Empark Grand Hotel Visual Refresh: Keeping the Logo, Filling the Fan with Six Blessings

One fan, six blessings

In 2018, Xinming Design refreshed the visual identity of Empark Grand Hotel Beijing. The fan-shaped logo of Empark Hotels & Resorts was kept unchanged. Xinming Design refined the brand colours and chose six motifs from traditional Chinese decoration as the source of a supporting graphic: the door-knocker mask, the dragon, the Chinese knot, the copper coin, the baoxiang flower and the auspicious cloud, standing for safety, nobility, unity, abundance, elegance and good fortune. The motifs were redrawn in a consistent line; five of them were placed inside the outline of the fan logo to form a set of fan patterns, which were then carried onto letterhead and envelopes, guest-room amenities, menus, shopping bags, brochures and outdoor advertising. In the same engagement, Xinming Design also delivered logos and identities for three other brands: The Empark View Hotel, 世纪域美 (Shiji Yumei) and Empark Prime. The system is still in use.

A well-known logo with little more to say

Empark Grand Hotel Beijing stands at 69 Banjing Road in Haidian District, the same address as the headquarters of Empark Hotels & Resorts. "Empark Grand" is also the name of one of the group's hotel lines, and the hotel directory on the group website lists Empark Grand hotels in several other cities.

The group's logo is a fan: several curved ribs radiate upward from a single point and open into a half-spread fan. It had been in use for many years, was remembered by guests and the industry, and was the hotel's most valuable visual asset.

The problem was not the logo but everything around it. A business hotel uses a great many materials every day: letterhead, envelopes, menus, amenity bottles, shopping bags, brochures, lightboxes. With only a logo, most of them could be little more than "logo plus background colour": thin, and unconnected to one another. From check-in to dining to departure, guests saw a lot, but very little reminded them that this was Empark.

So the question was: if the logo cannot change, where else can the brand find something new to say?

Meaning first, then form

The proposal did not start with graphics. It started with meanings. Six pages each show one motif, a photograph of the real object, and a meaning in Chinese and English:

· Door-knocker mask (pushou): safety and protection (Safety Guard). The photo shows a pair of beast-mask door knockers on an old wooden door.

· Dragon: nobility and authority (Nobleness Authority). The photo shows a bronze-coloured dragon ornament.

· Chinese knot: unity and closeness (Unity Geniality). The photo shows a red Chinese knot.

· Copper coin: abundance and fulfilment (Riches Satisfactory). The photo shows a heap of old copper coins.

· Baoxiang flower: classical elegance (Classical Gorgeous). The photo shows a flower in traditional painted architecture.

· Auspicious cloud: good fortune, as you wish (Auspicious Longevity). The photo shows a jade ruyi sceptre.

All six are things guests have seen on doors, beams and objects, and recognise without explanation. The last pairing is worth a closer look: the photo for the auspicious cloud is not a cloud but a ruyi, whose head is itself shaped like a cloud. Good fortune and "as you wish" meet in a single form.

This step set the direction for everything that followed. The supporting graphic is not ornament but a set of symbols with origins and meanings. For a hotel receiving business, conference and city travellers, they can be read as six blessings addressed to the guest.

Putting the motifs inside the fan

Next, the motifs were placed inside the shape of the logo. The proposal sets each gold motif above its grey fan version (image 9):

· The outline comes from the logo. The outer edge of every fan pattern is the outline of the fan logo.

· Motif at the centre, lines filling the rest. The cloud, door-knocker, dragon, knot or coin sits at the centre of the fan, and curling lines of the same weight fill the remaining space.

· A set of five. The proposal shows five fan patterns: cloud, door-knocker, dragon, Chinese knot and coin. The baoxiang flower appears as a separate line motif.

The logo's outline became a container. Even when the full logo is not on the page, guests who see the fan shape recognise Empark, and what the fan now holds is richer than a logo alone. The logo is there to be recognised; the patterns are there to speak.

Enlarged as texture, cropped as border

A supporting graphic proves itself at different sizes. In the proposal, the fan patterns are used in three ways:

· Enlarged and cropped, as texture. On the envelope lining and in the corner of the letterhead, a pattern is enlarged until only part of it shows, its lines weaving into a quiet texture across the paper.

· Half a fan, as a border. On the amenity bottle labels only the upper half of the fan shows, like an arched border; the shampoo, conditioner and skin cream each carry a different pattern, one family with a different blessing each.

· Whole, as an emblem. On shopping bags, the TV guide and brochure covers, a pattern appears as a full fan or a large section, alongside the logo.

These three uses let one set of patterns stretch from the corner of a business card to a subway lightbox.

