo options and color palettes. Honing in on Bullet #4, I focused my attention on transforming iconic, easily recognizable images of Chinese tradition — the lion and the Chinatown gate in Boston — by pairing them with bright, playful colors and contemporary art styles.
Initial Proposals
Each brand identity package was complete with a primary logo, secondary logos, 3 brand colors, 3 accent colors, English typography, Chinese typography, icons, and samples of intended use.
Feedback
Over Zoom, I met with Chinatown organizers, business owners, and residents, to discuss their opinions on the three initial identity packages. While they responded positively to the exciting art styles in “Lion” and “Hug,” they ultimately felt that these designs were too youthful for older audiences. The final brand identity appealed to the widest audience.
Still, a few pieces of community feedback struck me. With the “Gate” package, community members appreciated the message of community and solidarity indicated by handholding, but skin tone became a topic of conversation—what race(s) are or should be implied? The final answer was something along the lines of “generally Asian or Chinese” but the subtle differences in skin tone between the two hands could suggest a some nuance within this answer. For some community members, the golden rays reminded them of Mao-era iconography, an undesirable association.
The Brand Identity
Final Logo
The final logo centers around the Boston Chinatown gate, iconic to the visual identity of the city. To create a welcoming atmosphere, two individuals walk hand-and-hand into Chinatown. I drew a visual parallel between the Chinatown gate and the gates of heaven: the gate sits atop traditional-style clouds and red flowers emanate from the gate like light rays. Reimagining traditional Chinese motifs and contemporary arts style reflect an appeal to Chinatown new and old community members.
I provided two options of the logo—one with hands and one without—for the brand to use at its own discrepancy.
Final Icons
All icons feature a light blue background for a comforting uniformity. The clean, minimal design presents a safe, hygienic, and clean look, which suits a post-pandemic reopening campaign.
Colors + Typeface
Simple, soft neutral colors and a simple, round sans serif create a clean, accessible, and comforting design. The bright red and cream are a modernized nod to traditional Chinese colors.
Part 2: Print Materials
The campaign centered around the “Get Your Take-Out, Take Out the Hate” and “Support Chinatown Businesses” slogans. Spacing was *key* to ensure the cleverness of the take-out/take out pun was clear. I used clear, bold type to draw the viewer’s eye to these messages.
Each design was modified several times to accommodate a wide range of dimensions for 24x36 signs, lamp banners, storage container panels, and vinyl marking signs.
“We Love Boston Chinatown” also requested creative signage and an art poster for general beautification purposes, several templates for future messaging, and a wide range of digital accents, frames, and banners for social media use.
Design Details
Conclusions
During this tense time, the final design needed to balance a spirit of community with outsider appeal, which proved newly challenging. Working with Chinatown community members meant considering histories and memories that were unfamiliar to me as a first generation American, but were wholly enlightening to consider as a historian-brained designer.
I was based in Los Angeles at the time, so I was unable to see the final signages during the height of the pandemic. My role was to create numerous in-the-moment signages and to deliver a “starter pack” of essentials for the campaign to build upon in the future.
They have since used my materials to design and launch their website: https://www.welovebostonchinatown.com/
Looking back on this project, I was not only satisfied with our clean design, but continue to feel a sense of fulfillment in having a hand in revitalizing this community during a difficult time.