Lorenc+Yoo created an emblematic logo for Fish In The Garden, combining a fish in motion with a large leaf. In many cases, the designers sheathed the logo in bronze coloration to add a rustic, country character to assist with the illusion that residents have escaped the hustle and bustle of urban life. Modern sign fittings then contrast subtly with the worn appearance.

The centerpiece of the project is an enormous fountain, visible immediately when a visitor enters the property. The highlight of the fountain is a large sculpture of eight fish crossing paths in the air. These bronze sculptures convey motion, and dramatic lighting adds to their dynamism. In Chinese culture, eight is an auspicious number, so the sculpture not only adds to visual appeal and branding, but also communicates luck, safety, and prosperity to those who visit and reside there.

Click here for more images of Fish In The Garden, including the spectacular fountain sculpture.

Elsewhere, lanterns and ground lighting illuminate paths and create a calm atmosphere.

A particular design challenge was the need to integrate both Chinese and English text on all informational pieces. The final design allows signage to feature both languages seamlessly and without the appearance that one was added as an afterthought. This modern, international community is accessible to speakers of both languages.

Fish In The Garden is the first of the developments opening in 2012 in China to which Lorenc+Yoo Design has leant its unique approach of combining form and function. Check out our Winter 2012 News Bits to get an update on the art-deco themed Vanke Plaza/Sky Praise opening soon in Shenzhen. And keep an eye out for the spring issue of Experiential Design to get a first peek at the fantasy-inspired Opalus project in Guangzhou.

By Trevor Williams, Atlanta, December 21, 2011

Jan Lorenc spent the first eight years of his life in a Polish village. When his family visited the big city on their way to America, he remembers experiencing running water and television for the first time.

Needless to say, he’s not a fan of Communism, which kept his country poor and his extended family separated for decades.

But he has always had a sort of fascination with the forces that created the system, and now as a designer, he collects items depicting the bold styles that dictators use to convey authority.

In his office, a house near a restored mill in Roswell’s refurbished downtown, blue wooden shelves filled with design books line conference-room walls. A whole section is devoted to the totalitarian motif. Scattered throughout an eclectic mix of memorabilia are a few figurines and posters of Mao Zedong, the father of the communist People’s Republic of China.

Mr. Lorenc never knew the design firm he founded, Lorenc+Yoo, would one day largely depend on the country Mao helped create for its continued growth.

The firm is small – about 10 people in all – and wants to stay that way, but like many architects and designers, Mr. Lorenc said China has enabled his firm to weather the downturn in the U.S. and to reach its full potential.

“In 1986, I dreamed about the level of work that we’re doing today, and it’s China that’s allowed us to do that,” he said.

Lorenc+Yoo isn’t a traditional design firm. It combines a variety of disciplines – graphic design, industrial design and architecture – to create branding elements for buildings and improve their ease of use. One of its main offerings is “architectural jewelry,” subtle embellishments that unify a building’s theme and make it memorable.

Stumbling Upon China

The company’s successful overseas business started in 1995. It has grown organically, with fits and starts, following clients rather than a set global expansion strategy.

It entered Korea in 1996 through principal Chung Youl Yoo’s contacts. A few years later, the firm partnered with a Brit in Dubai who made initial contact after seeing their work in Florida. After the emirate’s 2008 crisis, it took them three years to get paid.

Dubai led to more work with Korean firms in the Middle East, including one project in Libya, the status of which is uncertain as the country goes through a revolution.

China also came about by chance, mostly through relationships with contacts in the design world. Mr. Lorenc and Mr. Yoo had worked on some projects with Atlanta’s Niles Bolton Associates and stayed in touch with the firm’s China managers.

After two years, and without any intention of doing business in China, they won some referrals.

“It’s friends of friends of friends of friends that are going to get you the jobs,” Mr. Lorenc said.

China now accounts for about 60 percent of the firm’s work, a fact the principals see as both exciting and nerve-wracking. They love how fast things move in China, but they realize that the country could eventually be in for a crash landing from its 30-year high.

