Together with their flags, most first world countries have an in-built sense of design which marks them out. Think Scandinavia, Italy, France, Russia and it isn’t hard to see the picture.
served to highlight a simple truth.
China is clearly hungry to embrace the idea that successful western brands sell themselves, but seems ill-equipped to take on the branding challenge for itself.
It may be able to knock-off an Apple Store but does this simply highlight that the Chinese believe branding to be an easily applicable veneer?
reveals their visual brand language as a hotchpotch of indigenous characters and a dollop of western minimalist graphics.
The brand identity language of China is as yet un-established and certainly indistinctive on the current world stage.
If the country wishes to sustain an export boom for its goods then it will have to do better.
If China wants to take brand lessons from the west, it can’t start with where the best sit today - or it’s just another knock-off.
It needs to understand that the universal symbols of consumerism like McDonalds and Coca-Cola didn’t start off with the pared down presence they extoll today. It has taken generations of working through the best messages and fine-tuning to arrive at these stream-lined 'super brands'.
China needs to go back to school and look to the early part of the 20th century to understand how branding differences began emerging.
It needs to learn that for most companies, a story or an idea set the ball rolling and that their identities grew from these.
China needs to take a look at the graphic metamorphosis of General Electric, Lucky Strike, Shell, British Airways, and even Starbucks, to understand the emotional power associated with defining a unique symbolism and individual trademark.
Conversely, Japan, which has spent 60 years learning from Europe and Madison Avenue, has achieved a design style that Western designers yearn to equal, and lead the world in both graphic design and innovation.
Chinese manufacturers realise they need better products if they want to break out of China and beef up their margins on sales abroad, so there is a boom in industrial and product design.
China is also getting to grips with the idea that its home market requires status and must show this in its products, which currently put the superficial ahead of deeper, more sustainable brand values.
This is arguably OK when you have a home market of 1.3 billion, but it won’t work on us.
Someone needs to help China rediscover its emotional past, to help paint the visual language for future brands like no other on the planet.
What we need to see is the real China, not a second-guessed China but a true China. The China with a proud and distinctive history of art, myth and design.
Because that’s where the brand story always starts.