Located on the northern section of the Silk Road, Tacheng is a crossroads of diverse cultures, with the Kazakh ethnic group as the predominant community. The wayfinding system takes “Cultural Harmony and Literary Continuity” as its core concept, merging regional identity with a contemporary visual language. The pictograms draw inspiration from traditional Kazakh attire, abstracting iconic details such as hats and garment lines into minimalist strokes. These elements form a cohesive system of symbols for people, books, smoking areas, and accessible facilities, expressing a distinctive local identity. The extended arrows and guide lines symbolize the direction of the Silk Road and the flow of culture, echoing the museum’s vision of connecting past and present, local and global. Numerical symbols combine Kazakh characters with modern numerals, creating a visual language that bridges regional tradition and international readability. The specially designed “Tacheng” logotype integrates the imagery of layered book pages with the red-brick façade of the city’s iconic Russian-style “Red Building,” symbolizing the intersection of history, culture, and literature. Given the ornate interior details of the Russian-style architecture, the wayfinding design intentionally avoids excessive ornamentation. Instead, it adopts the motif of an open book, expressed through restrained layering and calm composition. The overall visual tone emphasizes simplicity, serenity, and literary elegance, blending harmoniously into the museum’s off-white walls. Each signage module features a magnetic backplate, allowing information to be flexibly updated as exhibitions evolve. Through its understated materials and colors, the system forms a balanced relationship between architecture, culture, and space—becoming a quiet yet readable visual narrative within the Tacheng Literature Museum.
