There is no short cut to creativity: Great design is in the details
Zhao Zuoliang follows a simple mantra on design.
"Starbucks doesn't sell just coffee, it sells space; Philip's doesn't just sell bulbs but light too; a convenience store sells more than snacks and necessities, it also trades time ... If you can understand that, you will be a good designer," says the veteran brand designer with an eye for details.
"Sometimes we take it for granted, but the things we see, hear and feel is the result of design," says Zhao, whose career spanning more than 50 years is illustratively captured in his book "Design Strategy."
The 77-year-old has been involved in over 200 advertisement campaigns that include packaging and promotion of health and personal care products, branding yellow wines, as well as creating business logos.
The book "Design Strategy" details over 200 advertisement campaigns designed by Zhao Zuoliang.
Zhao studied plastic arts at the Shanghai Light Industry School in the 1960s. Just after graduation, he created a goose-shaped coin purse to compete in the Shanghai Design Exhibition that won him early recognition for his work. In 1963, he joined the food and cosmetics group led by senior designer Gu Shipeng. Together, they created campaigns for the overseas market for Shanghai-made products.
At that time, Chinese products were seen as cheap and of inferior value in the international market, especially in Hong Kong where they faced stiff competition from European and American products.
The first product Zhao was assigned to design was spearmint toothpaste. The old campaign was caught up in copyright issues while he had no idea what was spearmint. But he had a mentor in Gu.
"That is why I always say that it is important to have a mentor at the start of your career because they not only train but share knowledge and experience," according to Zhao.
Gu instructed Zhao to head to Longhua, then a suburb in Shanghai, where the Sincere Co Ltd (the owner of one of the big four department stores on Nanjing Road) ran a farm to make essential oils for culinary, medicinal and cosmetic use. He found spearmint there, which he felt looked like peppermint, had green stems and had spear-shaped leaves. But what he remembers most was the sweet scent of mint, "that makes the breath smell good when used in toothpaste."
The rebranded Spearmint toothpaste from the 1960s
In his creation, Zhao used three leaves, all pointing upward and in different shades of green, suggesting a freshness as though it was plucked straight from the garden. The factory also took the motif as its logo. It remains in use even today.
He followed it up with another success in 1980 – the pearl cream. It was a time when China's cosmetic industry boomed after a decade of the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976) when "powder on the face" was regarded as a bourgeois lifestyle.
According to Zhao, the idea for pearl cream came from a Japanese product that sold well in Hong Kong. But pearl powder for skincare was not new, with records suggesting it was in use in Chinese medicine for decades.
Tasked to create a brand of pearl cream for both the domestic and overseas market at the same time, Zhao made several trips to freshwater farms in Zhejiang Province to see how the pearls were cultured and the powder milled. He then studied the different formulas used to make the face creams.
"Having done my research, I decided to keep my design ideas as simple as possible. Since there was no need to gild the lily, milk glass jars with a subtle glow were used," Zhao said. "To distinguish the new product from the old ones, a large plastic cap was designed to replace the flat aluminum lid."
The Phoenix Pearl Cream packaging in the 1980s
Zhao Zuoliang's gift box for the Phoenix Pearl Nourishing Cosmetics won the WorldStar Award for Packaging Excellence in 1995.
The red cap targeted domestic customers and was priced at 1.98 yuan per bottle, nearly three times more than the price of the most popular cold cream in Shanghai at that time. The black cap was for the overseas market and was priced at 65 Hong Kong dollars, almost half the price of the Japanese pearl cream sold in the US.
With well-placed advertisements in department stores, the "Phoenix Pearl Cream" was a top-seller across China between 1979-89. The overseas brand "SPIC Pearl Cream" became the first Chinese skin-care product to make a profit outside the mainland.
In the mid-1980s, Zhao used the image of a lady from a 13th century mural at Yongle Gong temple, also known as the Palace of Eternal Joy in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, to emphasize the tradition of using pearls among Asian aristocrats desperate to look young.
The gift box was classic and stylish and was a rage among the ladies. The campaign won him the WorldStar Award for Packaging Excellence in 1995.
At the start of the third millennium, commercial design, packaging and advertising were undergoing a major transformation in which creativity shined, creating unusual messages that made the products more appealing to the eye.
It also gave him room for introspection.
"Over the years I kept asking myself what makes a good design? What fails when a product doesn't sell well," said Zhao. "When people see the images and fonts associated with the product I have designed, what do I want them to think, feel and experience?
"A product won't sell or grow if it cannot stand or speak for itself."
In 2001, the Shanghai Longtu Advertisement Co won the contract to market the yellow wine made by the Shanghai Jinfeng Wine Co Ltd. Based in Shanghai's Jinshan District, the winery had a long history and was known to the locals as "Shanghai Laojiu (Shanghai Old Wine).
In traditional Chinese medicine, yellow wine is recommended for health benefits as it warms the body and promotes blood circulation. Understandably therefore, the Shanghainese had a tradition of drinking a glass of yellow wine with their dinner. Sold at 4 yuan a bottle, transforming it for the high-end clientele required not only an original design, but also good storytelling and branding.
The first thing that Zhao and his team did was to replace the old logo of the Yuyuan Garden in the city's old town with the shikumen (stone-gate) of Xintiandi that attracted the upscale crowd.
The founding fathers of the CPC had convened the first National Congress in a two-story brick-and-wood building here. The complex was turned into a memorial site in 1952 and is now a popular tourist destination.
The Shikumen yellow wine, Black Label 1939 and Red Label 2001
One of the Honor 30 series of Shikumen yellow wine features the landmark Shanghai Customs House (No. 13 on the Bund), which was built in 1927.
The Blooming Flowers series, in collaboration with artist Li Shoubai, pays tribute to the East-meets-West haipai culture.
"Sometimes, design is all about the choices you make. From the moment you begin to design to the moment you stop, you're making decisions," said Zhao. "And it is just so much more meaningful to go with the tide and brand the wine with a historical site, which not only features a modern classic style but also tells a good story."
By 2008, the Shikumen yellow wine was widely recognized and boasted an annual output exceeding 100,000 tons a year. Luxury gift boxes were created every couple of years that highlighted the city's art, history and culture. The Classic 20 series combines jazz in the 1920s with the yellow wine tradition of the city; the Honor 30 series highlights the Art Deco buildings on the Bund; and the Blooming Flowers series, in collaboration with artist Li Shoubai, pays tribute to the East-meets-West haipai culture – a symbol of the city's diversity and inclusion.
"I would say the brand building is a long and laborious process that requires both intellectual and financial resources," said Zhao. "For me, design is a lifestyle for which you need to do much more than just design a logo or a product. It is to add value and meaning to what you do."
