Creative store sign project puts fresh face on Taipei

2016/05/04

Dazhi Market in central Taipei’s Zhongshan District recently saw the signs of its stands renovated, reflecting ongoing efforts in the city to give new vigor to traditional community spaces through the input of designers and graphic artists as Taipei hosts the 2016 World Design Capital events.

Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs announced April 28 the completion of sign reinstallation projects at Dazhi as part of The Taipei Design, Action! initiative, which seeks to explore street aesthetics. On eight older street blocks in Taipei, 52 stores were selected to have their signs redesigned, with Dazhi having the first nine cases in the stalls selling such items as dumplings, pork and vegetables.

Aaron Nieh, designer of three new store signs, views it as a great experience to discuss and cooperate with store operators to create something different from his past works. “My style is usually quite cold and now I’ve learned to work on more relaxed, cheerful designs,” he said, recalling his childhood habits of accompanying his mother to traditional markets full of food materials and with a warm human touch, which characterize many other such places all around Taiwan.

DCA head Beatrice Hsieh considers the renovated Dazhi stores a brilliant example of infusing design creativity in everyday activities. “In the past, urban development or marketing projects were mostly focused on larger scales and bigger cases, with designers usually working for elite groups,” she said. “Now top designers, illustrators and architects are invited to contribute their creative ideas to a common community scene, too.”

The Taipei Design, Action! program was launched by TCG in 2012, the same year the city announced its intention to apply for the title of 2016 WDC awarded by Montreal-based International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. Taipei’s bid for the designation was successful, and the store sign renovation projects have also entered their fifth year, aiming to complete 100 cases by the middle of this year.

These projects are a good example of social design, a central theme of WDC events, allowing a group of people—in this case designers and store operators—to identify and pursue a common goal for boosting the well-being of society, Hsieh said, adding that she hopes this is just the beginning of using design capabilities to have a more wonderful everyday life.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=244348&ctNode=2194&mp=9)