Bronze Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design · 2026
Zhanlu Tea Brand Design
- A' Design Award 2026 Bronze Winner in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 12,546
- Verification code D00BEE7288 · Verify this award
About Zhanlu Tea Brand Design
Zhanlu is a brand and packaging design for a herbal tea created for the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor. The concept draws on the image of morning dew in classical Chinese poetry, suggesting purity and light nourishment. The blend combines monk fruit, licorice, ophiopogon, raspberry, and Solomon's seal, following the traditional principle that sour and sweet flavors together help generate moisture. Each 5 g tea bag is sealed in a moisture proof sachet. Coated paperboard cartons use offset printing and hot stamping with Han inspired graphics.
Ma Lan's packaging design for a tea brand achieves remarkable synthesis between deeply rooted cultural heritage and contemporary visual communication principles, positioning the product within the sophisticated landscape of modern wellness culture while maintaining respectful dialogue with centuries of tea ceremony tradition and decorative arts lineage. The compositional strategy demonstrates confident command of negative space activation, a principle central to both historical Asian aesthetic philosophy and current minimalist design movements, where generous white expanses function not as absence but as active breathing room that elevates the carefully orchestrated graphic elements into heightened visibility and symbolic resonance. The chartreuse yellow-green that punctuates the composition through horizontal banding and spot illustration carries rich cultural associations with spring renewal, new growth, and the fresh vitality of premium tea leaves, while simultaneously projecting contemporary color sensibility aligned with current wellness and natural product visual vocabularies. The black linear illustrations reveal particularly accomplished graphic translation of traditional decorative motifs including stylized cloud formations rendered through concentric spiral patterns that evoke both classical Asian ornamental vocabularies and universal symbols of transformation and cyclical renewal, tea leaf forms depicted with parallel hatching that suggests woodblock print heritage while maintaining clean contemporary legibility, and geometric medallion structures containing radiating patterns that bridge celestial symbolism, floral mandalas, and the precision of modern technical illustration. The typographic system balances bold sans-serif display scale asserting brand confidence with delicate vertical text elements providing bilingual information in refined proportions, the generous letterform sizing functioning as graphic element rather than mere nomenclature container, establishing immediate shelf presence and brand recognition across retail environments. The packaging architecture itself, revealed through the stacked presentation, demonstrates three-dimensional structural intelligence where horizontal chartreuse bands wrap edges to create visual continuity across multiple viewing angles, transforming simple rectangular forms into dimensional brand ambassadors that maintain graphic coherence whether viewed frontally, obliquely, or in accumulated retail multiplication. This design invites contemplation of how traditional cultural symbols maintain relevance and meaning when thoughtfully reinterpreted through contemporary graphic reduction, how color can simultaneously honor heritage associations and speak to current aesthetic sensibilities, and how packaging can elevate the ritual of daily tea consumption into a moment of cultural connection and aesthetic appreciation. How might the careful balance between ornamental heritage and minimalist restraint here model broader possibilities for respectful cultural translation within global commercial visual communication, and what does this synthesis suggest about contemporary desires for products that connect material consumption with cultural depth and contemplative ritual?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Zhanlu is inspired by the idea of light nourishment and the purity of morning dew. Created for the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, it blends monk fruit, licorice, ophiopogon, raspberry, and Solomons seal, following the traditional principle that sour and sweet together help generate moisture. Warm, gentle, and balanced, it offers visitors a moment of natural comfort and a quiet connection to ancient wisdom.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Each bag contains 5 g of blended herbs, with 50 g per box. Individual sachets are sealed in moisture proof laminated film to ensure freshness and hygiene. Packaging includes a coated paperboard carton and a premium rigid gift box with specialty paper wrapping and inner tray. Suitable for hot water brewing, one sachet per cup. Store in a cool, dry place.
- Tags
- Light Nourishment, Herbal Tea, Moisturizing Formula, Brand Design
- Production Technology
- Zhanlu is made with selected herbs that are cleaned, low temperature dried, and finely cut to preserve aroma and quality. The blend is packed into 5 g food grade tea bags and sealed in moisture proof sachets. Cartons and rigid gift boxes use coated paperboard with offset printing and hot stamping to present refined Han inspired graphics.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge was translating traditional wellness philosophy into a contemporary product without losing cultural depth. Rooted in classical theory, the concept had to remain clear and appealing to modern users. The key was balancing herbal efficacy, taste, symbolism, and packaging in one refined and coherent design.
