Research thesis 2007

Research thesis 2007

Title
Investigate bilingual typographic designs in cross-cultural contexts where Chinese and English characters co-exist in pre and post-1997 Hong Kong.

Abstract
Typography is considered the most important element in graphic communication design. Fundamentally typography represents language in a written format. In multi-cultural, officially bilingual societies that use two very different visual languages, a designer should have the required knowledge of the two languages to achieve successful bilingual typographic design. This investiagtion focuses on Hong Kong and its use of bilingual typography. This is a city where east meets west, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) where since 1997 the local government has established both Chinese and English as official languages; a context in which more than one typographic language needs to be applied in a design.

Within a theoretical framework informed by Edward Said and other discourses, I argue that it is important for a designer to have the understanding of the languages that he is working with. Case studies have been provided on the Hong Kong-based Austrian design Henry Steiner and the Hong Kong designer Alan Chan, to examine and illustrate how typographic design been affected by the social and political situation in pre and post-1997 periods of the city. The study recognises that by having the knowledge of both Chinese and English, one’s design ability will be strengthened and will therefore contribute to assist the practice of bilingual typographic design in Hong Kong to become a role model for other cross-cultural territories.

Wing Lau 11.2007
COFA, UNSW 

Special thanks to Ian McArthur for supervising on the development of this paper, Katherine Moline the Honours Program coordinator and Keith Tam for allowing his latest research - “Typographic Bilingualism: a framework for the coexistence of Chinese and English texts” to be one of the most important source for this research thesis.