HOUHU
WUYI
Xiang River
YUELU
HNNU
TRACE AND CREATE — A TYPOGRAPHIC FIELD GUIDE TO CHANGSHA · 2026
TRACE AND CREATE — A TYPOGRAPHIC FIELD GUIDE TO CHANGSHA · 2026
Project Meaning
YueLu Thrives is a photographic secondary creation project shot on location in Yuelu District, Changsha. Based on two groups of on-site photographs, the work is layered with original minimalist line art of human figures.
The real-scene photos capture two representative spaces: a mountain café and a campsite lined with folding camping chairs. By superimposing relaxed, fluid abstract human illustrations onto the documentary photographs, the project visualises the vitality of young people wandering and resting in Yuelu Mountain. It is a visual experiment blending real local scenery and hand-drawn graphics.
YueLu Thrives — Project Introduction
Project Overview
1.Core theme The project explores the relationship between young city dwellers and urban mountains. Yuelu Mountain sits right beside the city; people do not need distant travel to find a place to unwind. Vitality is not only energetic running and excitement, but also relaxation, curling up and quiet emptying of the mind — this is another form of life force.
2.The meaning of "Thrives" The title carries two layers. First, the thriving of nature: Yuelu Mountain, as an urban forest in Changsha, sustains continuous natural growth and offers temporary refuge for city residents. Second, the thriving of human beings: to thrive means to breathe, rest and unwind. Yuelu Mountain is more than a tourist attraction; it is a place for young urbanites to settle their emotions and recharge energy.
3.Abstract human symbols The simple white-line figures erase features such as age, appearance and identity, representing every ordinary visitor to Yuelu. Their soft, distorted bodies symbolise freedom from rigid behavioural norms imposed by urban life. When entering the mountain, people's bodies and emotions can deform and relax without restraint.
WuYi Anomaly— Project Introduction
Project Overview
transforms everyday fragments of Wuyi Square into a new visual language through photography, fragmentation, and re-creation.
The project begins with field photography, collecting fragments of the city—subway spaces, signage, typography, architecture, materials, pixels, light, and traces of everyday life.
These images are then cut, rotated, enlarged, layered, distorted, and reassembled into new visual compositions.
Rather than simply documenting Wuyi Square, the project explores how a familiar urban environment can be transformed through a different way of seeing.
The city is not only photographed. It is collected, fragmented, and recreated.
01 Urban Speed
Wuyi Square is constantly moving. The project captures not a single moment, but the visual traces left by urban speed.
02 Disordered type
Urban typography is a visual language. When its original reading order disappears, its visual character becomes visible.
Typography and public signage are extracted from the city.Words become shapes, textures, and visual symbols rather than information alone.
04 Misplaced WuYi
Photographs are fragmented and rearranged through rotation, scale, overlay, and juxtaposition.
Different spaces and visual elements overlap, disrupting the original spatial order.
By making the familiar unfamiliar, the project invites a new way of looking at Wuyi Square.
03 WuYi Specimens
Small details from Wuyi Square are collected as visual specimens: signs, surfaces, doors, structures, materials, and everyday objects.
They are enlarged, cropped, and reorganized into an urban archive.
A city's identity is not only found in landmarks, but also in the ordinary details that are easily overlooked.
Project Meaning
THE CITY IS NEVER FINISHED.
A city is constantly being built, used, changed, and reinterpreted.
Wuyi Square is no exception.
Signs disappear. Buildings change. People move. New images replace old ones.
This project does not attempt to completely document Wuyi Square.
Instead, it collects fragments.
Photography records the trace.Design reorganizes the trace.Art transforms the trace.
The project turns Wuyi Square from a location into a visual language—one that can be continuously observed, fragmented, and rewritten.
Yuelu thrives 02
Gathering at the foot of the mountain, sitting around camping chairs, freely releasing the vibrant atmosphere that belongs to Yuelu.
Yuelu thrives 01
In a corner of the foothills, stretch your body beside the coffee shop and hide your vitality in a relaxed posture.
YueLu Thrives — Project Introduction
Project Overview
This project explores the visual identity of Hunan Normal University (HNNU) through photography and typographic transformation.
The research begins with observations of the campus environment, focusing on architectural details, windows, doors, corridors, structures, shadows, and everyday traces.
Rather than directly reproducing the existing university identity, these visual elements are extracted from photographs and translated into geometric forms.
The letters H / N / N / U become the starting structure of the visual system. Their forms are stretched, fragmented, overlapped, and reconstructed according to the lines, rhythms, and spatial relationships found within the campus.
The resulting logo is therefore not only a typographic mark, but a visual translation of the place itself.
LOGO DEVELOPMENT
The four letters HNNU are reorganized through repetition, stretching, cropping, and geometric distortion.
Instead of designing the logo from typography alone, the letterforms are shaped by the visual characteristics discovered through campus photography.
The final form combines typography, architecture, and place into a single identity.
PROJECT MEANING
The identity is not designed to represent HNNU through a conventional symbol.
Instead, it attempts to discover the logo within the place itself.
The campus becomes the visual material, photography becomes the method of observation, and typography becomes the tool of translation.
Through this process, HNNU is transformed from a name into a visual trace of its own environment.
The identity comes from the place. The place becomes the identity.
VISUAL LANGUAGE
LINE
Inspired by architectural edges, frames, and structural divisions.
RHYTHM
Derived from repeated windows, corridors, and spatial sequences.
FRAGMENT
Taken from details that are easily overlooked in everyday campus life.
Reconstructed from the basic structure of HNNU.
Together, these elements create a visual identity that connects the university's name with its physical.
YueLu Thrives — Project Introduction
Project Form
The campus is treated as a collection of visual fragments.
Architectural lines, repeated windows, structural patterns, shadows, and surface textures are photographed and isolated as graphic elements.
These fragments are then transformed into the basic visual language of the HNNU identity.
The photograph becomes the source. The letter becomes the structure.
HouHu Like a face— Project Introduction
Project Overview
Through photography, the project searches for forms that resemble simple lines, faces, expressions, and graphic symbols within the everyday environment of Houhu.
Circular skylights become eyes. Architectural openings become faces. Doors, windows, walls, shadows, and structural lines become accidental drawings.
Rather than photographing the landscape as a complete scene, the project isolates these small visual coincidences and treats them as found graphic forms.
The photographs are then combined with typography, lines, fragments, and spatial compositions to create a series of visual reinterpretations.
Project Meaning
HOUHU / FOUND FACES explores how ordinary architectural elements can become unexpected visual expressions through a change of perspective. By observing windows, doors, openings, shadows, and structural lines in Houhu, the project discovers forms that resemble faces, drawings, and graphic symbols, then transforms these accidental visual relationships through photography and graphic design. The work is not about inventing something new, but about finding the imagination already hidden within the landscape—turning everyday surroundings into a visual language of perception, discovery, and creation.