- Project Duration
- The project was completed on February 18, 2026. The client is based in the Yangtze River Delta region of China. Concept development, herbal formulation research, and packaging design were carried out in Xian, Shaanxi Province, China. The project integrates regional cultural resources with contemporary design practice, bridging eastern market demand and northwestern cultural heritage context.
- Operation Flow
- Open the outer carton or gift box and remove one individually sealed sachet. Tear open the moisture proof wrapper and place one 5 g tea bag into a cup. Add approximately 250 to 300 ml of hot water and steep for 3 to 5 minutes. The tea gradually releases a gentle sweetness and light herbal aroma.
After touring the mausoleum, visitors hold the warm cup, pause, and sip slowly. The interaction is simple and intuitive, open, brew, inhale, taste, creating a quiet ritual that connects body, breath, and cultural memory in a brief moment of nourishment. - Research
- This project explores how traditional Chinese wellness philosophy can be translated into contemporary cultural product design. Based on the principle that sour and sweet flavors generate moisture, the formula blends monk fruit, licorice, polygonatum, ophiopogon, and raspberry to support gentle hydration. Inspired by classical poetry and Han aesthetics, the packaging reinterprets traditional symbolism in a modern tea product, linking heritage, health, and mindful self care.
- Inspiration
- The inspiration for Zhanlu comes from the image of morning dew in ancient Chinese poetry, pure, quiet, and life giving. It draws from the sacred atmosphere of the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, especially the ancient cypress trees that have endured for millennia. The concept of light nourishment and the traditional principle that sour and sweet create moisture shaped the formula, expressing harmony between nature, heritage, and gentle self care.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Designers Ma Lan and Tang Guangyi (Product Designer / Visual Designer), Zhanlu Sweet and Moisturizing Tea Main Packaging, 2026.
Image #2: Designers Wang Yinghua, Jinyuan Zhang, Shunfeng Zhang and Huang Wanhui (Illustrator / Graphic Designer), Botanical and Han Inspired Illustration Series, 2026.
Image #3: Designers Xu Lianfa and Tang Guangyi (Packaging Engineer / Visual Designer), Light Luxury Gift Box Structure and Visual System, 2026.
Image #4: Designers Ma Lan, Wang Yinghua and Huang Wanhui (Product Designer / Illustrator / Graphic Designer), Ingredient Visualization and Cultural Motif Development, 2026.
Image #5: Designers Ma Lan, Tang Guangyi, Xu Lianfa and Zhifei Fu (Product Designer / Visual Designer / Packaging Engineer / Design Coordination), Integrated Packaging and Structural Realization, 2026. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Ma Lan, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, 2026.
Packaging structure design patent pending. Patent Holder: Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts. 2026. China.
Visual system and illustration artworks are protected under applicable copyright laws.
Colors of Zhanlu Tea Brand Design
Design Interview about Zhanlu Tea Brand Design
The entire design of Zhanlu Tea adheres to the core concepts of "classical literature conveying charm, ancient forms narrating stories, and gentle nourishment for the heart," following three design principles: cultural origin, scene adaptability, and contemporary aesthetics. The design inspiration comes from the classical literary tradition of the *Classic of Poetry*, the profound ancestral culture of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, and the natural beauty of ancient cypress trees. It also relies on the traditional Chinese medicine wisdom of "sour and sweet transforming into yin" to build the product's cultural foundation. The visual creation uses Han Dynasty portrait stone art as the core narrative carrier, extracting the simple, solemn, and elegant visual language of the Han style. I hope to create a cultural tourism tea brand design that combines ancient poetic charm, cultural heritage, and a modern, gentle lifestyle by connecting literary classics, traditional health culture, and ancestral worship scenes.
In this design, I focused on the seamless integration of cultural imagery, product attributes, and cultural tourism scenarios, balancing classical atmosphere with modern aesthetics, and health-preserving connotations with visual expression. I emphasized the accurate reproduction of the visual essence of Han Dynasty stone carvings, the subtle expression of the poetic atmosphere of the *Classic of Poetry*, and the gentle, soothing character of the lightly nourishing tea beverage. The core design objective is to break away from the industry problems of homogenization, superficiality, and lack of cultural depth in traditional cultural tourism tea beverage packaging. The goal is to transform packaging from a simple product container into a vehicle for disseminating the ancestral culture of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, the literary culture of the *Classic of Poetry*, and traditional health-preserving culture, allowing tourists to engage in a gentle dialogue with traditional Chinese culture through their drinking experience, enriching their journey with a warm and culturally enriching experience.
