The Type

Type and design across cultures

Bai Shilong: No Parking!

£15.00

Baishilong Village, now part of Longhua District, is located outside the Shenzhen Customs. While not the largest urban village, its proximity to the Meilin Checkpoint, Metro Line 4, and Shenzhen North Station, along with its affordable rents, has attracted a large number of migrant workers from within the customs. Designer Liao Bofeng, known as "Mr. Liao," first settled in Baishilong Village after graduating from university in 2009 and lived there for ten years.

Shenzhen's immigrant culture is even more dominant than in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and the young workforce in urban villages has a more structural impact on the city's economy. Compared to the large-scale demolition and reconstruction in other cities, Shenzhen's urban village governance approach is relatively cautious, allowing residents to spontaneously transform their lives. In terms of visual culture, the density of handwritten text in Shenzhen's urban villages is strikingly higher than in other cities.

Since 2016, Mr. Liao has been collecting various "No Parking" warning signs throughout the village. He is intimately familiar with every corner of Baishilong Village, regularly touring the entire village, observing any new "No Parking" signs.

No parking signs might seem like objects devoid of aesthetic value or record-keeping. However, in urban villages, where population density is far higher than in urban areas, parking is extremely scarce, and warnings to vehicles to avoid blocking entrances and exits are essential, leading to a higher frequency of no parking signs. The wording of the warnings, the font and writing style, the material and size of the signs, and the location of their hangings all reflect the writer's cultural level, economic status, and social status, presenting a diverse and even dynamic landscape. A closer look reveals many surprising manipulations.

The writing implements and materials used for stop signs generally reflect principles such as cost-effectiveness, recycling, and strong visual impact. Slightly more advanced options include reusable engravings or inexpensive digital prints. The most common writing surfaces are rolling shutters and walls, with locally available materials like corrugated cardboard, foam board (Shenzhen uses a lot of foam boxes for seafood preservation), and used furniture parts also available. The text features a mix of simplified and traditional Chinese characters, variant forms, and misspellings, with horizontal, vertical, and mixed arrangements freely arranged, all dictated by the shape of the writing surface and the amount of hanging space. The language used is restrained and open, with a sincere and frank expression.

Two years ago, during the TypeTour Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen text design tour, we had planned to visit Baishilong Village with Mr. Liao, but time constraints prevented us from making the trip. Today, Shenzhen's comprehensive urban village renovation project is underway on a large scale, with significant capital inflow. Entire blocks of small-property-right housing are being converted into move-in ready-to-stay hotel apartments, attracting more young people. The face of urban villages is quietly changing. It's foreseeable that naturally occurring, wildly popular "designs" like no-parking signs will soon be upgraded to a uniform, clean aesthetic.

Therefore, we've officially compiled Liao Gong's no-parking sign photography project into a book—"Bai Shilong: No Parking!"—featuring over one hundred no-parking sign styles, selected from over two years of collection, showcasing diverse production and expression methods. No-parking signs, once solely functional in urban spaces, have been revitalized through this survey record, enriching their meaning.

To capture the no-parking signs he encounters in urban villages, Liao Gong uses his mobile phone as his primary photography tool. The book's design forgoes page numbers, directly integrating the experience of a digital photo album with paper: photos are arranged by the author's creation time, with large images on the right and thumbnails on the left. In this visual archive, vision itself serves as an index, abandoning "navigational precision" in favor of a relaxed and unrestrained experience, a sentiment echoed by the textual expressions captured through the book's images.

The book also includes Liao Gong's analysis of the materials, fonts, production tools, writing direction, and layout of the "No Parking" sign. Finally, there's a section for readers to interact: you can try creating your own "No Parking" sign based on the insert photo.

Liao Bofeng, also known as Liao Gong, is a graphic designer. He graduated from the Department of Interior Design at the School of Art, Soochow University. In 2016, he founded LiaoDesign and serves as its Creative Director. A member of the Shenzhen Graphic Design Association (SGDA), he currently lives and works in Shenzhen. He has won numerous awards in professional competitions both domestically and internationally. At the end of 2016, he held the solo exhibition "30" in Shenzhen. That year, he was selected as one of Shenzhen's 30 "Skilled Elites" under the age of 35, and was awarded the titles of "Shenzhen Technical Expert" and "Shenzhen Good Technician." In 2017, he was named one of the "Top Ten Craftsmen of Longhua."

