2017 Winner
Typeface Design
Qingyu Lishu
Qingyu Lishu
Category—Typeface Design
2017 Winner
Typeface Design
Qingyu Lishu
Studio
HYS Design, Redmond, Washington
Designer(s)
Han-yi Shaw, Redmond, Washington
Additional Credits
TWITTER: @hanyis
CONCEPT:
This typeface is a modern revival and reinterpretation of a long-lost Chinese calligraphy style once favored by China’s Qianlong Emperor during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) and seen only on few of the remaining emperor- commissioned imperial treasures from the eighteenth century. Based on a venerable, millennia-old clerical script (lishu in Chinese; reisho in Japanese), this typeface reimagines, accentuates, and standardizes key aesthetic qualities to broaden its appeal for modern print and screen. The essence of these aesthetic attributes has also been further applied to Japanese hiragana and katakana for a broader audience with a common East Asian cultural heritage.