世纪域美 Resort Hotel Identity: The Character 世, Clouds and Mountains in a Single Seal

The character shi, turned into cloud

In 2018, while completing brand work for Empark Hotels & Resorts, Xinming Design submitted a complete logo and visual identity proposal for the group's leisure resort brand. The logo is a round gold seal: the character 世 (shi), first character of the group's Chinese name, is drawn out into rounded horizontal lines that curl outward into clouds, with two overlapping hills beneath, and every line looks carved into the face of the seal. The brand colours are deep green, gold and white; three sets of supporting graphics, mountains, lake and cloud, extend to stationery, guest-room amenities, door hangers and key cards. At proposal stage the identity carried the working name 世纪金源·观云 (Empark, Watching the Clouds); the brand owner then bought the copyright and assigned it to the group's resort brand 世纪域美 (Shiji Yumei), held as a reserve brand asset. In the same engagement, Xinming Design also delivered Empark Grand Hotel, The Empark View Hotel and Empark Prime.

A holiday is for looking

Empark Hotels & Resorts runs several hotel brands, each for a different kind of stay. In the same engagement, Empark Grand Hotel and The Empark View Hotel were business brands; this proposal was for the group's leisure resort direction.

What separates a resort from a business hotel is not only rooms and facilities, but why guests come. Business guests come because they have work in the city; resort guests come to leave the city behind and look at mountains, clouds and water.

So the question was: how can a resort brand belong to Empark and still make guests feel at a glance that they have left the city? The group's business brands lean steady and formal; a resort brand needed a looser feeling closer to nature, while still being recognisable as an Empark resort.

First, a verb for the holiday: to watch

The proposal did not start with a logo. It started with three images, each with a line:

· Mountains: listen to the sound of nature.

· Cloud and mist: light clouds, a light heart.

· Lake: water benefits all things and does not compete.

Next came a page of names for the resort brand, set vertically in three directions: Empark, Watching the Mountains; Empark, Watching the Clouds; Empark, Watching the Sea (世纪金源·观山, 观云, 观海). All three share one verb, 观 (guan, to watch). The core of a holiday is not staying but seeing, so the brand was named after what guests do here.

The proposal presented the whole identity as 世纪金源·观云. The brand was later named 世纪域美 by the client; the words 观云 in the images are the working name from the proposal stage.

Shi becomes cloud, with hills below

The logo has three parts, written in the proposal as the character 世 (the name), plus cloud and mist, plus mountains:

· The character 世: taken from the first character of the group's Chinese name, keeping the link to Empark. Its strokes are not calligraphic but drawn out into rounded horizontal lines, with the two verticals at the top still clearly visible.

· Cloud and mist: the horizontal strokes of 世 extend to both sides and curl at the ends into drifting clouds. Character and cloud share the same lines, so it reads as both.

· Mountains: two overlapping hills at the bottom, for the landscape of a resort destination.

All three sit inside a circle, and the way they do is worth noticing. The logo does not draw lines inside a circle; it is a solid gold disc, with the character, clouds and hills carved out of its face as fine lines, like a seal cut in intaglio, its lines sunk into the surface. Foil-stamped on deep green cloth, it is a seal pressed between mountains and water. It can also be read as a round window, looking out onto cloud and hills.

A seal carved to the golden ratio

The proposal provides a full construction drawing:

· Grid: the logo is drawn in a 16A square, with an outer ring of 0.7A, inner lines of 0.4A throughout, and every corner formed by an arc.

· Proportion: the composition comes from a sequence of diminishing circles, 17A, 10.5A, 6.4A, 4A, 2.3A and 1.4A, each about 1.62 times the next, close to the golden ratio.

· Wordmark: the Chinese wordmark (世纪金源 | 观云 at proposal stage) is drawn character by character, with even strokes and rounded corners matching the line language of the symbol.

A seal of drifting clouds that looks relaxed rests on strict proportions. That keeps the lines from clogging in foil stamping, embossing and small-scale print.

Deep green, gold and white

There are three brand colours: deep green (R0 G61 B53, C93 M65 Y78 K42, #003D35), the colour of forest and lake, quiet and deep, as the ground of the resort setting; gold (R187 G151 B95, C34 M44 Y67 K0, #BB975F) for the logo and line drawings, like sunlight on the hills, bringing warmth and quality; and white (R255 G255 B255, #FFFFFF) for open space, so the page can breathe. The proposal gives no PANTONE values. Deep green and gold are set against each other in large areas, and the gold line drawings on the dark ground read like small landscapes.