In the future, I will continue to improve the complete visual system of the "Zhanlu" brand, extending the series of tea beverage packaging, cultural and creative products, offline brand visual displays, and cultural tourism derivative designs to build a systematic and unified ancient-style cultural tourism brand IP. Simultaneously, leveraging the cultural tourism resources of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum Scenic Area, I will promote the implementation of designs in diverse scenarios such as public displays within the scenic area, sales of cultural tourism souvenirs, and cultural theme activities, continuously amplifying the brand's cultural influence. I will also iterate on packaging details and visual presentation based on market feedback, deepening the brand label of "Poetry Classic Lineage + Han Dynasty Aesthetics + Light Health Concept," making Zhanlu a highly representative cultural tourism tea beverage benchmark for the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum.
The entire creative cycle for the Zhanlu brand and packaging design took about a month. In the initial stage, I spent a week conducting specialized cultural research, sorting out the textual connotations of Zhanlu in the Book of Songs, the humanistic artistic conception of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, the artistic characteristics of Han Dynasty portrait stones, and the traditional theory of nourishing yin with sour and sweet flavors, thus solidifying the cultural foundation of the design. In the middle stage, I spent two weeks completing the brand concept refinement, extraction and reconstruction of Han Dynasty portrait graphics, layout iteration, color atmosphere adjustment, and polishing of multiple packaging schemes. In the final week, I focused on implementation adaptation, detail optimization, process testing, and scene simulation to ensure a high degree of unity between cultural expression, visual aesthetics, and product experience.
This design is a commissioned cultural tourism creation specifically tailored for the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum Scenic Area. I established the core concept of "poetic essence, Han Dynasty aesthetics, and gentle nourishment" because the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, as a landmark of Chinese ancestral culture, urgently needs a cultural tourism tea product that embodies a solemn, elegant, and tranquil atmosphere. Currently, most traditional-style tea designs are overly commercialized and focused on trendy trends, lacking the subtle beauty and humanistic depth of traditional culture, and failing to match the cultural tourism atmosphere of ancestral worship and spiritual cultivation. Therefore, I combined classic poetry, Han Dynasty art, and traditional health wisdom to create a differentiated cultural tourism design exclusively for the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, filling the gap in high-end, lightly nourishing cultural tea design within the scenic area.
Currently, the Zhanlu Tea brand and packaging design are exclusively licensed to the Huangdi Mausoleum Scenic Area for use in cultural tourism projects. This license serves only the official production and sales of cultural tourism products and the promotion of the scenic area's culture, and has not been authorized for reuse by any other company. I have no plans to sell or lease the design copyright or visual IP at this time. The core value of this design lies in empowering the dissemination of ancestral culture and upgrading the scenic area's cultural tourism, carrying the attributes of public cultural dissemination rather than being a purely commercial monetization tool. In the future, I will continue to cooperate with the scenic area's official team to optimize the design's implementation and expand its application in a series of products, upholding the design's cultural value and exclusive regional character, and ensuring the purity and unity of the brand's cultural tone.
The core driving force behind this design is my sense of responsibility to modernize traditional culture and empower cultural tourism scenarios with humanistic elements. The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor carries the profound cultural roots of China and possesses the serene atmosphere of ancient cypress trees, yet it lacks a light and healthy cultural tourism tea IP to match its character. At the same time, much of the rich traditional culture, such as traditional health wisdom, classical literature from the Book of Songs, and Han Dynasty stone carving art, is largely hidden in books and far removed from everyday life. I hope to use tea packaging as a lightweight medium for dissemination, integrating classical literature, Han Dynasty aesthetics, and traditional health concepts into the travel experience, allowing tourists to perceive the gentle power of traditional culture in a relaxing way, and inheriting the Chinese cultural heritage through a gentle and light design language.
This design was deeply influenced by the design philosophy of Pan Hu, a top domestic packaging designer. Pan Hu advocates abandoning the superficial piling up of Chinese trend symbols, adhering to the core design philosophy of "deconstructing tradition, reshaping the contemporary, and balancing art and practicality." He rejects the rigid replication of ancient patterns and styles, and excels at extracting the underlying spirit and aesthetic logic of traditional culture, using modern minimalist visual language to achieve a modern rebirth of traditional culture. His creative thinking of simplifying complexity, conveying meaning through form, and narrating scenes has greatly inspired the design of this Zhanlu tea beverage. I borrowed his cultural deconstruction techniques, avoiding the rigid stacking of Han Dynasty portrait stone patterns, but rather extracting the simple order and oriental charm of Han paintings, combining the poetic imagery of the Book of Songs with the tone of a light and nourishing product. While preserving the authentic cultural heritage, it adapts to contemporary cultural tourism aesthetics and market demands, achieving a perfect balance between ancient charm and modern minimalist design.
