I first met Oliver right after the Sichuan Earthquake
I became acquainted with Oliver Ding’s design work right after the Sichuan Earthquake. He had put together a SlideShare presentation to help earthquake victims in China. It may have been the even been one of the inspiration for my putting together the Sichuan Earthquake donation guide. Oliver saw the guide, and put together a SlideShare version of the CN Reviews donation guide. I collected 24+ ways to give (eventually 40+ ways) and Oliver cleverly worked it into this graphical image:
In this way, he brought together two powerful images: (1) the image of the Red Cross, and (2) the image of the Chinese flag. He used these powerful images to reinforce the intent of the donation guide, which was to provide people with the information they needed to take action and give money. His 24+ Ways to Give SlideShare slideshow was an inspiration to me and demonstrated how SlideShare could be used to spread the word, demonstrating the power of SlideShare as social media. More about Oliver Ding here.
INTRODUCING: the New CN Reviews Identity by Oliver Ding
I wanted to create some CN Reviews business cards for CNBloggerCon 2008 and asked Oliver to consider putting together a new identity for CN Reviews. I was pleased when he accepted! He then asked all the right questions that led to our new identity. Here is the grand unveiling of his work!
Oliver’s comments were as follows:
I designed the new brand identity of CN Reviews.
See attached two pictures. The idea is very simple:
1. Letter “C” means “China”, “Community” and “Communication”;
2. C is ear which mean listening;
3. C also is wave which mean spread;
4. C seems like splash-ink, a technique of Chinese ink-painting (泼墨 pomo)
This really captured the original inspiration for CN Reviews, our focus on China, our interest in being a bridge between China and the West, and our passion for listening and understanding.
We tried some other variations, at my request, but Oliver’s first version was the best.
Here’s why:
I later discovered that Oliver had done work for other social media non profits, including Social Brain Foundation and CNBloggerCon
Oliver has also done some incredible branding and logo work for other non-profits and companies. Here are some that you might be familiar with:
Social Brain Foundation
source: Oliver Ding, Swordi.com Logo Design category
According to Oliver, the Social Brain Foundation(SBF) is trying to encourage the use of social media to enable collaboration among free individuals to deliver better ideas and better results. Isaac Mao presented earlier this year at Rebecca MacKinnon’s CIRC Conference on how the social brain is evolving in China.
OOPS: Opensource Opencourseware Prototyping System
source: Oliver Ding, Swordi.com Logo Design category
Read more about the OOPS logo and introduction on Oliver’s blog.
CNBloggerCon 2005
Oliver was also the designer for the 2005 CNBloggerCon, and subsequent logos have continued to use his ideas.
source: Oliver Ding, Swordi.com Logo Design category
Here is the story of how Oliver came up with the logo for CNBloggerCon 2005.
source: Oliver Ding, Swordi.com Logo Design category
Oliver’s visual images have greatly inspired me, and I’m honored and privileged that Oliver judged our efforts worthy of his time and investment. Thanks Oliver! I hope I can see you in China wearing a new CN Reviews T-Shirt!
Haha, I spent a few seconds confused and scrutinizing the existing logo at the top-left before I realized the new logo hasn’t been implemented yet. I really dig the new “C” but to be honest, I’m a little mixed about the font, especially for the “w” in “Reviews.” There’s something dissonant about that “w” having a cross/”x” feel. Anyway, not a big deal but I just thought it kinda marred the delicate simplicity of the other letters. i actually kinda liked our existing font face but whatever.
So when can we get t-shirts? :)
Good point. I initially didn’t like it but it grew on me. Lets let it live a bit and see how we feel a little later. Oliver said he would be happy to change it.
Looks great. Oliver’s got some real talent.
Pink generally runs pretty adverse to my tastes, but does give it a bit of a modern w2.0 feel, and works well as a bright colour on those fancy t’s. ;-)
But does this mean that all your links are going pink to match? ChinaSMACK already has me sticking to its RSS feed for its pink-ness, don’t tell me CNReviews is going to do the same. :-P
@Ryan,
So its so transparent that I wish I was Fauna eh? Yes, I have chinaSMACK envy. But no, we are not going to try to look hot and viral when…er…we are not hot and viral. I’ll just plan on reading chinaSMACK and just feel the hotness.
@ Ryan I know what you mean about pink! I usually dislike it as well, but I think a rich pink is a creative twist on the usual pattern of using Crayola red to show something’s Chinese!
@ Elliott You’re *not* going to use pink links, are you? :P
You know what’s funny? I never saw chinaSMACK’s pink and instantly thought “why isn’t it Chinese red?” I just thought it was…well…pink. At most, I thought of barber shops (which is sometimes appropriate for the more lurid content on chinaSMACK)…but that’s it.
I think its really funny how everything in China has to be associated with red. Is it because that’s what Chinese people do or is it just our perceptions/expectations? Surely there are a lot of Chinese websites without gratuitous red, right? LoL…
Olive’s design is great. He is really gifted. ;-)
Yihong
I totally agree. He is a very gifted designer and concept creator.
Olive Oil? Is that you? It’s me, Popeye…
…where’s me spinach?
Very nice! I love how the C part of the logo seems to be made up of smaller Cs overlapping, a good visual for different voices on CNReviews!
Nice!