Mehood Elegant Hotel Wanjiang Signage: Arrows Shaped Like Tea Leaves

A tea leaf that points the way

In 2025, Xinming Design designed the wayfinding for Mehood Elegant Hotel (美豪雅致酒店) in Wanjiang, Dongguan. The hotel sits in the tea expo park of Wanjiang, and its theme is a Zen tea culture hotel. Xinming Design first wrote its brand concept, Zen, tea and elegance, and then, starting from that culture, designed a full set of signs from the car park and lobby to the guest floors.

The most concrete idea in the system is the arrow: every arrow is shaped like a tea leaf. Each time a guest is shown the way, they see a tea leaf. The signs use three colours, antique bronze, deep ink black and stone grey, and are made mainly of copper, stone, wood and ecological cement. The hotel is open and the wayfinding is fully installed.

The Mehood Elegant Hotel logo belongs to the existing brand, and the wayfinding uses it as it is.

A hotel built around Zen and tea

Mehood Elegant Hotel (美豪雅致酒店) is a hotel brand of the Mehood group. The theme of the Wanjiang hotel is Zen and tea.

Hotel signage is usually generic: stainless steel or acrylic, black and white, with clear icons and text. It shows the way, but it would look the same in any hotel.

For a hotel built around Zen and tea, signage like that breaks away from the space: the lobby speaks of Zen and tea, while the signs look like an office building. So the question for this project was: how can a sign show the way and still belong to this hotel?

The design set out to create signage that can be seen, read and felt.

Brand concept: Zen, tea and elegance

Before the signage, Xinming Design wrote the brand concept of the hotel in three characters:

· Zen (禅): letting go and returning to the heart;

· Tea (茶): quietly observing the world and savouring life;

· Elegance (雅): the beauty of courtesy, with a calm and simple grace.

Zen gives the space its spirit, tea brings Zen into daily life, and elegance holds outward form and inner refinement together. The three grow from one another and form the cultural ground of the hotel. Every decision in the wayfinding goes back to these three characters.

Three goals, three expressions

The design set three goals for the wayfinding:

1. Precise guidance: a clear hierarchy and clear routes;

2. A consistent look: carrying on the visual language of the brand, within the mood of Zen and tea;

3. Cultural character: every sign a quiet word of Eastern culture.

In visual terms, these become three expressions:

· Stillness of form: clean lines and restrained layouts;

· Simplicity of material: wood, stone, ceramic and hemp, with no surface decoration;

· Depth of meaning: images that open up the space and invite associations without spelling them out.

The first goal makes it good wayfinding; the other two make it this hotel's wayfinding.

Five elements: five materials, five kinds of sign

The design organises the materials of the wayfinding by the five elements of Chinese thought, each material matched to a kind of sign:

· Metal (copper): etched copper, brushed and aged, for main entrance signs, main area signs and signs for key rooms;

· Wood: natural wood and wood carving, for room numbers, functional zones and wall mounted signs;

· Water: clear acrylic and rippled glass, for softly lit guide signs and guidance in drinks areas;

· Fire: flame toned copper and tea stove lights, for the tea display area, welcome lights and night signs;

· Earth: bluestone, granite and textured carving, for freestanding signs, wall backgrounds and landscape points.

For each material the design adds an image from Zen and tea: the metal of a temple bell, the growth of a tea table and incense desk, the purity of tea in a cup, the warmth of water on the stove, and the steadiness of an old stone wall.

The five elements give the choice of materials a rule. Which material goes with which kind of sign is no longer a matter of feeling, and the same kind of sign uses the same material in every corner of the hotel.

An arrow shaped like a tea leaf

The arrow is the element that appears most often in any wayfinding system.

The design draws the arrow as a tea leaf: two curves meeting in a point, like a slightly curled tea leaf. The arrow is drawn to fixed proportions, 2 wide and 4 high, and rotated into every direction: straight ahead, left, right, up, down and diagonally.

Beyond the arrow, the design draws a set of 36 line icons, including restrooms, accessible facilities, parking, reception, gym, swimming pool, restaurant, laundry, luggage storage and fire equipment, all in one line weight on one grid.

Antique bronze, deep ink black and stone grey

The wayfinding uses three colours:

· Antique bronze (PANTONE 872 C): a metallic colour, for text, arrows and the logo;

· Deep ink black (PANTONE 419 C): for sign faces and back panels;

· Stone grey (PANTONE Warm Gray 10 C): matching stone and ecological cement.

The design also gives a set of mood tones: bamboo shadow grey, rock ink black, tea leaf brown, rice paper white and pale ink green, all low saturation neutrals. The signs do not compete with the space for colour; they seem to grow out of it.

Ecological cement and antique bronze

The core idea of the design is movement and stillness in balance, the heart following the form. It is clearest in the floor directory in the lobby:

· Earth, ecological cement: one side of the sign is moulded ecological cement, its edge rising and falling like a sand dune, hand polished with a natural mineral coating for a matt, sandy surface;

· Metal, antique bronze: the other side is a dark sign face, with the floor number and text in antique bronze and arrows shaped like tea leaves.

