Abstract:

Sijing Ancient Town, an ancient town in Songjiang District with a thousand-year history, was born of water. Since 2018, Sijing Ancient Town has launched a new round of putting in place the plans of ancient town protection and renewal. This round of renewal implements the core concept of “restoring the old as the old”. However, after the houses are repaired, the subsequent revitalization and utilization is seen as the key to the ancient town regaining its cultural confidence and rejuvenating itself. The project team has integrated the application of the notion of taking advantage of local elements into the brand reconstruction of Sijing Ancient Town, and explored the innovation strategy and fresh application methods of cultural brand design of Sijing Ancient Town. The project team will make efforts to re-energize the town while shaping its cultural image. The project is an innovative experimental project of brand reconstruction design for traditional ancient towns, which transforms local cultural genes to realize the cultural revival of traditional ancient towns, employs local cultural expressions to awaken the cultural confidence of local residents and the empathy of potential tourists, and finally exploits local brand design as a means of cultural output, so as to practice and prove the value of applying the notion of taking advantage of local elements in the of brand design.

Key words: brand design, local design, traditional ancient town, cultural gene