Three landscapes, one long scroll

The supporting graphics match the three opening images one to one:

· Mountains: hills built from triangles and arcs, with trees, dot screens and zigzag textures.

· Lake: crossing wave lines, with fish, lotus and dragonflies.

· Cloud: curling cloud lines from the same source as the logo, with distant hills and birds.

All three are drawn in fine lines and a few blocks of colour. They can be used alone, or joined along one horizon into a landscape scroll that unrolls sideways. On letterhead, amenity bottles, door hangers and luggage tags, guests see different stretches of the same view.

Bringing the view into the room

The proposal extends the logo, colours and graphics to stationery and guest-room items. On the deep green door hangers, one side reads "do not disturb" and the other "please clean room", each above a stretch of line-drawn landscape and a gold seal; the bottles and the toothbrush and comb packs rotate deep green, gold and white; on key cards and luggage tags, hills and clouds run along the long edge of the card.

A resort room holds many small items, and guests pick them up one by one. Giving each a small piece of the view is closer to the idea of a holiday than hanging one large painting in the lobby.

Deliverables and extensions

Logo design

· 世纪域美 symbol (the character 世, cloud and mountains) with construction drawing

· Chinese wordmark (世纪金源 | 观云 at proposal stage) with construction drawing

Core visual identity

· Brand colours: deep green, gold, white

· Supporting graphics: mountains, lake, cloud

Applications

· Stationery: letterhead, envelopes, business cards, notebooks, CD sleeves, document tubes

· Guest-room items: soap, shower gel, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush and comb packs, door hangers, key cards

· Promotional cards and luggage tags

All application images on this page are proposal mock-ups. The words 观云 are the working name from the proposal stage; place names, dates, contact details and personal names in the images are illustrative and do not indicate that the brand has opened anywhere.

Four brands, one engagement

In the same engagement, Xinming Design delivered visual identities for four brands of Empark Hotels & Resorts. Empark Grand Hotel kept its fan logo; the other three each received a new one:

· Empark Grand Hotel: keeping the logo, filling the fan with six blessings (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3047.html)

· The Empark View Hotel: a moon gate where strangers meet (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3048.html)

· Empark Prime: the character 世 as a window (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3061.html)

All three new logos find their forms in traditional Chinese architecture and objects: a door, a seal, a window. 世纪域美 is the seal, pressed between mountains and water.

Looking back eight years on

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. Find the verb before the name. Watching mountains, clouds and the sea defined a holiday as looking, so the identity starts from what guests do here, not from rooms and facilities.

2. Let character and image share the same lines. The horizontal strokes of 世 are the clouds, so the link to the group's name and the landscape of the resort become one figure.

3. A complete proposal is an asset in itself. Logo, proportions, colours, graphics and applications came as a full set, which is why the brand owner bought the copyright and holds it as a reserve for its resort brand.

What a resort brand should be remembered for is not how big the rooms are, but what guests saw while they were there.

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.)

· Note: the proposal working name was 世纪金源·观云; the brand owner bought the copyright and assigned it to 世纪域美, held as a reserve brand asset

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3049.html

Further reading

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

· Empark Prime Logo and Visual Identity: The Character 世 as a Window (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3061.html)

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

FAQ

Who designed the 世纪域美 logo?

The logo and visual identity proposal for 世纪域美 (Shiji Yumei) was designed by Xinming Design in 2018. It was presented under the working name 世纪金源·观云; the brand owner then bought the copyright and assigned it to the group's resort brand 世纪域美. The brand name was chosen by the client.

Why do the images say 观云?

世纪金源·观云 (Empark, Watching the Clouds) was the working name at proposal stage. The naming page offered three directions, watching the mountains, the clouds and the sea, and the identity was presented as 观云; the brand was later named 世纪域美.

What does the 世纪域美 logo mean?

It combines the character 世, cloud and mountains: the character, taken from the group's Chinese name, is drawn into rounded horizontal lines that curl outward into clouds, with two hills below, all carved into a round gold seal.

What are the 世纪域美 brand colours?

Deep green (R0 G61 B53, #003D35), gold (R187 G151 B95, #BB975F) and white.

Are there 世纪域美 hotels in operation?

This case presents the brand identity proposal only. The brand owner holds it as a reserve asset for its resort brand, and the application images on this page are proposal mock-ups.

Which companies can learn from this case?

Hotel groups preparing a resort brand; multi-brand groups balancing a link to the group name with a resort feeling; and resort and cultural tourism brands that want to build identity from landscape imagery without falling into cliché.

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