Warm grey, off-white, a dark tone and gold

Xinming Design refined the brand colours. In the applications, warm grey and off-white form the main ground, the logo and text use a dark tone, the patterns are drawn in fine light-grey or warm-grey lines, and gold is kept for the motifs on the meaning pages and for the metal finish of the badges. The whole is quiet and restrained: colour steps back so the patterns can lead, which suits a hotel whose guests are mostly business travellers.

Four brands, one engagement

In the same engagement, Xinming Design delivered visual identities for four brands of Empark Hotels & Resorts:

· Empark Grand Hotel: the logo kept, with new colours and fan patterns (this page).

· The Empark View Hotel: a new logo and identity shaped as a moon gate (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3048.html).

· 世纪域美 (Shiji Yumei): a new logo and identity gathering the character 世, mist and mountains into a seal (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3049.html).

· Empark Prime: a new logo and identity turning the character 世 into a window (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3061.html).

Seen together, the four projects can be read as one approach: finding forms in traditional Chinese architecture and objects. Empark Grand is the only one that kept its original logo. Its task was not to become something new, but to let a logo guests already remember say more in the places where they meet it.

Deliverables and extensions

Basics

· Brand colour refinement

· Supporting graphics: line drawings and meanings of six traditional motifs (door-knocker mask, dragon, Chinese knot, copper coin, baoxiang flower, auspicious cloud)

· Fan patterns: cloud, door-knocker, dragon, Chinese knot, coin

· Rules for the fan patterns: enlarged texture, half-fan border, full emblem

Stationery

· Letterhead, envelopes, business cards, notebooks

Hotel amenities

· Guest-room amenity bottle labels

· Menu covers and table cards

· TV guide

· Shopping bags

Marketing

· Tri-fold brochures

· Posters

· Outdoor lightboxes and subway advertising

The badge, stationery, amenity, brochure, poster and outdoor images on this page are application mock-ups; some of the English copy, figures and small badges in them are placeholders.

Looking back eight years on

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. A refresh does not always need a new logo. A logo guests already remember is an asset. Empark Grand's refresh happened around the logo: in colour, in pattern, and in the materials guests hold every day.

2. A logo's outline can become a container. Filling the fan with traditional motifs lets the brand be recognised without the full logo, and gives the materials something to say beyond the logo.

3. Cultural motifs need a use. Each motif has an origin and a meaning, and each has a job: enlarged it is texture, cropped it is a border, whole it is an emblem.

Completed in 2018, the system is still in use. The steadiest refresh keeps what guests remember exactly as it is, and lets the places they never noticed begin to speak.

How to verify

· Contracting entity: 北京世纪金源大饭店有限责任公司 (Beijing Empark Grand Hotel Co., Ltd.)

· Hotel: Empark Grand Hotel Beijing, 69 Banjing Road, Haidian District, Beijing

· Group: Empark Hotels & Resorts (世纪金源酒店集团), www.empark.com.cn (fan logo in the header; Empark Grand Hotel Beijing listed in the hotel directory)

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3047.html

Further reading

· Ocean Sonic Resort Sanya: How a Bayfront Resort Open for More Than a Decade Made Itself Memorable Again (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3036.html)

· Haiding Village Hotel: Drawing the Mountains of Baihualing in a Few Lines (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3040.html)

· The Empark View Hotel Logo and Visual Identity: A Moon Gate Where Strangers Meet (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3048.html)

FAQ

Did Xinming Design design the Empark fan logo?

No. The fan logo is the existing logo of Empark Hotels & Resorts and was kept unchanged. Xinming Design refined the brand colours, designed the supporting graphics and extended them across applications in 2018; the system is still in use.

What is Empark Grand Hotel's supporting graphic?

A set of fan patterns. Xinming Design chose six traditional Chinese motifs and redrew them in a consistent line; five of them (cloud, door-knocker, dragon, Chinese knot, coin) were placed inside the outline of the fan logo. They can be enlarged as texture, cropped as a border, or used whole as an emblem.

What do the six motifs mean?

The door-knocker mask stands for safety and protection, the dragon for nobility and authority, the Chinese knot for unity and closeness, the copper coin for abundance and fulfilment, the baoxiang flower for classical elegance, and the auspicious cloud for good fortune.

Why was the logo not changed?

The fan logo had been in use for many years and was remembered by guests and the industry; it was the hotel's most valuable visual asset. What the hotel lacked was expression beyond the logo, so the refresh focused on colour, supporting graphics and materials.

Which other brands were delivered in the same engagement?

The Empark View Hotel, 世纪域美 (Shiji Yumei) and Empark Prime. Xinming Design created new logos and identities for these three, while Empark Grand kept its original logo.

Which companies can learn from this case?

Hotels and service brands with a well-recognised logo that want to refresh without replacing it; business hotels that want to build identity from traditional culture without looking dated; and hotel groups managing several brands at once.

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