Monotype UCAN Pavilion

Type: Exhibition
Area: 25 sqm
Location: Hangzhou, China
Stage: Completed

A Double Sided Pavilion

In 2019, Monotype released Helvetica Now, an updated version of Helvetica, the classic font that global designers have been using widely. At the UCAN 2019 Alibaba Design Week, Ali and the Monotype team released the alphabetic version of Alibaba Sans.

In order to leave a professional and comprehensive first impression to the Chinese market, Monotype intends to display several classic fonts including Helvetica Now, Din and Noto. Meanwhile, since the release of Alibaba Sans was the focus of the conference, how to combine this font with a strong Alibaba personality into a design full of Monotypes brand concept while stimulating collision is the key to the pavilion design.

We found our inspiration in the streets with banners and shop fronts. The pavilion aims to create a vivid communication for fonts and designers alike, with Monotype’s blue as the theme color from the front and Alibaba’s orange as that from the back. To enhance the concept of conversation with fonts and indicate the emotions behind the design of the letters, we also designed an installation juxtaposing two families of fonts with potential dialogues.