The Golden Horse Awards stands amongst the world’s most prestigious and time-honored film awards. For the historic 60th anniversary of the award, Taipei-based studio Bito developed a branding system that would support Golden Horse’s four facets and to shape a resolute and consistent brand image.
We seized on the opportunity to create a system that reflected Golden Horse’s esteemed heritage and visionary spirit for the future of Chinese-language cinema.
Rooted in Chinese typographic and visual language principles, the system features an updated logomark, a new Chinese logotype, customized typography, a comprehensive layout system, and a motion system.
The logomark invokes Golden Horse’s rich history by drawing from their original horse head sculpture created in 1962, with subtle adjustments to the lines and structure for a modern refresh. We also developed a new Chinese logotype in order to highlight the brand’s unique role as the representatives of Chinese-language cinema. The logo’s motion employs an "opening and stamping” design, drawing inspiration from the historical Chinese Chop or name seal. This motion not only harks back to the tradition of signature stamps but also delivers a clean and powerful impact.
The customized typography balances traditional elegance with modern touches through a serif and a sans-serif while incorporating geometric features from the horse head logomark for visual coherence.
The layout compositions take inspiration from classic Chinese film posters and embodies the characteristic "vertical Chinese, horizontal English" styles of writing. These were adapted across the layout and motion system.
This year's Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival poster breaks new ground by using Taiwanese abstract art as its design core. We specially invited Taiwan's acclaimed contemporary artist, Paul Chiang, to generously license his "Pisilian" series to us. Through this collection of artwork, he translates his Taitung experiences—a county in Taiwan's east—into paintings that brim with light, shadows, and a profound display of emotions. We chose this collection because of how it reflects the way cinema can etch deeply felt and lasting impressions into the minds of viewers.
Through interactive technology, we created a website that allowed people to collaborate on and digitally paint the poster. By clicking on and touching the screen, new brushstrokes and light spots are drawn, creating a space for everyone to leave behind their own unique motion poster. The visuals are dynamically generated through code, creating powerful yet delicate painting motions. The visuals created by this interactive technology are instantaneously responsive and never repetitive. This immersive approach invites the audience to immerse themselves deeper into this year's visual experience.
