SUNORSHOP Womenswear Brand Upgrade: A Sun Held Inside the Letter S

A sun held inside the letter S

In 2020, Xinming Design completed a brand upgrade for SUNORSHOP (阳光名店, literally "sunshine boutique"), a fast fashion womenswear brand of 深圳市池龙服装有限公司. The new logo is a circular sun mark: a centre point surrounded by petal shaped rays, like a sun or a sunflower; around it, two broken arcs together form the initial S. The S is SUNORSHOP; the sun is the sunshine in its Chinese name. There are only two brand colours, sunshine yellow and black. The identity extends to staff passes, envelopes, brochures, a presentation template, a website, shopping bags, social media posters and the storefront. The logo is still in use.

A womenswear brand with nearly 500 stores

SUNORSHOP was founded in 1996. When the project began in 2020, the brand had nearly 500 directly operated stores in Guangdong, a typical regional womenswear chain.

The client's own brand description reads: the main customers are women aged 26 to 30; the products are mainly casual street and urban series; and the brand is committed to repackaging luxurious, ever changing fashion into fast fashion, so that ordinary people can enjoy a sunny, young and fashionable life.

Many stores mean two things:

· Easy to recognise: shoppers walking through a mall should spot the brand from a distance;

· Easy to use: hundreds of stores and countless posters and social media images must all be made by the same rules.

The name already points the way: the Chinese name means sunshine, and the English name starts with S.

So the upgrade had to answer: how can sunshine and an S fit into one symbol simple enough to repeat across hundreds of stores?

Sun and S

The logo has two layers:

· Sun: a centre point with a ring of rays of alternating length, opening outward like petals; it is a sun, and also a sunflower;

· S: outside the rays are two broken arcs, the upper one running right to left and the lower one left to right; together they form an S.

The S holds the sun in the middle. One symbol carries both the initial of the English name and the meaning of the Chinese name.

The mark can be used alone or in a horizontal lockup with SUNORSHOP and the traditional Chinese characters 陽光名店. It has versions on yellow, black, gold and silver, and can be made as illuminated dimensional letters for the storefront.

Sunshine yellow and black

The design sets two brand colours:

· Sunshine yellow (#FDD23E)

· Black (#000000)

Each has a five step tint scale.

Yellow is the sunshine; black is the fashion. Yellow is bright and young and can be seen from across a mall; black holds the yellow down and keeps it from looking cheap. The strong contrast suits shop windows, posters and phone screens.

Street magazine layouts

The layouts borrow from street fashion magazines:

· Heavy type: client lines such as ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF and FASHION FRANKNESS, repeated in heavy black or outline letters;

· Torn paper collage: yellow torn paper, grid paper and fashion photography layered together;

· Round seals: the logo circled by a ring of text, used as a small stamp in the corner of posters.

These layouts make every social media image feel like a magazine page, while staying in yellow and black.

From staff passes to the storefront

Office

· Staff passes, envelopes, letterhead, business cards

Promotion

· Brochure, leaflet, presentation template, website home page, shopping bags

Social media

· Square posters, vertical mobile posters

Store

· Storefront: the illuminated sun mark, SUNORSHOP 陽光名店 lettering and shop window

The application images and the storefront on this page are proposal-stage renderings; the name and photograph on the staff pass are placeholders.

Deliverables and extensions

Logo design

· SUNORSHOP logo (two arcs forming an S, with a sun at the centre)

· Horizontal lockup with SUNORSHOP and 陽光名店

· Logo construction; versions on yellow, black, gold and silver

Core identity

· Brand colours: sunshine yellow and black, each with a five step tint scale

· Layouts: heavy repeated type, torn paper collage, round seals

Applications

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

· Promotion: brochure, leaflet, presentation template, website home page, shopping bags

· Social media: square posters, vertical mobile posters

· Store: storefront rendering

Looking back six years on

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. Draw what is in the name. The Chinese name means sunshine and the English name starts with S, so the logo is a sun held by an S.

2. A chain needs a simple symbol. One round mark and two colours let hundreds of stores work by the same rules.

3. Few colours, many layouts. Yellow and black hold the recognition; torn paper, repeated type and seals keep every poster different.

A clothing brand with hundreds of stores does not need a complicated graphic; it needs a sun people can recognise from far away.

How to verify

· Client: 深圳市池龙服装有限公司

· Brand: SUNORSHOP (阳光名店)

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3172.html

Further reading

· GLIRST Phone Accessories Brand Upgrade: Two Gs That Form One Circle (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3168.html)

· DAVENA Brand Identity Upgrade: The Watch Brings the Shine, the Brand Brings the Order (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3045.html)

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

FAQ

Who designed the SUNORSHOP logo?

The brand upgrade of SUNORSHOP (阳光名店) was completed by Xinming Design in 2020 for 深圳市池龙服装有限公司, covering the logo, core identity and applications. The logo is still in use.

What does the SUNORSHOP logo mean?

At its centre is a radiant sun that also looks like a sunflower; around it, two broken arcs form the initial S. The S stands for SUNORSHOP and the sun for the sunshine in its Chinese name 阳光名店.

What kind of brand is SUNORSHOP?

SUNORSHOP (阳光名店) is a fast fashion womenswear brand of 深圳市池龙服装有限公司, founded in 1996. When the project began in 2020, it had nearly 500 directly operated stores in Guangdong.

What are the SUNORSHOP brand colours?

Sunshine yellow (#FDD23E) and black (#000000), each with a five step tint scale.

What are the SUNORSHOP taglines?

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF and FASHION FRANKNESS, both provided by the client.

Which brands can learn from this case?

Clothing chains and fast fashion brands; retailers with many stores that need simple, repeatable visual rules; and consumer brands that want to draw both the meaning and the initial of their name into one symbol.

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