Accen Visual Identity Upgrade: Writing "Bath Time as Relaxing Time" into a Wordmark

Accen, written in one stroke

In 2020, Xinming Design upgraded the visual identity of Accen (澳雪), the personal care brand of Guangdong Jiadanting Commodity Co., Ltd. The wordmark moved from upright serif capitals, "ACCEN", to a single connected script, "Accen"; the bilingual lockup changed from stacked to side by side; and the deep navy became a clearer blue. The script capital A was enlarged into a supporting graphic, and ice, flowing water, foliage and coastline became the brand's imagery. The client's existing philosophy, "Make Daily Bath Time Relaxing Time" (让洗护成为一种享受), moved from a slogan to something people can see. The identity is still in use today.

A brand with history, not a blank page

Guangdong Jiadanting Commodity Co., Ltd., the company behind Accen, was founded in 1994. It has long focused on developing, making and selling personal care products, with "Make Daily Bath Time Relaxing Time" as its philosophy. According to the brand's public materials, Accen develops personal care products suited to Chinese skin, covering body wash, hand wash and other everyday categories.

By 2020, Accen had more than two decades of category recognition and consumer memory. So the question for this upgrade was not whether to look new, but:

· The few seconds of choice: a personal care brand appears on shelves, product pages, social media and short videos at once, with only seconds at each. Whether it conveys cleanliness, comfort and quality at first glance decides how often it is picked up.

· Consistency across touchpoints: when touchpoints say different things, memory scatters; when the system is unified, memory builds up.

· Keeping what people remember: upgrading a mature brand should not overturn what consumers already know; it should organise it more clearly.

Accen did not need a more complicated visual language. It needed a lighter, purer, more orderly identity system.

From upright capitals to a single stroke

Put the old and new wordmarks side by side and the change is clear. The old mark was built on serif capitals, "ACCEN", with a few decorative arcs over the A and a ™ symbol, with the Chinese 澳雪 stacked below, in deep navy. It was clear and upright, closer to a traditional trademark than to the feeling of bathing and relaxing.

The new wordmark makes three changes:

1. From serif capitals to a connected script. The five letters of "Accen" run in one stroke: the capital A is a single sweeping curve, like a stroke of flowing water, and "ccen" follows in rounded joined lowercase. It borrows no literal icon such as a drop or a bubble, yet brings the brand closer to its category.

2. From stacked to side by side. The Chinese 澳雪 now sits to the right of the English, with rounded stroke ends that match the softness of the script. A horizontal lockup suits pack fronts, shelf displays and e-commerce thumbnails better.

3. From deep navy to a clearer blue. The blue keeps the brand's colour memory, but brighter and cleaner, with less weight.

The construction drawing fixes the spacing between letters and the height relationship between Chinese and English on a grid, so a wordmark that looks "written" keeps the same proportions at any size.

The old mark drew its authority from being upright; the new one draws its warmth from flow. For a bath care brand, the second is closer to how people actually feel in the bathroom.

One letter A, and a frame

The script capital A is the most expansive stroke in the wordmark, so the proposal lifts it out and enlarges it as a supporting graphic. On posters, the great curve of the A is cropped at one side of the layout like a frame, holding the product in the middle; on tote bags, the whole word "Accen" runs vertically and large down one side, with one line of the brand philosophy and plenty of white space.

The same wordmark can be as small as a business card corner or as large as the structure of a layout. The supporting graphic did not need to be invented separately; it grows straight out of the wordmark.

A clear blue, and images that breathe

Xinming Design did not turn Accen into a typically loud consumer brand; it chose restraint:

· Blue conveys cleanliness, trust and calm, avoiding the saturated, high-stimulus promotional route;

· White brings space, purity and room to breathe;

· Natural imagery, water flowing beneath ice, dark foliage, a person resting in a tree, coastline and dandelions, all shows ease.

Notably, none of these images shows cleaning: no foam, no close-ups of water drops. They express the feeling after bathing, not the act itself. That is the visual translation of "Make Daily Bath Time Relaxing Time".

Translating a philosophy into a visual system

"Make Daily Bath Time Relaxing Time / 让洗护成为一种享受" was Jiadanting's existing philosophy. Xinming Design's job was to turn that sentence from a slogan into a visual language that can be seen and remembered:

· The wordmark uses one flowing stroke for the rhythm of relaxation;

· The colours use a clear blue and white space for cleanliness and calm;

· The imagery uses nature and rest for "relaxing time";

· The layouts set the bilingual line on business cards, envelopes, folders and posters, making it the brand's constant voice.

Deliverables and extensions

Wordmark and core system

· Upgraded Accen bilingual wordmark and construction drawing

· Bilingual lockup rules (side by side)

· Brand colours (blue, white)

· Supporting graphic: the script A

· Imagery direction

Applications

· Business cards, envelopes, letterhead, folders

· Tote bags

· Posters and leaflets

The business card, envelope, folder, bag, poster, banner and web images on this page are application mock-ups. Product packaging was not part of this project.

Looking back six years on

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. Upgrading a mature brand means organising what people already remember. The name, the blue and the category recognition all stayed; what changed was the posture of the wordmark and the order of the system.

2. The posture of a wordmark is the brand's mood. From upright capitals to a single stroke, Accen conveys relaxation without a single water-drop icon.

3. Images should express feeling, not function. Without foam or drops, only nature and rest, "relaxing time" becomes something you can see.

Not more decoration on the pack, but a smoother brand; not more information, but a more precise feeling. Completed in 2020, the identity is still in use because it lets people sense that it is clean, comfortable and trustworthy before they even use the product.

How to verify

· Client: Guangdong Jiadanting Commodity Co., Ltd.

· Brand website: www.ausnow.com.cn

· In use: Accen's current identity uses the wordmark upgraded in 2020

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3042.html

Further reading

· Strauss: writing a piano and the Huangpu River into a single letter S (a heritage brand refresh, www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3039.html)

· Pearl River Piano Group: from badge to P/R monogram, rebuilding the identity of a 60-year-old manufacturer (www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3014.html)

· Ocean Sonic Resort Sanya: how a bayfront resort open for more than a decade made itself memorable again (www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3036.html)

FAQ

Who designed Accen's current logo?

Accen's current wordmark was designed by Xinming Design in the 2020 visual identity upgrade, building on the original wordmark, and it is still in use.

What changed in the new Accen wordmark?

It moved from serif capitals, "ACCEN", to a single connected script, "Accen"; the bilingual lockup changed from stacked to side by side; and the colour moved from deep navy to a clearer blue.

Did Xinming Design create "Make Daily Bath Time Relaxing Time"?

No. It is Jiadanting's existing philosophy; Xinming Design translated it into a visual language.

What is Accen's supporting graphic?

The script capital A from the wordmark, enlarged and cropped like a frame on posters and leaflets; tote bags use the full wordmark set vertically and large.

Did Xinming Design design Accen's packaging?

No. This project was a visual identity upgrade; product packaging was not part of the scope.

Which companies can learn from this case?

Established personal care, toiletry and consumer brands that want to refresh without losing existing recognition, and consumer goods companies that need consistent recognition across shelves, e-commerce and social media.

Xinming Design is a brand systems design firm. Its work centres on systematic judgment, turning brand strategy into structures that can run and be inherited. www.xinming.sg