This week's assignment was to create a logo for a city of my choice. I chose Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.
I first analyzed the Chinese characters and the meaning behind them. I then created a mind map of what Taipei means to me. I also asked several of my classmates who have been or lived in Taipei to give me some additional feedback.
With this information, I started sketching out some possible logos. My process was basically trying to combine two or three of the identities that were present in the mindmap.
I knew that I wanted to incorporate food into the logo because everybody associates Taipei with the street food available at the iconic night markets. Another identity I wish to incorporate was the moped/scooter. These are everywhere in Taipei and remind me of the city whenever I see one. Lastly, was the Taipei 101 skyscraper. I was at first very hesitant to incorporate the building since it seemed so cliche. But it was hard for me not to include it due to its overwhelming presence in the city.
I eventually ended up incorporating the food and the 101 identities for my logo, mostly inspired by a stack of bowls. Taipei 101's unique structure looks like several sections of the building are stacked on top of each other. I then used bowls because one of Taipei's most famous foods is the Taiwanese beef noodle soup. After sketching out a rough sketch, I started working on the logo digitally.
Above was the first draft of my logo. I found that the heat lines at the top of the logo did not look right. I wanted to show heat because the temperature in Taipei is incredibly hot and humid, but these heat lines didn't really convey this sort of intense heat. It eventually led me to turn these heat lines into noodles. I also felt that the removal of the outlines made the logo feel a lot less cartoony and cliparty.
Here is the final product. I put together several logos using different colors. I also situated them on a moped helmet and a t-shirt.
Special thanks to Siman Li for helping me in this design progress!