Fiftyfive
Web, Print
China is made up of 56 ethnic groups, where Han is the largest ethnic group, making up over 90% of the population. Each culture has its own unique culture, customs, cuisine and language, yet they are often overlooked. During a semester-long project in my senior year, I decided to create a fictional travel agency that brought people closer to the minority ethnic groups. Instead of focusing on the commercialized aspect of a travel agency, I focused on showcasing each culture through information booklets, posters, and a website.
Fiftyfive is your connection to the other China.
Visit the process blog
Information Booklets
I created a information booklet for each ethnic group. Each page shares a consistent grid, but the layout is flexible to cater to the information and images on the page. Images are carefully selected from books and encyclopedias that shows the beautiful colors and festivals from each culture.
Typography The primary typeface is Titillium, an open-source sans serif typeface designed by Accademia di Belle Arti Urbino. The typeface has a great selection of weights and styles, but it is mainly chosen for its form factor. The little horizontal slab at each vertex (A, M, V, W) is reminiscent of the squareness of Chinese characters, and works well with the character of the project.
Color To set a consistent and relevant color pallet, I looked through colorful images from the ethnic groups and selected a system of primary, secondary, and pastel colors.
Book Covers
I created a simple system for the covers of the information booklets. Each culture has its own color, and the 55 colors are chosen to work well together. The spine of the book is red to be consistent when put on the shelf with the other books.
Posters
These posters are inspired by the wheat-pasting technique and are designed to be displayed together. Since the cultures are so diverse, I decided to show glimpses of each culture in the posters. The rectangles on each poster is meant to modernize the images without taking away the grandness from them. One each poster, it says "Fiftyfive is your connection to ———".
Website
The website is designed for exploration. On the homepage, the names of all the cultures are displayed, so if the user already knows his chosen destination, he can select one right away. However, for those who don't know, the filters on the bottom of the page highlights the ones that fits the users' criteria. Once the user selects an ethnic group, he enters a fullscreen photo show. He could either choose to exit the show and select another group, or continue on the curated tour by click on the "Up Next" button.