Shanghai Ssípín

About the client

Shanghai Ssípín Business Consulting (上海思思宾商务咨询有限公司) works between two worlds: Chinese suppliers and partners on one side, companies in Central Africa on the other. Its identity had to be credible to both, readable in both scripts, and clearly rooted in Africa while doing business in China.

What I designed

• The logomark and the main lockup
• A version with the company name in Chinese characters above the English name
• A stacked version and the short “S.S.B.C Co.Ltd” form
• The colour palette and the typeface (Poppins)
• The logo concept page that explains the symbol
• Applications: a brochure cover with a container port, and building signage

The design choices

The symbol is a stylised elephant seen from the front, an animal that stands for calm strength and wisdom. Its large brown ears are anchored like African earth; the blue centre is its trunk, a symbol of communication, memory and connection, which is exactly what a consulting firm between two continents sells.

The palette comes from the savanna: the deep blue of the sky and the horizon for freedom and trust, the earth browns for stability and authenticity, and the grey of the elephant for strength. Blue is used for the name, brown for the ears, so the logo holds together in two colours. Poppins, a clean geometric sans, keeps the long company name legible on a business card and works next to Chinese characters without looking foreign to them.

Where it works

The Chinese version serves documents and meetings with partners in China, the English version the African market, and the S.S.B.C short form fits a stamp, a favicon or a small online profile. The brochure cover, built on an aerial photo of containers, shows the kind of material the firm can now produce in its own colours.

Need an identity for a company working across borders? See my logo and brand identity service in Yaoundé.