Richmond Chinese School: Enrollment Trifold
Client: Richmond Chinese School 光華中文學校
Tools: Procreate, InDesign, Photoshop
Tools: Procreate, InDesign, Photoshop
This trifold brochure is aimed at English speakers interested in learning Chinese and heritage speakers. The school’s identity, a community built around language and culture, is expressed through an ink-seal visual language and a cast of illustrated learners of all ages.
1. Seal and color system
Chinese seals, or chops, are carved stone stamps pressed into red ink paste to sign artwork and documents. The school’s logo, its red palette, and the section markers throughout the brochure all grow out of that tradition.
Chinese seals, or chops, are carved stone stamps pressed into red ink paste to sign artwork and documents. The school’s logo, its red palette, and the section markers throughout the brochure all grow out of that tradition.
beginning to end, rendered in waves
2. Illustration process
Illustrated characters were built in stages. Basic shapes established pose and proportion, and key features were then added in waves until the character was complete.
Illustrated characters were built in stages. Basic shapes established pose and proportion, and key features were then added in waves until the character was complete.
full assortment across
3. Chinese and English type balance
The school’s logo already set the English typeface, so the Chinese was set in a Heiti (黑體), or sans-serif, style, whose even strokes match the English headings’ flat line weight. Setting bold Chinese against regular English body copy is an intentional contrast that lets the Chinese read as a header.
The school’s logo already set the English typeface, so the Chinese was set in a Heiti (黑體), or sans-serif, style, whose even strokes match the English headings’ flat line weight. Setting bold Chinese against regular English body copy is an intentional contrast that lets the Chinese read as a header.
Layout
Every body of English copy is paired with Chinese characters set vertically to its left, in bold red. For readers of English, the characters add a traditional aesthetic. For bilingual readers, they work as a header that names the section. The characters signal that heritage families are welcome too.
The result
[Inside and outside mockups, plus a close-up of the registration seals.]
Reflection
Designed as a fixed, reusable template, the brochure can be used by the school every year without redesign. Evergreen content, such as a founding story and a type system that stays readable, keeps the piece current over time
