Traditional Public Market Undergoes Modern Makeover

I. The origin of the story

National Kaohsiung Normal University (NKNU) has been not only an important local think tank for a long time but also a crucial promoter for the development of the local community and industry. NKNU has always undertaken the missions to promote placemaking and sustainable development, actively understood the adversity of surroundings, and gone into deep to the community to make the in-depth investigation and resource checking. Lindeguang Public Retail Market, Liouhe Night Market, and Kaisyuan Night Market, which are adjacent to NKNU, are withering due to the changes in consumption habits and the emergence of nearby markets. The Government and the local vendors are looking forward to activating the markets through the professional group of NKNU. The principal of NKNU, Lien-Shang Wu, takes the responsibility to lead all teachers and students to impose the innovative thinking model into the declining markets and lightening the glory of the market again. The USR project uses the three markets around NKNU as a practice field, which are the Lindeguang Public Retail Market, Liouhe Night Market, and Kaisyuan Night Market, to combine the resources of industry and the government, to activate the local economy, and hope to reconstruct the traditional market to make prosperity by the engagement of all the teachers and students in NKNU.

II. The results of the project of the Lindeguang Public Retail Market

The Lindeguan Public Market has a history of more than 50 years. It is located on Siwei 2nd Road, Lingya District, Kaohsiung City, near Guangzhou Street. It is close to the Kaohsiung Cultural Center. The market location is quite good. In the early days, it was an important place for local people to buy basic commodities. With the rise of hypermarkets, the market's business was impacted and gradually fell silent. Recently, there are few vendors in the market, and the vendors are quite old. How to revitalize the Lindeguan Public Market, bring the crowds into the market again, and attract vendors to enter the market, has become the focus of the plan implementation. 

This project covered three aspects of the Lindeguan Public Market planning, including tour design, practices of visual aesthetics, and CIE (creative, innovation, and entrepreneurship) base. In terms of tour design, the principal of NKNU, Lien-Shang Wu, led the students into Lindeguan for in-depth interviews and field research. The survey allowed students to meet face-to-face with vendors and residents in order to jointly plan future development. In terms of practices of visual aesthetics, Professor Song-de Cai and Professor Ren-ping Wu from the College of Art of NKNU introduced the transformation of Lindeguan's aesthetics into the course, leading students to participate together, and students personally went deep into the Lindeguan Public Market to conduct market research and interviews, and they had a deep understanding and comprehension of the market. After that, three sets of visual recognition systems tailored to the Lindeguan Public Market were created by the application of visual design, with young creative thinking and aesthetic cultivation, through many discussions and corrections between teachers and students. Each set of system content included logo design, color planning, specifications of Standard word, logo design (toilet, indicator, road sign, etc.), store sign design, stall decoration, merchandise design (handbag, packaging bag, cup, apron, fan, etc.). The three sets of visual identity design results were exhibited at the Linde Official Market on June 13, 2020. On the day of the exhibition, local vendors and merchants were very impressed by the students' designs and admired the students' creativity and professionalism. All sets of visual recognition systems had been highly praised, and they were neck and neck. Therefore, a presentation for the visual recognition system was held on July 1, 2020. The officials of Kaohsiung City Government, the staff of Lindeguan Public Market, experts, and scholars were invited to conduct selection on the same day. The students explained the concept of the creation, and the group that won the first place will be used as an identification system for the Lindeguan Public Market.

In terms of the CIE base, a market called "Brother Chu Yuan's traditional market" was held at the Lindeguan Public Market on 13, June, 2020. This activity was conducted and planned by Professor Yang-Yu Kang, who led the Department of Indigenous Art Industry into the project. Based on the name of the activity, the students used creative thinking to brainstorm the design of the poster, marketing, design of the vendor, the stage, and the flyers, etc, which demonstrated the innovative creativity of the young generation. On the day of the market activity, the principal of NKNU, Lien-Shang Wu, attended in person, and other attendee guests, Si-Xian Wu from the Economic Development Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government, Senior Technical Specialist Ying-Se Guo from the Department of Health of Kaohsiung City Government, Councilor Yi-Jheng Wu, also participated in the activity. The furnishings and decoration of the stalls were design by the Department of Geography, the Department of Visual Art, the Department of Fine Arts, the Department of Business Management, Graduate Program of Performing Arts, and the Department of Indigenous Art Industry. Those departments participated with local vendors and residents in setting up stalls. The market provided an opportunity for students to sell their handicrafts, start their own business, and let students get close to consumers to understand market operations and fluctuations, and consumer preferences. The students said that this is a rare experience, which is a good test for future employment or entrepreneurship. 

The opening performance of "Brother Chu Yuan's traditional market" was performed by the indigenous culture club and the students of the Department of Indigenous Art Industry as performing guests. In the traditional market, people enjoyed the aboriginal dances, fashionable dances, traditional dances, cross talks, Teresa Teng's song and dance performance, and flute performance. The products of USR project of NKNU were also demonstrated in the market, such as the intelligent design of the Department of Software Engineering and Management, the visual identity system design of the Department of Visual Art, and the tour design of our partner school National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism. The people surprisingly expressed that the market could become so artistic, which not only defied everyone's imagination but also broke the stereotype of the market. The market activity attracted hundreds of people to visit and it was so bustling. All the vendors in the Lindeguan Public Market appreciated the dedication of NKNU and were impressed by the young students' creativity. The market was activated by this awesome activity and made it promising.

In order to develop the Lindeguan Public Market as a base for youth entrepreneurship, this project was led by the professors, Chang-Tzuoh Wu and Han-Yu Lin, in the Department of Industry Design to design the stall with students. The stall that they designed will be produced in the Lindeguan Public Market in the future. They applied aesthetics and design to transform the appearance of the market, which made the market with the impression of young, fashion, bright, and hipster. They not only built the brand new imagination of the market but also brought the vendors to set up to create prosperity.