Eight Partnership Hong Kong develops branding for creative cultural district Novotown in China

Eight Partnership is working with Zhuhai Hengqin Laisun Creative Culture City, part of Hong Kong’s Lai Sun Group, on their new creative cultural district, Novotown. Located in Hengqin, China, Novotown stands apart from its peers as a new concept in China. Its goal is to be a destination where visitors are able to participate, explore and create within the facilities on offer.

As part of its commitment to become a creative cultural city, Novotown has partnered with Lionsgate, National Geographic Society and Media Asia, among other content partners, to create fully immersive entertainment experiences within the development.

Eight has driven the development of the brand’s positioning strategy, visual identity and logo, working closely with Lai Sun Group’s project team. Based around the concept of the five senses plus the sixth ‘sense’ of imagination, the logo reflects Novotown’s focus on creativity by taking on both static and dynamic forms that reflect their contextual surroundings. In its static form, the logo appears as a multi-coloured star, with each of the lines representing the interplay of the six senses. When used dynamically, the logo changes shape but retains its distinctive colours, and these dynamic logos can be used to emphasize different aspects within Novotown, such as entertainment areas and retail spaces.

In addition, Eight has worked with Lai Sun Group to develop the naming and identification for key physical zones within the development, using as the core idea the creative marriage of art and science.

“We are excited to be working with Lai Sun Group on this pioneering development,” says Maria Arango, Senior Brand Consultant at Eight Partnership. “Our goal was to help develop a brand strategy that really reflects the creativity at the heart of the project and we believe that the combination of the dynamic logo, the use of the six senses as well as the English and Chinese zone names will contribute to visitors’ perception of Novotown as a creative and cultural hub.”

Construction on Novotown began in September 2015 and the first phase comprises 260,000 square metres with hotel, retail, F&B and entertainment facilities as well as cultural workshops and offices. Novotown is due to open in Hengqin in late 2018. Hengqin is a Special Economic Zone and will be connected to Hong Kong via the Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau bridge as well as to mainland China via the Zhuhai Rail Network.