World’s biggest mall set to open

What is claimed to be the biggest mall in the world will open in China in November with a graphics package by Rodney Fitch Design Consultants.

The 186 000m2 Metropolitan Plaza mall is sited within a bigger 650 000m2 business and leisure complex in the Chinese city of Chong Xing, and is owned by Hutchison Whampoa. Rodney Fitch Design Consultants has developed an identity and signage package for the entire site.

The new-build complex includes a multi-storey hotel and business centre and the consultancy designed the programme from drawings sent by the client-owned architect.

“A prime objective of our brief was to create a signage programme which ties the whole complex together,” says Rodney Fitch Design Consultants head of graphics Paul Parkin. “It’s quite Western in terms of the graphics and photography we’ve used – for a lot of people retailing and shopping centres are a Western concept anyway and clients in the Far East want an international flavour,” he adds.

Translators based in China and the UK were employed to effectively incorporate the two Chinese dialects – Mandarin and Cantonese – into the signage programme. “It was important not to fall into the stereotypical trap of using red and gold with the Chinese script,” adds Parkin.