China News Service, Beijing, March 27 (Reporter Zuo Yukun) Recently, the Chinese floor signs of Atour Hotel have triggered heated discussions. The restaurant is called "Xiangzhao", the laundry room is called "Chuchen", and the gym is called "Sweating"… These elegant names are taken from classical poetry. They are originally intended to give the space a poetic touch, but they have become a "word puzzle" for many residents, and there is even an embarrassing situation where "understanding Chinese requires English annotations".
Atour's unique way of expression is closely related to its brand tone of humanity, warmth and fun. In today's era of intense competition among hotels for homogenization, the original intention of using classical diction to create a unique cultural label and using "poetry" to form a differentiated experience is not incomprehensible. The problem is that when this kind of cultural expression conflicts with the basic attributes of public services, the brand chooses to let users adapt to the design instead of letting the design serve the users.
As a mobile public space for the public, the hotel's ultimate service target is travelers in unfamiliar environments. The target customer groups have different ages, knowledge, and cultural backgrounds. A name that requires repeated pondering to "decode", no matter how artistic it is, has invisibly raised the threshold for use. At the moment when passengers arrive at the hotel and put down their luggage, clear and efficient functional guidance is also an indispensable basis for the experience.
To be fair, poetic design and practical function are not antagonistic. Atour is not without a compromise strategy – while retaining the artistic conception words such as "xiangzhao", "chuchen" and "sweating", it also marks the regular function names such as "restaurant", "laundry room" and "gym" in parentheses or small characters next to them, which not only maintains the brand tone, but also takes into account the convenience of use. This approach of "appreciating both refined and popular tastes" does not affect cultural expression, but also reflects the importance given to residents from different backgrounds.
In fact, it is nothing new for public space signs to cause controversy. In recent years, the topic of incomprehensible and unclear signs in shopping malls, hotels, scenic spots and other places has been a hot topic. As previously reported by many media, some public restrooms use abstract minimalist lines or geometric shapes such as "rectangular triangle" and "inverted triangle", "two lines" and "three lines" as door signs, which may seem creative, but are "difficult to distinguish between male and female."
What needs to be made clear is that in public spaces, the primary function of signs is guidance, followed by aesthetic and cultural expression. The national standard "Public Information Graphic Symbols" clearly stipulates relevant graphics, colors, and sizes, precisely to ensure the accuracy, universality, and inclusiveness of information transmission. No matter how elaborate the idea is, if the user gets "lost", it will fundamentally weaken the meaning of existence.
Cultural empowerment deserves to be encouraged, but it should not be put at the expense of practicality; creative design should be imaginative, but it cannot be divorced from the essence of public service. Every sign in public space must eventually return to its guiding role so that people can understand, find, and use it. This is not only a test of professional ability, but also basic goodwill and respect for people.
It is expected that various market operators will take this as a lesson to find a true balance between cultural expression and public services, so that every sign can not only convey warmth, but also clearly guide the way. After all, for a traveler who drags his luggage and travels all day long, the warmest "humanity" may be the direction that can be understood at a glance. (over)
