#110320: PONY Archive/The Urbanization of A Classic Brand
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May 2009 -September 2011
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Baocheng Group/PONY
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Full-time product/design manager
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Oversee locate product designs; work with international team to keep product diversified.
This line of PONY graphic t-shirts was a pet project of mine during my time at PONY in China. Large part of my job involving managing a team of designer, having my own design project was not a priority. However, from time to time I’d create a small project for myself. This is one of those projects.
The inspiration of wanting to create a collection of urban graphic is actually based on the PONY international business. Let me explain. Like most American born sports brands, in time many brands went through a series of ownership and licensing exchange. PONY is one of those brands as well. At the time I am working on PONY brand. The brand is in the hand of an Asian corporation of world largest footwear manufactory. Needless to say, Asia market becomes the company’s main business focus.
Here are few major cities and countries when PONY business is thriving. There are Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, Seoul, Philippines and Argentina. Since all these are metropolitans, which street culture is a big part of all these locations. It’s fitting and interesting to create a graphic piece for each city and country.
Regarding the graphic style, which inspired by Keith Herring’s art. Instead of his abstract creative concepts, which is not possible to mimic.Instead I am using straight forward clear visual elements and symbols to represent each aspect of a place. For example, Chinese people love money, so I use element I use is paper bill; everyone enjoy bubble teas of Taiwan; Korea soccer team is very tough to beat in Asia. etc.
The element of interests are ranging from iconic buildings, major sport activity to food and memes. Key focus is choosing easy identified elements the best reflecting the urban culture side of each city and country. One of my favorite pieces is my interpretation of HongKong. The old school fishing sail boat reflected by a giant yellow duck is how I see HongKong keeps its tradition under the ever changing world its facing.
The graphic for the city of Shanghai is another very interesting piece. Since I was born in Shanghai, I know the city from a truly deep way. The yearly enjoyment of eating hairy crabs is a religious event for every Shanghainese. The bicycle falling into a pothole is both tragic and comedic because it’s true.
Even though graphic design itself is not where my skills shine, but I do believe I achieved what I set to accomplish. These six graphic pieces certainly are not perfect. However, the meaning behind each piece is quite easy to be understood. All in all, I consider it job almost well done.