Mr. Lorenc considers his first “real” Chinese project the design of the hospitality suite for United Parcel Service Inc. at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Unlike some firms that flocked to China for their salvation during the recession, Lorenc+Yoo was on solid footing in the U.S. at the time. In other words, it could’ve turned down the opportunities that came along, Mr. Lorenc said. 
That ability to avoid unsuitable projects has been key to their success. Mr. Lorenc has learned that potential business partners can smell desperation a long way off and will exploit it in negotiations, he said.

“If you look like you’re in desperate need of the next fee to survive for the next three months, you’re going to end up battered,” Mr. Lorenc said. “If you show any of that face to them, that that’s you’re reason, then you’re totally screwed.”

Taking the Risk

Still, the firm had to take risks and trust partners it didn’t know well. Getting paid is always tough for service providers in global business, but it’s especially difficult in China.

Gauging a developer’s professionalism before committing to work with them tends to be based more on gut feeling than careful calculation, Mr. Lorenc said. On one project in the city of Chengdu, the developer asked for a complete design as part of the bid, then revealed their competitor’s ideas. That threw up too many red flags for Lorenc+Yoo to get involved, even though the promised returns were astronomical.

But Mr. Lorenc was clear that you can’t always be too picky, expecting everything to be just like it is in the U.S. Waiting for formalized contracts to materialize and risks to dissipate can sometimes cost a firm lucrative business.

That’s one reason Mr. Lorenc is now focusing on the “top 1 percent” of Chinese developers, those who balance China’s appetite for breakneck growth with an appreciation for good design. He noted that many smaller, less sophisticated construction firms are unwilling to pay for a product they see as too abstract to make a difference.

“This is an intangible. We’re not selling iPods. That’d be a lot easier,” Mr. Lorenc said.

Dealing with Shenzhen-based Vanke, one of China’s largest residential real-estate developers, has been helpful. Still, there have been times when Lorenc+Yoo had to do a lot of work up front, hoping that payment would eventually come and having little recourse if it didn’t.

Thankfully, the relationship has been solid. For Vanke, Lorenc+Yoo is designing architectural jewelry for an art-deco building complex in Shenzhen and has produced signage for a mixed-use development called Fish In The Garden in Guangzhou. Mr. Lorenc met with prospects in Shanghaiand Nanjing in October.

The Indispensable Asset

In order to manage this expansion, the firm had to take another risk – hiring a full-time person to oversee its Chinese relationships before it had a lot of cash flowing in from Chinese contracts.

Before signing a deal, Vanke demanded that Lorenc+Yoo have a Chinese speaker on its side that could ensure both firms got what they wanted out of their agreement.

Mac Liu, the China liaison who has become indispensable to the Lorenc+Yoo’s business, said that some Chinese firms would’ve tried to exploit their communication advantage but that this precondition made sense for a firm like Vanke.

“If you want to pay some money for what you really want to get, does the designer understand what you really want to get? That’s the problem,” Mr. Liu said.

Mr. Liu is much more than a translator. In addition to helping meetings, emails and conference calls run smoothly, his architectural background allows him to explain complex concepts with the precision and passion that the firm wants to convey, abilities a hired linguist wouldn’t possess.

“It was a major expenditure for our firm … but we could not operate in China at the level we’re operating without Mac,” Mr. Lorenc said.

China vs. Other Markets

Lorenc+Yoo has been diligent to cover its bases, but it has found more trustworthy businesspeople than swindlers in China, Mr. Yoo said.

China also has other advantages. It’s less hierarchical than Korea and Japan, where the back-and-forth between superiors and subordinates costs clients time and money.

In Korea, “even though the design is all refined, if the top guy says, ‘I don’t like it,’ then everything comes back and we’ve got to do it all over again,” Mr. Yoo said. And for the designers, it’s frustrating to have a low-level employee from another company control the way your idea is presented to the person in charge.

In China, it’s much easier to speak directly to decision-makers, Mr. Lorenc said. Though the negotiating process can be cumbersome, little will impede a project once it receives the go-ahead.

