YORK/SHERIDAN DESIGN GRAD SHOW 2010

April 18 - 21, 2010 at the Fermenting Cellar in Toronto
Alex Cheng

Alex Cheng




Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil has one purpose. It is about our artists who create unforgettable experiences every night through a mix of the senses, fantasy, imagination and storytelling manifested in a theatrical phenomenon. They embrace creativity throughout all levels of operation, always tying everyone to the magic of the end product (their shows).

The wordmark is based on the typeface: Adobe Caslon. Caslon is a serif-based font (the little strokes at the end of the letters). Unlike any other typeface, the serifs flow smoothly to the main strokes of their respective letters. The distinctive characteristic of Adobe Caslon gives the wordmark an overall prestigious yet organic flow. The flow is further emphasized in the letter “Q” where the tail of the character blooms into a flourish. The set of characters are laid out on top of each other that forms an organized structure while maintaining the elegant flow. One of the most interesting features in the logo is the performer’s face seen in the “Q”. Cirque du Soleil is about creating an unforgettable creative experience for both the audience and the artists in Cirque du Soleil, for that reason having the performer’s face to communicate that is central to Cirque du Soleil’s values. Along with the organic quality in the typography, it evokes the idea of a creative ethos that runs parallel to Cirque du Soleil’s core values. The color scheme used is Burgundy Red, and Sun-Baked Yellow. Red is inherently associated with passion, provoking, exciting and dynamic, however the red utilized in the wordmark uses a specific shade of red called burgundy which associates itself with the idea of rich, refined, expensive, mature, authoritative and lush. Sun-Baked yellow is a colour that is identified with enlightenment and imagination, emulating the intensity of sunlight. The color combination as a whole creates a rich, exciting, and imaginative new ethos that is parallel to Cirque du Soleil core values. The wordmark has been careful placed together in fixed proportions with the ideal combination of colour and form to manifest the core values of Cirque du Soleil.

Cirque du Soleil Logo

Cirque du Soleil Business Card

Cirque du Soleil Letterhead

Cirque du Soleil Envelope



The Red Queen’s Enigma

The Red Queen’s Enigma is a book based on the Red Queen theory and the Peacock theory. The Red Queen theory is an evolutionary concept stating that progress is relative. It is named after a chess piece in “Through the Looking-Glass, where Alice and the Red Queen Runs as fast as they could without getting anywhere because the landscape is also moving with them at the same pace. The Red Queen theory is applied to many evolutionary events and has mad tremendous advances in explaining why evolution favors specific traits/characteristics over others. In explaining what traits are attractive, the book explores the seven traits of attraction. The other theory is the Peacock theory. The Peacock theory was coined by Mystery, a popular pickup-artist who became famous from the book, “The Game” written by Neil Strauss who penetrated the society of pickup artists. The idea of the Peacock theory is for a man to dress up in a specific persona to stand out from the crowd and ultimately create attraction in an interaction with a women after having her attention.  In this book, along with explaining the seven traits of attraction, the author will be performing seven characters that act as examples of the Peacock theory, and visual interpretation of the attraction traits.

The Red Queen's Enigma (Book Design)

The Red Queen's Enigma (Book Interior)The Red Queen's Enigma (Book Interior)

The Red Queen's Enigma (Book Interior)

The Red Queen's Enigma (Book Interior)



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