The core target audience of this design is domestic and international tourists visiting the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum to pay homage to their ancestors and for cultural tourism. It also encompasses young consumers who appreciate a light and nourishing lifestyle, enjoy modern Chinese aesthetics, and prefer traditional cultural tea drinks. Tourists, during their solemn ancestral worship journey and immersive cultural tours, need a gentle, soothing, and calming beverage to relieve fatigue; while those who appreciate traditional Chinese aesthetics prefer creative tea drinks that combine cultural depth, visual appeal, and a healthy concept. The design caters to diverse scenarios, including mass travel consumption, cultural souvenirs, gifts for friends and family, and everyday light and nourishing drinks, appealing to the aesthetics and needs of cultural consumers of all ages.
Unlike ordinary traditional Chinese style tea drinks and cultural tourism tea drinks on the market, the biggest difference of this work is the **deep integration and evocative expression of a triple cultural system**, rejecting the superficial piling up of traditional Chinese symbols. Most similar designs simply apply ancient patterns and retro colors, resulting in a culturally empty and highly homogenized design. Zhanlu Design, however, takes the literature of the *Classic of Poetry* as its foundation, Han Dynasty portrait stones as its visual core, and the traditional health wisdom of "sour and sweet transforming into yin" as its product core, creating a complete and progressively layered cultural logic. At the same time, it abandons the ostentatious trendy style, matching the cultural tone of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum with a warm, elegant, and dignified visual quality, combining literary imagery, artistic depth, and health value to form a unique and differentiated traditional Chinese style cultural tourism design.
The brand name "Zhanlu" is derived from the classic imagery of the Book of Songs, meaning the pure morning dew, symbolizing a beautiful and nourishing natural state of mind, imbued with a thousand years of Eastern poetic charm and elegance. The name perfectly aligns with the serene and solemn natural and cultural atmosphere of the ancient cypress trees at the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, perfectly matching the cultural tone of the scenic area. Meanwhile, "Zhanlu Ganrun" accurately reflects the tea's sweet, refreshing, and nourishing taste and gentle effects, achieving unity between name, imagery, and function. The name is simple yet profound, carrying the essence of classical Chinese literature while conveying a gentle, soothing, and subtly nourishing experience, making it highly memorable and culturally distinctive.
This project employs a creative model that combines traditional cultural research with digital professional design. In the initial phase, authentic classical cultural materials and visual elements were accumulated through manual methods such as literature review, collection of Han Dynasty portrait stone patterns, and cultural field research. In the mid-term, Adobe's full suite of design software was used to complete pattern deconstruction and reconstruction, brand visual design, packaging layout creation, color scheme adjustment, and detailed rendering of the final images. In the final phase, professional visual optimization tools were used to adapt to packaging printing processes and materials. Manual research ensures the authentic cultural foundation, while digital tools enable a refined and modern visual presentation, allowing the ancient aesthetics to be accurately realized.
The most unique core highlight of this design is its **three-dimensional cultural system: Han Dynasty stone carvings as the visual core, the Book of Songs literature as the spiritual core, and traditional health preservation as the functional core**. Unlike the singular visual decoration of ordinary ancient-style tea drinks, this design possesses a complete cultural narrative logic: externally, it uses the simple and profound language of Han Dynasty stone carvings to create exclusive visual symbols, exuding a dignified and elegant temperament; internally, it relies on the poetic beauty of the Book of Songs to construct the brand's artistic conception, and on the ancient method of "sour and sweet transforming yin" to create the core of its light and nourishing products. The overall visual style is refined and restrained, with a profound artistic conception, which not only aligns with the solemn heritage of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum ancestral culture but also caters to the modern consumer demand for light and nourishing products, achieving a four-dimensional unity of literature, art, health preservation, and cultural tourism.
I led the overall creative process for this project, collaborating with team members to establish the positioning and complete visual design system, while also engaging in multi-dimensional professional collaboration. During the creative process, I communicated with traditional culture scholars to accurately analyze the textual connotations of the Book of Songs and the artistic characteristics of Han Dynasty portrait stones, ensuring rigorous and authentic cultural expression; I also connected with professionals in traditional Chinese medicine and health preservation to thoroughly understand the "sour and sweet transforming yin" formula concept, ensuring the design aligns with the product's health-preserving attributes; and I collaborated with packaging designers and scenic area cultural tourism project leaders to address professional issues such as material selection, printing implementation, and scene adaptation, achieving a comprehensive implementation of culture, product, craftsmanship, and scene through cross-disciplinary collaboration.