The curve rises and falls like the raked sand of a dry garden. The design borrows the tea ceremony idea of one time, one meeting: every turn is different, and as guests find their way, they also take a moment to pause.

From the car park to the guest floors

The wayfinding shown in the design includes:

· Car park: a dark freestanding column topped with a bronze P and arrow and the hotel logo at the base, with day and night lighting;

· Arrival: the hotel logo and Mehood Elegant Hotel 雅致酒店 carved into the stone paving at the entrance;

· Outdoor direction signs: stone posts set with bronze panels pointing to the lobby and the swimming pool, lit at night;

· Lobby: a 1F floor directory in ecological cement and bronze, listing reception, the lobby bar, the swimming pool, the restaurant and restrooms; a wall sign for the lobby bar;

· Stairs and banquet area: backlit freestanding signs pointing to the banquet hall, the meeting room and the Chinese restaurant private rooms, with a bamboo shadow pattern;

· Entrance sign: a pierced bronze screen of tea leaf lattice, set with a logo plaque in the shape of a flower window;

· Guest floors: floor walls in raised metal letters; on 4F, room numbers 8401 to 8413 and 8415 to 8423 on either side, with directions to the meeting room, laundry and tea garden in the middle.

Taking the tea culture of Dongguan as its thread, the design also draws the outlines of tea vessels, such as tea caddies, lidded bowls and teapots, into a set of graphics used on parts of the signs.

The images on this page are design renderings; images 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 33 are mood references, not part of this project.

Deliverables and extensions

Brand concept and culture

· Brand concept: Zen, tea and elegance

· Cultural research: Zen culture, tea culture and the tea culture of Dongguan

· Style positioning: three goals, three expressions, and the five elements matched to materials

Wayfinding basics

· Arrow system shaped like a tea leaf

· 36 line icons

· Colours: antique bronze, deep ink black, stone grey

· Materials and finishes: etched copper, brushed and aged metal, natural wood, bluestone, ecological cement, frosted glass

· Tea vessel graphics

Full wayfinding system

· Car park signs, arrival paving logo, outdoor direction signs

· Lobby floor directory, lobby bar sign

· Direction signs for the banquet and meeting areas

· Entrance screen and logo plaque

· Guest floor walls and room number directions

Looking back

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. Carry the theme into the smallest unit. The smallest unit of hotel wayfinding is the arrow; draw the arrow as a tea leaf, and the theme appears every time someone is shown the way.

2. Choose materials by rule. Matching five elements to five kinds of sign gives every material choice a reason, and keeps the system consistent in every corner.

3. Let the signs not compete for colour. Antique bronze, deep ink black and stone grey come from the materials of the space itself, so the signs read as part of the space rather than something attached to it.

The wayfinding of a themed hotel shows the way, and in doing so shows the hotel.

How to verify

· Client: 东莞市茶博园暻阁酒店管理有限公司

· Hotel: Mehood Elegant Hotel (美豪雅致酒店), Dongguan Wanjiang

· Year: 2025

· Status: the hotel is open and the wayfinding is fully installed

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3393.html

Further reading

· 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)

· Empark Grand Hotel Visual Refresh: Keeping the Logo, Filling the Fan with Six Blessings (www.xinming.sg/en/portfolio/3047.html)

FAQ

Who designed the wayfinding of Mehood Elegant Hotel Dongguan Wanjiang?

The wayfinding of Mehood Elegant Hotel (美豪雅致酒店) in Wanjiang, Dongguan was designed by Xinming Design in 2025 for 东莞市茶博园暻阁酒店管理有限公司, including the brand concept, cultural research and the full wayfinding system. The hotel is open and the wayfinding is fully installed.

What is the theme of the wayfinding?

Zen and tea. The brand concept Xinming Design wrote for the hotel is Zen, tea and elegance: Zen is letting go and returning to the heart, tea is quietly observing the world and savouring life, and elegance is the beauty of courtesy with a calm and simple grace.

What is special about the arrows?

Each arrow is shaped like a tea leaf: two curves meeting in a point, like a slightly curled leaf, drawn 2 wide and 4 high and rotated into every direction.

What colours does the wayfinding use?

Antique bronze (PANTONE 872 C), deep ink black (PANTONE 419 C) and stone grey (PANTONE Warm Gray 10 C).

How are the five elements used?

They match five materials to five kinds of sign: metal (copper) for the main entrance and key rooms, wood for room numbers and functional zones, water for softly lit guide signs, fire for the tea area and night signs, and earth for freestanding signs and wall backgrounds.

Which projects can learn from this case?

Themed, boutique and cultural resort hotels; hotel chains with an existing brand logo that need local wayfinding for a single property; and projects that want signage to become part of the interior.

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