The archive · Design & Visual · Product decision · 2023
Romantic Route 3 Art Festival identity turns Hakka journey objects into 3D characters
For Taiwan's Hakka corridor festival, the identity became five playful 3D objects — tea, bamboo, persimmon, leopard cat, temple — winning a 2024 D&AD Pencil.
Romantic Route 3 Art Festival · Hakka Affairs Council
What it had to solve
The Romantic Route 3 Art Festival, organized under Taiwan's Hakka Affairs Council, needed a visual identity that would distinguish it from other art festivals while carrying the culture of the Hakka people, whose unique history the event is built around.
How it works
The Romantic Route 3 Art Festival, organized under Taiwan's Hakka Affairs Council, needed a visual identity that would set it apart from other art festivals. The festival is a journey through Hakka country, so the identity also had to make the culture's unique history visible rather than decorate the event with a generic festival look.
The designers chose character design as the organizing idea: the event's imagery was transformed into a collection of 3D objects that exude playfulness and liveliness. Five significant objects were selected to symbolize the cultural insights participants can gain along the way — tea, bamboo, a persimmon, a leopard cat and a temple — with each one embodying part of the Hakka people's unique history.
The objects became the festival's visual system and were animated into a motion poster series, giving the identity movement and personality instead of a static mark. The series won a D&AD Pencil at the 2024 awards and entered the D&AD archive under Graphic Design, where the Hakka Affairs Council is credited as the client.
Why it lands
- Character design gave the festival a memorable cast instead of a generic mark, so the identity is recognized and remembered like characters rather than a logo.
- Each object was chosen because it symbolizes what participants actually gain on the journey — tea, bamboo, persimmon, leopard cat, temple — so the system stays rooted in Hakka history.
- Turning the objects into lively 3D forms allowed the identity to move: the motion poster series shows the festival's spirit instead of merely announcing it.
- A family of five characters gives the festival a system that can grow into posters, animation and event materials without needing a new idea each time.
What it did
The festival received a character-based identity that could not be mistaken for another art festival's, and the motion poster series won a D&AD Pencil at the 2024 awards, entering the D&AD archive under Graphic Design. The archive page records no attendance or engagement figures, so the case rests on the concept itself.
What you can take
If an event is a journey through a culture, don't brand it with a logo: pick the few objects people will actually meet, turn each into a character, and the identity itself tells the journey.
Since then
The identity was created for the Romantic Route 3 Art Festival and earned a D&AD Pencil at the 2024 awards, entering the D&AD archive under Graphic Design with the Hakka Affairs Council listed as client. The archive page records no attendance figures, so the case stands on the concept: five journey objects turned into a character-based identity for a Hakka festival.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card