“Once you make that connection with the top guy, then it’s smooth sailing ahead,” he said.

For now, the firm is focused on Asia, but Mr. Lorenc is looking to eventually explore another emerging market, this one motivated more by his heritage than a cold business case: Poland.

Vanke Plaza/Sky Praise in Shenzhen opened in late 2011. This art deco-inspired design adds a distinct, high-class character to the development, inside and out. The highlight of this project–which included wayfinding signage, interior design, and gateway features–is the architectural jewelry on the buildings’ exterior. The jewelry improves the buildings’ street-level impressions with enhancing details and lighting that features the development’s iconic logo.

In Gurgaon, India, Lorenc+Yoo is working with Hines and DLF Limited (India’s premier real estate developer) on One Horizon Center, which is scheduled to open in 2013. This large project promises to redefine Gurgaon’s cityscape with an international-quality 25-story office tower and accompanying retail space. Situated directly opposite DLF Golf & Country Club, One Horizon Center is being master-planned by award-winning American architect Robert A.M Stern. Lorenc+Yoo is tasked with creating a signage and wayfinding system of the same caliber.

Finally, construction has begun on Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. Lorenc+Yoo completed a full signage/wayfinding program for the project, including gateway features, directional signage, and lighting elements. The project is scheduled to open in 2013.

Lorenc+Yoo worked with tvsdesign and CSS on the Hyatt’s recent renovation by integrating new wayfinding signage into this refined space. The goal was to update the look while also keeping the spirit of the original system.

The team developed a comprehensive way finding strategy to address confusing circulation through the two towers. To further assist, the team recommended new names for the hotel and conference center’s lower levels and for some of the meeting rooms. Additionally, they simplified ballroom naming and numbering to improve visitors’ ease of use.

Lorenc+Yoo designed new floor- and wall-mounted directories, overhead directionals, tower identity signs, and basic plaques. All the signs use aluminum painted to match the wall surfaces and/or stainless steel. They also made use of transparent surfaces, light typography, and interior illumination.

The result is a clean, modern look in keeping with the new architecture and furnishings, bringing the hotel and convention center into the 21st century.

Lorenc+Yoo Design re-envisioned the entire wayfinding and signage system for Detroit’s Greektown Casino. The exterior signage reflects the original signs, some of which are still in place, but with a modern twist.  Whereas the old signs used individual bulbs (think Broadway marquis signs), the new ones use LEDs.  The overall feel of the signs is the same, and use the full 5-color palette of the Greektown logo in both paint and neon. The interior casino signs relied heavily on Greek theming, using patterns and colors found in the casino.  In the hotel however, the treatment is more refined, paying homage to the wonderful interior designed by the architecture firm Rossetti.  Prismatic gold letters mounted directly to dark wood walls lend an air of distinction.

Sycuan Casino required a new identity signage system for its 245,000 square feet renovation. Lorenc+Yoo designed punchy, internally lit signs for the new sports grill, deli, and buffet area. The Live & Up Close desk is framed by lit horizontal bands that add a modern touch to a space otherwise dominated by wood tones.

Nestled in hills adjoining a lake, Fish In The Garden is a new development by Vanke, China’s largest real estate developer. It features retail, hotel, and residential spaces, including high-end villas. The designers developed overall project branding, wayfinding signage, entry features, and site sculpture to reflect an organic theme. The designers featured fish scales, organic shapes, and modern forms, integrating both Chinese and English text. Designers created an emblematic logo for the development and sheathed it and other pieces in bronze coloration to add a rustic character. Modern sign fittings subtly contrast with the worn appearance.

Lorenc+Yoo designed Brookfield’s exhibition to immediately indicate its high stature in the real estate industry. The design team showcased Brookfield’s projects via a series of unified video monitors at the front of the space accompanied by casual, comfortable seating for visitors to use while waiting for a meeting room to become available. Three separate meeting rooms for private conversations exist within the space, each expressing a consistent, minimalist, and high quality design vernacular. Overhead lights shine from a canopy above, providing the illusion of a ceiling within the tall convention hall.