my take on chinese design 中文設計之感想

I can no longer stand the silence. I’ve always had a personal conviction that Chinese design in Singapore generally feels and looks like a 2nd class citizen. Most designs are primarily done in English, and then haphazardly translated into Chinese. Language can be roughly translated, but design isn’t like that. People cannot expect an English design to be merely lifted and converted into another language and STILL expect it to be as effective. Allow me to point out why.

English and Chinese are vastly different in their Written Forms.

Chinese characters are logograms (象形文字), which means they are written to LOOK like what they represent. And more than just that, ALL characters have a fixed width and height, and are BLOCKISH. Or what we call monospaced characters. There is no spacial separation (space) within words and sentences.

English characters, on the other hand, are totally different. They are variable in width. Just like in this blog entry, the letters ‘i’ and ‘m’ have different width. English letters stick together form a discernable word. An empty space tells you when a word ends / begins.

These differences between languages may seem small, but in design it’s enough to define two entirely different design philosophies already. In other words, Chinese design will have to be entirely rethought. Designers NEED to recognize that Chinese medium demands a entirely new approach to ensure the message is enhanced, not lost, to the very audiences they seek to speak to.

If I may, I would like to offer my word of advice to anyone who’s dabbling with Chinese design.

1. Give Chinese language the respect and coverage it deserves.

Don’t give your last ounce of design stamina to it. Don’t leave it to the last to do. If your tendency is to neglect it, them why not give it primary attention first. This way you can spare more time to thinking of how Chinese design works. It’s not difficult, it just requires you to care enough about the people who will see your design.

2. Please diversify your Chinese fonts.

I dare say that 80% of Chinese designs use only ONE FREAKING FONT. Simhei, or Simsun. I’m not sure if it’s due to laziness or lack of innovation, but they both behave like Arial. They both are so common they actually suck. Yucks! I will release a subsequent post JUST talking about Chinese font. So keep a look for them!

One thing about Chinese design is that, because of the uniformity of Chinese characters, you CAN (read: CAN) break the design rule by using 4 or 5 fonts! In a page! Yes!

Why so? Because even after the font is changed, the overall appearance is still the same. Simsun and Simhei, while being entirely different in themselves, look similar from a macro point of view. A design will greatly benefit from the having different fonts, the same way English design can benefit as well. Varied fonts can more accurately bring out the emotion of the design. Using a ‘standard’ font basically handicaps the aesthetic appeal of any design.

3. English design rules don’t apply in Chinese!

What are the common typography design rules? Leading, tracking, drop caps, font weight, presentation. Hierarchy. Are they such rules for Chinese design? Yes. But are they the same rules? NO!

For example:

.

.

1. You can track a English word, but not Chinese! You need a certain horizontal space between characters for them to be legible! This means that when using software like Word or InDesign, you have to do the extra work to track the characters properly! Because these softwares do a very poor job in tracking.

.

.

2. You can exploit the vertical writing ability of Chinese characters! Very few people will think of presenting Chinese vertically. Yet for short phrases and taglines, it’s immensely effective, simply because its the ONLY language that can be presenting vertically, with GRACE. Try it with English. It’s gross.

…

…

I will post a another post JUST on Chinese typography. I think it’s so important to understand this. It’s been neglected for too long. It’s crucial to Chinese design! Hope that you’ve found this post beneficial to you!

About jiromaiya

Largely popular with a few exceptions, he doesn't love the whole world, and doesn't try to either. A typical Singaporean epicurean, he enjoy

View all posts by jiromaiya →