Quinsay bring geography, architecture and legacy together in HILLS Hotel’s identity and signage

Hangzhou-based design studio Quinsay have collaborated with HILLS Hotel, a local luxury accommodation occupying a former tea farm, to craft its identity and wayfinding system – inspired by the geography, architecture and legacy of its mountainous location. Capturing a specific mood that Quinsay notes as “watching the mountains and enjoying tea as a drunkard,” the resulting visual language is slick, contemporary and culturally referential, such as the use of artist Su Shi’s calligraphy within the wordmark, representing the title of Ouyang Xiu’s 1045 essay ‘Drunkard Pavilion Records.’ “The calligraphic font better expresses the meaning of time in mountain dwellings and nature,” Quinsay tell us, a theme contrasted in the stark letterforms of Commerical Type’s Platform, alongside the corresponding FZLanTingHei typeface for the non-Latin script. “The Platform typeface collection is an exploration of how geometric sans serif fonts can evolve in a contemporary context,” Quinsay explain, discussing the decision to use the sans serif, “with the rough geometry of the typeface echoing the geometry of the project space.” Subsequently, Platform’s application performs a playful, pragmatic contrast to Quinsay’s charming illustrations, which see similarly geometric yet expressive characters and abstract forms depicting hotel scenes, the architecturally-inspired logomark and operating wayfinding functions – all of which find themselves adorned in striking colours and beautiful, physical textures. “The colours that were chosen by the brand were to produce an experience of being in the bright sun,” Quinsay conclude, “these colours are mainly applied to the room door signs, which have a metallic, baked-on texture.”