Hasta La Creative!

Turkish artist Mehmet Gozetlik has created a fascinating study in iconography with his latest work, titled “Chinatown,” where he deconstructs popular Western-based logos and reinterprets them in Chinese.

The resulting work is an interesting study in the effectiveness of a mark, and a true testament to the indelible impression these logos have in our minds. In the video below, Gozetlik shows us a glimpse into his process of creating one of his neon-sign designs into an actual neon sign:

“Chinatown is a Chinese translation of the trademarks in a graphical way” says the artist on his website. 

“It’s a carefully arranged series of artworks showcasing 20 well-known Western brand logos with maintained visual and narrative continuity. ‘Chinatown’ pushes viewers to ask themselves what it means to see, hear, and become fully aware. ‘Chinatown’ also demonstrates our strangeness to 1.35 billion people in the world, when you can’t read Chinese.”

Instead of simply translating the brand names into Chinese, the logos include a generic description of the product written in Chinese. So, even for those fluent in Chinese, the logos appear somewhat unbranded. 

Take a look below at some of these interesting studies in branding and see if you can figure them out on first glance:

Mastercard

Starbucks

Shell Gasoline

Lego

Burger King

London Underground

Converse

Levi’s Jeans

Chiquita Bananas

NASA

7-11

Lufthansa 

Diet Pepsi

Martini

Via Design Boom.