Eight Hong Kong rebrands Xintiandi in China

Xintiandi is a flagship social destination created by China Xintiandi. The original Xintiandi sits at the heart of Tai Ping Qiao in Shanghai and was launched in 2001. The concept draws on traditional Shanghainese ‘shikumen’ architecture of low-rise brick buildings to create a retail-focused pedestrian district with shops, entertainment, cafés, restaurants and bars.

The runaway success of the pioneering Shanghai neighbourhood has led to the creation of similar districts in other locations around China, notably in Wuhan, Chongqing and Foshan. Shanghai Xintiandi receives over 70,000 visitors a day and the collection of Xintiandi destinations in China drew over 100 million visitors in 2017.

The expansion of the Xintiandi concept across China resulted in individual identities for each location. Eight was brought in to harmonise the numerous individual identities, creating a strong national brand for China Xintiandi and consolidating its customer-facing identity.

Visually, the new wordmark was inspired by a bird’s eye view of the charming alleyways that compose the original Xintiandi district in Shanghai. The labyrinthine lines in the wordmark symbolise the destination’s ability to generate a sense of exploration and discovery around vibrant and thriving public spaces.

The mark also moves away from the original heritage imagery in favour of something that modernises the look and feel across all the locations and is flexible enough to encompass all existing destinations as well as future ones under the Xintiandi umbrella.

“This refreshed identity consists of a strong, clean graphic mark,” says Iain Richardson, Executive Creative Director. “This works to bring together all the existing visual identities to project a strong unified graphic look to the Xintiandi brand, and is designed specifically to enable future growth.”