About This Logo

As an international city, Dalian currently lacks a signature image, either in the form of a logo (like "I Heart NY") or architecture (like the Eiffel Tower). Dalian does proudly display many interesting new skyscrapers, however, none of them are so unique or intricate as to ingrain their image on the city's identity. The traditional signature architecture of Dalian is Japanese (the Yokohama Species Bank) and for obvious political and emotional reasons is not promoted as such. Likewise, after years of neglect the Dalian Department of Tourism has finally released a logo for the city. This is a useful first step, but as a design it has a playful and almost childish feel directed at tourists (which is the target market). It falls short as a logo for a world-class city, and as such, Dalian should have a cleaner and more powerful logo in its simplicity. The "Dalian China" logo displayed here was created in 2003 as a concept to promote the city to the global community. It was previously only displayed on SongLi's private web photo journal about the city. At that time it was shown around various Dalian governmental offices to promote the overall idea but was rejected. Since then, this logo has unofficially leaked across the internet and circulated within the China design community. Over time it has been adopted as the icon for Dalian city because nothing else had existed. Also, no one knew it was a concept logo and not an official government production. Therefore, due to the continued popularity of the logo (including unauthorized merchandize sales), and because it is the original intellectual property by SongLi, a public statement about its ownership is noted here. SongLi has forbidden the usage of the logo, which has done little to stop its spread and acceptance. Official (SongLi approved and designed) apparel and items featuring the logo can be purchased from the Discover Dalian store. If an organization or business wishes to use the logo in conjunction with a Dalian-base promotion, please contact SongLi for permission and licensing rights. NOTE: copies of the logo can be found easily on the internet as an EPS or AI vector file, but these are all recreations of the image and were not copied from the original source file.

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