Weiye Ceramics Brand Upgrade: One Plate That Spells 业

One plate, seen from above and from the side

In 2021, Xinming Design upgraded the brand of Weiye Ceramics Co., Ltd., a commercial ceramic tableware maker in Chaozhou. Weiye's original logo was a wordmark; keeping the Chinese and English names, Xinming Design added a round plate symbol: a red ring is a plate seen from above; four vertical bars at its centre come from plates seen from the side and together form the character 业 (ye, "enterprise"); and the open space at the centre is a rising sun. The main colour is Chinese red (PANTONE 185 C). The client's brand line "TIME TAKES, WE STAY." was added to the logo lockup in script. Xinming Design also delivered the core visual identity and its applications. The logo is still in use, in the header of the Weiye Ceramics website.

*(Before and after: left, the original wordmark; right, the new logo with the plate symbol.)*

A logo you could read, but not use on its own

Weiye Ceramics Co., Ltd. is based in Fengxi, Chao'an District, Chaozhou, Guangdong. It began in 1992 as the Chaozhou Chihu Weiye Porcelain Factory and took its current name in 2008. It makes commercial ceramic tableware for hotels, restaurants and other food service settings.

Before 2021, Weiye used a wordmark: a red script W with the traditional Chinese characters 偉業陶瓷 and the English WEIYE. It could be read, but it had two problems: there was no symbol that could stand on its own, and nothing in it said that the company made porcelain.

Commercial tableware customers are hotels, restaurants and buyers, who see the brand again and again at trade shows, in catalogues, on cartons and on the products themselves. A logo made only of letters and characters is hard to print on its own on the underside of a plate, the corner of a carton or a pin badge. A company that had made porcelain for nearly thirty years needed a symbol that said "we make porcelain" at a glance.

Two elements: time and porcelain

The brand line "TIME TAKES, WE STAY." (in Chinese, "fine porcelain settled by time") was proposed by Weiye Ceramics. The proposal gives it a page titled "two elements: time and porcelain", reading it this way: time plus ceramics makes a great enterprise; stretch the timeline and you reach Eastern tradition, of which Chinese characters are the essence and porcelain the heritage.

The page carries a photograph of sunrise over the sea: a sun, with a vertical column of light on the water. On the next page, the logo rationale, the same photograph stands for "sun". The "time" in the brand line is drawn in the logo as a rising sun.

Plate, character and sun

The rationale page breaks the symbol into three elements: 业, plate and sun.

· A plate seen from above: the circle of the logo is the outer contour of a vessel, like a plate seen from above. The broad red ring is the plate's rim.

· Plates seen from the side, forming 业: four red vertical bars stand at the centre of the ring, the outer two short and the inner two tall, each rounded at one end and flat at the other, like plates seen edge on. Together they form 业, the second character of Weiye's name. In the proposal's words, the strokes of the character open to both sides like branches, with a sense of upward growth.

· A hollow sun: the middle of the symbol is left open to give the feeling of the sun rising. The white between the four bars can be read as the vertical column of light on the water in that sunrise photograph.

The same plate, looked at twice: from above it is a circle, from the side it is a character. Every part of the symbol comes from Weiye's own product, so it can be printed on the underside of a plate, on a carton or on a badge without any explanation.

The construction drawing uses X as its unit: the outer circle is 14.3X across and the inner circle 8.6X, with the positions and rounded ends of the four bars fixed on the grid.

Wordmarks and a handwritten line

The new Chinese wordmark 伟业陶瓷 moves from traditional to simplified characters, and the English wordmark becomes WEIYE CERAMICS, both in steady, clear sans serif forms that work on packaging, catalogues and signage.

The client's English line "Time takes, We stay." is added to the lockup in script (Balig Script), giving a standard lockup of symbol, English wordmark and handwritten line. Beside the regular symbol and wordmark, one handwritten line reads like the signature on a piece of porcelain.

The corporate typefaces are Balig Script Regular for English headlines; Montserrat Medium/Bold and Lato Regular/Bold for English text; and Source Han Sans CN Medium/Bold for Chinese.

Chinese red and five supporting colours

There are six brand colours. The main colour is Chinese red (PANTONE 185 C, RGB 230/0/45, #E6002D), for the logo and main visuals; the supporting colours are deep red (PANTONE 200 C, RGB 182/0/31, #B6001F), gold (PANTONE 7508 C, RGB 222/185/113, #DEB971), off-white (PANTONE 7506 C, RGB 255/246/233, #FFF6E9), black (PANTONE Black 6 C, #000000) and white (#FFFFFF). Chinese red is the red of glaze and the colour of celebration, fitting the banquets where commercial tableware is used; gold and off-white give the red more texture on gift boxes and catalogues. The logo works on Chinese red, gold, off-white, black and white grounds.

