How ancient Chinese craftsmanship informs the art direction and typography for a cultural heritage site

Imagine a brief that asks the designer to represent the essence of the Tang Dynasty era through a typeface. When Daming Palace put this ask to The Nine creative agency, they accepted the challenge and, after meticulous research and craft, presented Ladies of the Tang Dynasty. Creative Director Jiang Lai, explains how the team drew inspiration from two courtly paintings Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk and Ladies Playing Double. They realised that there was no better way to depict the spirit of an era than through people’s faces, so set to abstracting the details from courtly ladies’ makeup and hair to become geometric typography. The result was astonishing and the final work collected two D&AD Wood Pencils in Typography and Art Direction.

This typography took over a year to realise. The Nine started by making three hundred sketches, which they then simplified into the one abstract, geometric design to form the basis of unique letterforms and hundreds of abstract illustrations. They removed details like the eyebrows, eyes, and nose to be left only with the essence of the faces and figures. The studio drew on the hairstyles and lip colours seen in the paintings, as well as the striking makeup style. The yellow pigment on the forehead is a detail that symbolises golden light from the Buddha, who was revered in the Tang Dynasty. Jiang Lai explains that her team realised it would take some convincing to get Daming Palace to embrace a minimalist style, being a state company with a traditional style. However, this combination of Eastern and Western aesthetics was very well received and serves to powerfully represent Chinese culture internationally through the Latin alphabet.