In this design of traditional Chinese-style cultural tourism tea drinks, technology has always been an auxiliary tool to empower cultural expression and optimize its presentation, rather than the core of the creation. Digital design technology helped me deconstruct, simplify, and reconstruct the ancient and heavy patterns of Han Dynasty portrait stones, solving the problem that traditional stone carving patterns are complex and heavy and unsuitable for modern packaging. Precise color calibration and layout optimization technologies allow the classical artistic conception to adapt to contemporary aesthetics. Printing and material processing technologies ensure that the ancient texture and delicate layers are fully realized. Technology allows traditional classical art to break free from the limitations of being old and rigid, integrating into contemporary cultural tourism and daily life with a light, elegant, and modern attitude.
This design is built upon a solid foundation of cultural research and market surveys. In the preliminary stages, I systematically conducted three types of specialized research: first, literary and cultural tourism research on the imagery of the *Classic of Poetry* and the humanistic and natural atmosphere of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum; second, artistic research on the stylistic language, compositional features, and aesthetic system of Han Dynasty portrait stones; and third, market research on traditional-style cultural tourism tea drinks and light, nourishing beverages, analyzing current consumer preferences for traditional Chinese aesthetics, healthy tea drinks, and cultural tourism souvenirs. By combining cultural tourism consumption trends with popular aesthetic characteristics, and avoiding issues such as homogenization, cultural emptiness, and mismatched styles in traditional-style designs, a unique design positioning of elegance, warmth, and solemnity was established.
The biggest challenge of the project was balancing the profound and ancient charm of Han Dynasty stone carvings with the gentle and light character of the tea products. The solemnity, strong lines, and heavy texture of Han Dynasty stone carvings would make the tea packaging feel heavy and oppressive, inconsistent with the refreshing and gentle nature of light and nourishing teas. However, oversimplification would lose the depth and orthodoxy of Han culture. At the same time, a key challenge was how to naturally integrate the literary imagery of the Book of Songs, ancient health preservation concepts, and the visual appeal of Han Dynasty paintings, avoiding a cluttered collection of cultural elements and a chaotic narrative. Through repeated refinement of lines, softening of heaviness, optimization of elegant colors, and reconstruction of narrative logic, I ultimately achieved a perfect balance between the solemnity of antiquity and the gentle warmth of lightness.
I submitted my work to an international design competition with the aim of bringing classical Chinese literature, traditional Han Dynasty art, and ancestral cultural roots to the international stage. The culture of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, the Book of Songs, and Han Dynasty stone carvings are all core treasures of outstanding traditional Chinese culture, yet they have limited exposure in the international design arena. I hope that through this authoritative international competition, using tea packaging—a lightweight and everyday medium—I can showcase the elegant aesthetics of China and the wisdom of traditional health preservation to the world, break down stereotypes about traditional Chinese design overseas, prove that local designs rooted in classic Chinese culture possess international and modern aesthetic value, and gain global recognition for the charm of Eastern design.
This project significantly enhanced my comprehensive abilities in **modernizing classical cultural heritage, reshaping the tone of traditional art, and refining the design of cultural tourism scenarios**. I gained a deep understanding of the aesthetic system of Han Dynasty portrait stone art and the expressive techniques of the Book of Songs, learning to soften the classical artistic temperament and adapt it to modern products and consumption scenarios while preserving the orthodoxy of traditional culture. At the same time, I deeply understood the core value of cultural tourism design: "using objects to carry culture and using experiences to convey charm," realizing that lightweight everyday cultural and creative designs can also carry profound national cultural connotations. This further solidified my design creation system of "culture as the core, aesthetics as the wings, and scenarios as the foundation."
I would like to add that Zhanlu Ganrun Shengjin Tea is not only a cultural and creative tea packaging design for a scenic area, but also an innovative practice of bringing classical literature, traditional art, and ancient health preservation methods into everyday life. Compared to traditional, heavy cultural and creative products, this design, with its light, gentle, and everyday approach, brings sophisticated classical culture into the lives of the general public, allowing traditional culture to transcend the confines of exhibition halls and classic texts. In the future, I will continue to delve into cultural tourism design creation related to ancestral culture, pre-Qin and Han dynasty aesthetics, and classical literature, continuously exploring modern and everyday expressions of Chinese cultural heritage, and using gentle yet powerful original designs to continuously spread the elegant aesthetics of the East and the wisdom of traditional humanism.