From catalogue to pallet

The applications cover office, packaging, promotion and environment. A few are worth a closer look:

· Gift box: a red outer box with a gold embossed seal, holding a tea set. The proposal gives the full structure and finishes: finished size 422mm × 146mm × 335mm, high-density board and specialty paper for the cover, an EVA insert, translucent glassine as the inner paper, and embossing with raised gold foil on the cover.

· Cartons: kraft shipping cartons stacked on a pallet, printed with the logo and "TIME TAKES, WE STAY." For a commercial tableware maker, the carton is what customers' warehouses and kitchens see most often.

· Posters and lightboxes: the logo sits at the centre of a blue-and-white porcelain plate pattern. A logo that came from a plate goes back onto a plate.

Other applications include business cards, staff passes, shopping bags, brochures, envelopes, signage, outdoor advertising, work uniforms, T-shirts and pin badges.

Deliverables and extensions

Logo upgrade

· Plate symbol (plate seen from above, plates seen from the side forming 业, and a hollow sun) with construction drawing

· Chinese wordmark 伟业陶瓷, English wordmark WEIYE CERAMICS

· Lockup rules (including the script brand line) and the logo on different grounds

Core visual identity

· Brand colours: Chinese red, deep red, gold, off-white, black, white

· Corporate typefaces

Applications

· Office: business cards, staff passes, envelopes, brochures

· Packaging: gift box, cartons, shopping bags

· Promotion: posters, lightboxes, outdoor advertising

· Environment and image: building sign, wayfinding, work uniforms, T-shirts, pin badges

The business card, staff pass, packaging, poster, outdoor, building sign, wayfinding and clothing images on this page are application mock-ups; names on the business cards and passes are placeholders.

Looking back five years on

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. A manufacturer's logo is best grown from its own product. Every part of Weiye's symbol comes from a plate, so it connects with porcelain without explanation.

2. The same object can be looked at twice. From above a circle, from the side a character: one symbol holds both the product and the name.

3. Design for real B2B touchpoints. A commercial tableware brand appears most often in catalogues, on gift boxes and on cartons stacked on pallets, not only in advertising.

Completed in 2021, the logo is still in use, and the history page of the Weiye Ceramics website records a brand refresh in 2022. For a company that has made plates for thirty years, the best logo is a plate.

How to verify

· Client: Weiye Ceramics Co., Ltd. (伟业陶瓷有限公司), Fengxi, Chao'an District, Chaozhou, Guangdong

· Weiye Ceramics website: www.weiyeceramics.com (the logo and script line in the header)

· Brand refresh record: the history page of the Weiye Ceramics website, under 2022, records a refreshed brand image and the company's 30th anniversary

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3055.html

Further reading

· Pearl River Piano Group: From Badge to P/R Monogram, Rebuilding the Identity of a 60-Year-Old Manufacturer (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3014.html)

· COOLEMATE Watch Brand Upgrade: The Character 中, Shaped Like a Window (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3062.html)

· Accen Visual Identity Upgrade: Writing "Bath Time as Relaxing Time" into a Wordmark (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3042.html)

FAQ

Who designed the current Weiye Ceramics logo?

The current Weiye Ceramics logo was designed by Xinming Design in 2021 as an upgrade of the original wordmark, adding a plate symbol, together with the core visual identity and applications. It is still in use.

What does the Weiye Ceramics logo mean?

It combines three elements: the red ring is a plate seen from above; the four bars at its centre come from plates seen from the side and form the character 业; and the open centre is a rising sun.

Who proposed "TIME TAKES, WE STAY."?

Weiye Ceramics proposed it; the Chinese version reads "fine porcelain settled by time". Xinming Design added the English line to the logo lockup in script.

What are the Weiye Ceramics brand colours?

The main colour is Chinese red, PANTONE 185 C (#E6002D); the supporting colours are deep red PANTONE 200 C, gold PANTONE 7508 C, off-white PANTONE 7506 C, black Black 6 C and white.

What did the upgrade change?

The original logo was a wordmark of a red script W with the traditional characters 偉業陶瓷 and the English WEIYE. The upgrade added the plate symbol, changed the Chinese wordmark to simplified 伟业陶瓷 and the English wordmark to WEIYE CERAMICS, and added the brand line in script.

Which companies can learn from this case?

Manufacturers with a clear product who want to draw their symbol from it; B2B brands serving hotels, restaurants and other commercial customers; and established companies with a wordmark that need to add a symbol that stands on its own.

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