By Yong-Yi Chiang
Kenny Ong studied philosophy and nonfiction writing at University of Pittsburgh and then went to Columbia University for an MFA in creative nonfiction. After receiving an MFA, he moved to Shanghai for three years, working in the travel and lifestyle media industry in various editorial positions. Amidst that work, he became the Nonfiction Editor for TSLR. In this interview, Ong talks about the process of creating TSLR’s logo and the inspiration behind it.
The Shanghai Literary Review logo
Yong-Yi Chiang: What was the process of designing the logo? How did it evolve?
Kenny Ong: TSLR has had two logos. For the logo used in first issue, we went with a Chinese seal theme, using an approximate English-Chinese translation of “The Shanghai Literary Review” to make up the seal’s characters. We liked how the Chinese seal is a sort of flag for Chinese culture and using it as a logo design would broadcast our relation to it.
That logo only made it into our first issue, though. We discovered that another literary organization had gone with the same motif, so we decided, after one discussion and design phase, to update our logo to the dolphin logo.
That logo only made it into our first issue, though. We discovered that another literary organization had gone with the same motif, so we decided, after one discussion and design phase, to update our logo to the dolphin logo.
Our Issue One designer, Marine Ng Cheong Sang, executed and iterated on all the ideas for both logos. She sent us, the editors, everything she came up with and we discussed what we liked, which ended up being the dolphin logo we have today.
YC: What inspired the design? Why include dolphins in the logo?
KO: For the second logo, I decided that a simple yet not abstract design would be ideal. The imagery of baiji dolphins came to mind one day. I thought about how the species, native to China, is as good as extinct, yet one or two are still spotted from time to time. The story of the baiji dolphins resonated with me and what we were doing. We were starting a literary journal in China, despite the low market viability of literary journals everywhere.
I shared all that with Juli Min (TSLR editor in chief), who liked it, and then Marine, who produced a couple iterations involving the circling dolphins, which I found to be a neat and clean, recognizable yet distinct, design element. I do recall the main difference among versions being that some involved the Chinese characters for TSLR, and some were just the English letters. We ultimately settled on using ‘“TSLR” as opposed to Chinese characters because we didn’t want to give the impression that we are a Chinese language or even bilingual literary journal. Yes, we publish translations from Chinese to English and include the original text, but in the end we only read submissions that are written in English.
YC: Why red for the logo?
KO: Choosing red for our first logo and the dolphin logo is a nod to the color’s significance in Chinese culture. While the color’s major cultural currency is fortune, I would say we adopted the color more to tie our journal to China and its geopolitical context, where China embodies and exudes the great influence of globalism on contemporary experience.
For more of Marine Ng Cheong Sang’s work, follow her on Instagram @Marineng and check out her website at https://marinengcheongsang.com.
