Beijing Spotlight
Client:
National Security Institute | George Mason University
The Problem:
Perhaps Intelligence Squared said it best: 'It seems as if everyone has a reason to be angry with China. Human rights organizations campaign against its suppression of democracy in Hong Kong and its treatment of Uighur Muslims in ‘re-education’ camps. Corporate America has battled for years against intellectual property theft from Chinese businesses. Green activists protest against its environmental record, while the arrival of 5G has created another point of friction as the UK and the US battle to limit Huawei’s influence. So what is the best way to handle this superpower?'
That's the question that National Security Institute was grappling with. They wanted to create a dedicated section of their webpage to this coverage, but needed a logo that would reflect the theme of under-reported stories that they planned to cover as well as imply the deeper dive and analysis they would provide. After decided on the name 'Beijing Spotlight', I was asked to develop the visual.
Mood Board:
Creating a mood board helped me to think through themes and word association related to the subject matter.
Some of these included: Uncover, Media, Narrative, Perception, Framing, Optics, Deep-Dive, Reveal, Shine, Light, Protest, People, Asian, Political, Reporting, Journalist, Authoritarian, Control, etc.
While not exhaustive, I've included some images from the board to show how color, theme, etc influenced the design.
Iterations:
During the course of development, several idea generation methods were used to develop concepts including lof-fi crazy 8s, mid-fi sketches, and hi-fi mockups. Many themes from the Tiananmen Square to the Hong Kong yellow umbrella protests influenced several of the earlier concepts.
Providing the client with multiple options opened the dialog to what was working and what might convey the wrong message.
While I suggested the top yellow umbrella option, as it was both representative of the Chinese protest movement, and functioned as a spotlight on the word Beijing. Ultimately In this situation, the client insisted on including a realistic spotlight in the logo leading to the first image at the top of the page. The idea of shining a spotlight on China's Flag resonated with the largest stakeholders for this project.