Located in a historic building in the heart of Hong Kong, Crafts on Peel is a not-profit creative and experiential venue. They serve as a collaborative platform to create a sustainable ecosystem for traditional craftsmen and contemporary artisans from different regions, to enhance our appreciation of craftsmanship, and to celebrate our cultural heritage and collective identity. Crafts on Peel needed a visual identity to launch their non-profit venue. They wanted an identity that would pay homage to traditional South Asian craft with a sense of modernity and rejuvenation.
Brief
The identity needed to capture their message about how South Asian craft can be functional and not just art, as well as the importance of preserving the past that is relevant today. kith&kin firstly started working with Craft on Peel through a series of workshops to find out how we could position Crafts on Peel as a truly collaborative space between the old and new. We found out that they wanted to be a networker between old and new. They wanted to show people, who are unaware of local craft traditions, that the values of traditional craftsmanship can be integrated into our modern times. They wanted to be able to educate people on the process of the craft. Most importantly, they wanted the space to not only be a place to showcase talent, but also a retail space.
Process & Design
At kith&kin, our team has a personal passion for craftsmanship as most of us come from craft backgrounds. We wanted to delve into what it means to be a craftsperson and what it means to create craft. The essence of craftsmanship lies in the hands. At the core of the visual identity concept for Crafts on Peel is the stories of craftsmen.
The logo reflects their commitment to preserving Chinese cultural heritage, which is composed of a pair of “hands” (手) in two Chinese characters – the fundamental tool for a craftsman. The hand character, together with its inverted mirrored image, is combined to form the Chinese character “I” (我), which is the idea that each craft originates from a personal story of the individual craftsman. The two hands also symbolise the relationship between the craft master and his apprentice, as the skill is passed on from one generation to the next.
A key consideration in the visual design was that it needed to be flexible as they host many exhibitions of various themes. The posters have materials and tools assembled together to look like the characters they represent, such as “bamboo” (竹). The design was kept as very minimal to let the work of the craftsmen shine through.
