Designers help Taipei government create innovative public spaces
City takes a transformative step with its vibrant signage at Dazhi Market
If you need evidence Taipei has taken design to heart, pay a visit to Dazhi Market, where designers teamed up with hawkers last year to help them rebrand their stalls.
“It looked old-fashioned before,” says the market’s chairman, Huang Shuang-jin. “We are a traditional market but we wanted to add more art and design elements to liven up the atmosphere.”
Nine stall owners in this unassuming neighbourhood wet market volunteered to work with the designers. Together, they produced new signage that replaced the standard government-issued signboards above each stall.
“Customers love it – it’s so cute,” says vegetable hawker Cheng Ming-yen. His customers are now greeted by cartoon veggies with smiling faces. A few stalls down, a fishmonger opted for a more contemporary sign, with a stylish fish logo that wouldn’t look out of place above a gastropub.
The project was led by local design group City Yeast and Archicake Design in collaboration with the Taipei government – just one of many small interventions aimed at improving the city’s quality of life. “A lot of people started to look around [their city] and ask, ‘Is this what we want?’” says Tammy Chen, an Archicake designer.