DaChan Bay Terminals Brand Extension: A Port Drawn as Building Blocks

A port drawn as building blocks

In 2019, Xinming Design created an identity extension for 深圳大铲湾现代港口发展有限公司. The DaChan Bay Terminals logo already existed: two offset rounded squares with DaChan Bay Terminals 大铲湾码头. Xinming Design left the logo untouched and drew a set of port illustrations for it: containers, cargo ships, quay cranes, forklifts, a lighthouse, waves, gulls and city blocks, simplified into squares, stripes, dots and wavy lines, in four colours: navy, coral pink, grey blue and light blue. Like building blocks, the shapes can be taken apart and put back together, onto paper cups, tote bags, invitations and New Year gift boxes. The extension is still in use.

Everyday items for a terminal

According to the DaChan Bay Terminals website, the terminal is 65% owned by Modern Terminals, in partnership with Shenzhen Yantian Port Group, a state owned enterprise under the Shenzhen Municipal Government. It began commercial operations in 2008, with 7 berths, 26 quayside gantry cranes and 2,430 metres of quay, and handled 2.0 million TEUs in 2022. It sits in western Shenzhen and serves the Pearl River Delta manufacturing hub.

A terminal like this already had a logo and basic identity guidelines. But for everyday items, gift boxes for clients, cups for meetings, thank you letters for staff, invitations for events, a logo alone looks thin, while a port photograph feels too much like a brochure.

The proposal was titled Extension Design of DCB Application Part, under the name DCB Link. It had to answer: how can a port brand be recognised on a paper cup or a gift box, and be something people want to keep?

From port to building blocks

The answer was to draw a port rather than photograph one:

· Containers: rows of blocks with vertical stripes, in navy, grey blue and coral pink, stacked in layers;

· Cargo ships: the hull a single block of coral pink, the portholes a row of navy dots;

· Quay cranes and forklifts: only the simplest outlines remain, a crane as a few straight lines and a beam, a forklift as a block on two wheels;

· Sea and sky: waves as rows of wavy lines, the sun as half a circle, gulls as two strokes;

· City: blocks of buildings with square windows, and a lighthouse by the sea.

Every shape is built from squares, stripes, dots and waves, so they can be taken apart and reassembled freely: around a paper cup they become a panorama of the port; on a tote bag, a corner of the quay; on a gift box, a whole wall of stacked containers.

The offset stacks of containers in the illustrations share a rhythm with the two offset rounded squares of the logo.

Four colours

The illustrations use only four colours:

· Navy: the deepest colour, echoing the dark blue of the logo, for large grounds and ship details;

· Coral pink: the warmest colour, for ships, containers and the sun, so the port feels less hard;

· Grey blue: the sea, the cranes and some of the containers;

· Light blue: the sky and open space.

The usual palette of the port industry is dark blue, grey and safety orange. Coral pink gives an industrial port the warmth of a seaside town.

From paper cups to New Year gift boxes

Meetings and reception

· Paper cups: two designs, one with the port and the city, one with containers, trucks and cranes

· Photo frames: a border made of illustrations around a black and white photograph of a lighthouse

· Notebooks: a dark grey leather cover embossed with the logo, or a full illustrated cover

Gifts

· Tote bags: two designs with different port scenes on each side, one with an anchor and a lifebuoy

· 2020 New Year gift boxes: several boxes of different heights fit together, the illustration running from one box to the next, printed 2020 HAPPY NEW YEAR 新年快乐

· Power banks: silver and gold, embossed with enlarged squares from the logo

Letters and events

· Thank you letter and folder: a port panorama on the folder, Thank you on the cover

· Invitations: vertical cards showing a quay crane lifting a container

The application images on this page are proposal mock-ups; the names, phone numbers, signatures and seals on the business card, thank you letter and invitations are placeholders.

Deliverables and extensions

Illustration system

· Port elements: containers, cargo ships, quay cranes, forklifts, trucks, a lighthouse, waves, gulls, the sun, city blocks

· Colours: navy, coral pink, grey blue, light blue

· Composition: modular collage that can be taken apart and reassembled

Applications

· Meetings and reception: paper cups, photo frames, notebooks

· Gifts: tote bags, 2020 New Year gift boxes, power banks

· Letters and events: thank you letter and folder, invitations

Looking back

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. A livelier brand without changing the logo. The logo stays as it is; what is added is an illustration system that appears alongside it, without disturbing recognition.

2. Draw the industry as building blocks. Containers, ships and cranes reduced to blocks and stripes fit any size of item, and still read instantly as a port.

3. Soften the industrial with one warm colour. Coral pink gives the port warmth; a client opening a gift box sees a harbour town, not an engineering drawing.

A gift from a port brand works best when people see the port before they open it.

How to verify

· Client: 深圳大铲湾现代港口发展有限公司

· Brand: DaChan Bay Terminals (大铲湾码头)

· Website: www.dcbterminals.com

· Year: 2019

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3228.html

Further reading

· Pearl River Piano 60th Anniversary Album: A Die Cut 60 That Reveals the Keys (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3220.html)

· SOFAR Brand Character Xiaohang: Turning an Energy Technology Company into a Character People Remember (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3054.html)

· BIG BUTLER Big Data Brand Identity: Data Pixels That Gather into a D (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3200.html)

FAQ

Who designed the DaChan Bay Terminals identity extension?

The identity extension for DaChan Bay Terminals (大铲湾码头) was designed by Xinming Design in 2019 for 深圳大铲湾现代港口发展有限公司, and is still in use. The logo is the client's existing mark; Xinming Design did not change it.

What did the extension include?

Building on the existing logo, Xinming Design drew a set of flat geometric port illustrations and applied them to paper cups, photo frames, notebooks, tote bags, New Year gift boxes, power banks, thank you letters and invitations.

What elements are in the illustrations?

Containers, cargo ships, quay cranes, forklifts, trucks, a lighthouse, waves, gulls, the sun and city blocks, simplified into squares, stripes, dots and wavy lines.

What colours do the illustrations use?

Four: navy, coral pink, grey blue and light blue.

What is DCB Link?

Extension Design of DCB Application Part, under the name DCB Link, was the title of the proposal; the extension serves DaChan Bay Terminals as a whole.

Which companies can learn from this case?

Ports, logistics and manufacturing companies; brands that already have a logo and want gifts and everyday items to feel friendlier; and companies that need an illustration system that can be taken apart and reassembled for items of many sizes.

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