Bai Shilong: No Parking!

Baishilong Village, now part of Longhua District, is located outside the Shenzhen Customs. While not the largest urban village, its proximity to the Meilin Checkpoint, Metro Line 4, and Shenzhen North Station, along with its affordable rents, has attracted a large number of migrant workers from within the customs. Designer Liao Bofeng, known as “Mr. Liao,” first settled in Baishilong Village after graduating from university in 2009 and lived there for ten years.

Shenzhen’s immigrant culture is even more dominant than in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and the young workforce in urban villages has a more structural impact on the city’s economy. Compared to the large-scale demolition and reconstruction in other cities, Shenzhen’s urban village governance approach is relatively cautious, allowing residents to spontaneously transform their lives. In terms of visual culture, the density of handwritten text in Shenzhen’s urban villages is strikingly higher than in other cities.

Since 2016, Mr. Liao has been collecting various “No Parking” warning signs throughout the village. He is intimately familiar with every corner of Baishilong Village, regularly touring the entire village, observing any new “No Parking” signs.

No parking signs might seem like objects devoid of aesthetic value or record-keeping. However, in urban villages, where population density is far higher than in urban areas, parking is extremely scarce, and warnings to vehicles to avoid blocking entrances and exits are essential, leading to a higher frequency of no parking signs. The wording of the warnings, the font and writing style, the material and size of the signs, and the location of their hangings all reflect the writer’s cultural level, economic status, and social status, presenting a diverse and even dynamic landscape. A closer look reveals many surprising manipulations.

The writing implements and materials used for stop signs generally reflect principles such as cost-effectiveness, recycling, and strong visual impact. Slightly more advanced options include reusable engravings or inexpensive digital prints. The most common writing surfaces are rolling shutters and walls, with locally available materials like corrugated cardboard, foam board (Shenzhen uses a lot of foam boxes for seafood preservation), and used furniture parts also available. The text features a mix of simplified and traditional Chinese characters, variant forms, and misspellings, with horizontal, vertical, and mixed arrangements freely arranged, all dictated by the shape of the writing surface and the amount of hanging space. The language used is restrained and open, with a sincere and frank expression.

Two years ago, during the TypeTour Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen text design tour, we had planned to visit Baishilong Village with Mr. Liao, but time constraints prevented us from making the trip. Today, Shenzhen’s comprehensive urban village renovation project is underway on a large scale, with significant capital inflow. Entire blocks of small-property-right housing are being converted into move-in ready-to-stay hotel apartments, attracting more young people. The face of urban villages is quietly changing. It’s foreseeable that naturally occurring, wildly popular “designs” like no-parking signs will soon be upgraded to a uniform, clean aesthetic.

Therefore, we’ve officially compiled Liao Gong’s no-parking sign photography project into a book—”Bai Shilong: No Parking!”—featuring over one hundred no-parking sign styles, selected from over two years of collection, showcasing diverse production and expression methods. No-parking signs, once solely functional in urban spaces, have been revitalized through this survey record, enriching their meaning.

To capture the no-parking signs he encounters in urban villages, Liao Gong uses his mobile phone as his primary photography tool. The book’s design forgoes page numbers, directly integrating the experience of a digital photo album with paper: photos are arranged by the author’s creation time, with large images on the right and thumbnails on the left. In this visual archive, vision itself serves as an index, abandoning “navigational precision” in favor of a relaxed and unrestrained experience, a sentiment echoed by the textual expressions captured through the book’s images.

The book also includes Liao Gong’s analysis of the materials, fonts, production tools, writing direction, and layout of the “No Parking” sign. Finally, there’s a section for readers to interact: you can try creating your own “No Parking” sign based on the insert photo.

Liao Bofeng, also known as Liao Gong, is a graphic designer. He graduated from the Department of Interior Design at the School of Art, Soochow University. In 2016, he founded LiaoDesign and serves as its Creative Director. A member of the Shenzhen Graphic Design Association (SGDA), he currently lives and works in Shenzhen. He has won numerous awards in professional competitions both domestically and internationally. At the end of 2016, he held the solo exhibition “30” in Shenzhen. That year, he was selected as one of Shenzhen’s 30 “Skilled Elites” under the age of 35, and was awarded the titles of “Shenzhen Technical Expert” and “Shenzhen Good Technician.” In 2017, he was named one of the “Top Ten Craftsmen of Longhua.”