Clients looking for value come to us because they know we are fast and nimble, do not have exorbitant overheads to transfer onto their project fees, and most importantly, we deliver. Sometimes, we also bring forth the local agency advantage through certain project types that intrinsically have a strong local flavour or tradition, for example, Lunar New Year greeting cards, Ang Pao design, as well as this privileged opportunity to design a set of three corporate gifts for UniSIM Centre for Chinese Studies (UCCS), where we demonstrated our Chinese power.

UCCS Leap Notebook
Singling out the Chinese word "躍" (meaning leap) from the Chinese name of SIM University (新躍大学 ) as the concept to represent UCCS' mission to raise awareness and understanding of everything Chinese, the idea was to form five phrases from "躍" to comprise five dividers in the notebook, with further explanation on how each effort can cause the Chinese language, culture and contemporary Chinese society to "leap".

Visually, the notebook is designed to look like a modern bound collectible. It opens up to an introduction to UniSIM and UCCS, followed by lightly dotted notepaper interspersed with five dividers of literary expressions. Each divider comprises one bright red tracer before one star-dusted calligraphy paper. The typography-led art direction sees an interesting display of the characters separated, "躍" on the red tracer and its accompanying character on the calligraphy paper, apparently because the latter has leaped through the tracer.

The result is a classy premium gift suited for corporate visits, representing the Centre's vision and mission through literary, visual as well as tactile stimulation.

UCCS Lively Literary Expressions Bookmark Set
Bearing the same design but different form and material, the two-in-one bookmark set sees the combination of metal and paper displaying the concept of "lively literary expressions" (躍然纸上), as if the metal piece has jumped out of the paper piece.

On the bookmark itself, we further illustrated a Chinese landscape scenery coming to life, to depict the power of words as literary expressions enlivened.

The result is a simple giveaway targeted at the mass to encourage reading and the appreciation of the Chinese language.

UCCS Leap Tote
To be used at book launches and also given out at events, the intent was to let the user be a walking advertisement for UCCS. Extending the concept of "躍" here, we adopted a different design approach to depict the character as a journey that unravels and is ever ongoing, using a piece of folded ribbon as the subject.

The result is an eye-catching piece that intrigues and further associates UCCS with "躍" as a common theme through the three gifts produced.