Reading between the lines from the past of Hong Kong:
Deconstructing 1980-90s Chinese font designs

Abstract

The period from the 1980-90s was an era of rapid progress for Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s culture and local design flourished throughout this period. The local design blends Cantonese and western cultures responsibly. For years, local oriental culture accumulated new Western technology and ideas. Hong Kong’s economic growth pushed designers to adopt western technology, particularly in the font and typeface designs industry.

In the 1980s, Macintosh computers changed Chinese font design in the local sector, simplifying and improving the design process. Local designers applied western design technologies to create designs that followed international standards. These features are gradually included in the local Chinese font designs and built up the professional practices and skills in the Hong Kong font design industry, focusing on design accuracy with quality requirements and concerns. Hong Kong font designers employed western font design ideas and aesthetic principles in constructing the glyph structure of Chinese fonts. This consolidates the industry knowledge of font design practices over the years till now. These particular design abilities and experiences established in the 1980s-90s should be preserved to build Hong Kong’s design development.

The development of the Chinese font designs in Hong Kong would not be long-lasting since their importance was usually neglected by weak awareness in society. There has been less professional training in designing Chinese fonts in Hong Kong over the years, causing fewer successors to sustain the practising development of the field. Hence, such an intangible heritage of Hong Kong’s design practices and culture could easily be lost.

Aims

This study aims to reveal the design development process of Hong Kong’s Chinese fonts in the 1980-90s. The design ideas, aesthetic principles, structure, and methods of local Chinese fonts will be understood. The general public’s awareness of the local Chinese font design will have arisen.

Objectives

• To acknowledge the development of the Hong Kong Chinese Font design.
• To identify the trends in conceptual developments of Hong Kong design through the Hong Kong Chinese Font design in the 1980s to 90s.
• To understand how Hong Kong Chinese font design incorporates Western concepts;
• To reveal the international features of Hong Kong Chinese font design.

Deliverables

Practical Application of Bullet Point Systems for Constructing an Information Hierarchy.
HO, A. G. (2020). In: Markopoulos E., Goonetilleke R., Ho A., Luximon Y. (eds) Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1218. (pp.255-261). Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_32