Is this stylized character legible?

[Light-Rock97]

I`d like to know if this mascot design is capable of being read or deciphered as a word by a mandarin speaker, especially with ease.

 

I`m very interested in Chinese culture. The music, cinema, architecture, food... I like them very much, so it`s important for me to know if this particular symbol (意 - Yì) has meaning within itself.

Google translator tells me it means, well, meaning, as well as significance, intent, purpose, idea, thought, implication, desire, and wish. All great words, all words that would communicate well my intention with this character. I'm a designer, trying to find a proper mark to represent me, and before I go any further down this particular path, I need to know if it even makes sense. Thanks in advance for reading.

 

Yes, I tried making it look like he's wearing a dǒulì, or conical farmer's hat, because I like working with small business owners, and I also like how it looks in general. However, it's very important to me that it still reads as Yì. It has to be legible before anything else, so feel free to be brutally honest.

[Tomsima]

Maybe worth mentioning, to me this reads '立意' due to the way the character has been split, don't know if that was intentional?

[陳德聰]

I scrunched my nose a bit while looking at this. Agree with Tomsima re: black/white contrast, reads as “intentional” (haha see what I did there?). But also it looks like you sell pot lids for a living.

 

Frankly, I think I might hate it for every reason you listed that you like it. I think 意 is one of the less meaningful characters you could have chosen as far as branding goes, and I think the hat is kind of offensive if you are not a farmer and you don’t speak Chinese?

[Shelley]

This type of hat has been considered a racial slur because it is usually called a coolie hat from kǔ lì  苦力 meaning bitter strength. It was worn by Chinese and other people from the far east that had been taken abroad as slaves.

 

I think it is probably safer to steer away from it although these days it has become fashionable, I wouldn't use it as a logo, too easily misconstrued.

 

As a piece of design it is quite clever but loses the meaning intended and is confusing in the 2 colours.

 

What is the importance of it reading Yì ？

 

念 niàn also means thought, idea and if I dare continue the idea of the hat, it has one already:)

 

[Light-Rock97]

Yes! Great answers! I'm so glad you guys cleared this one out for me. I was aware that the hat could still carry some negative connotations with it (I wish it didn't, but this is our world.)

The color split too. It could indeed make it look like it's two separate characters instead of a single one. That's what I get for trying to use a language that not even Latin based. haha

I'm still glad I sought for help early on though. It saved me a lot of time, so thank you guys. 

 

Also, I found the Yì character when looking up synonyms for the word meaning, but it seems to me like Chinese is a much more complex language than English or even Brazilian.

But man... It's too bad the hat's still offensive in this day and age. I thinks it awesome, makes me think of hard work, not degrading Chinese citizens. Oh well... 

[Light-Rock97]

4 hours ago, Shelley said:

念 niàn also means thought, idea and if I dare continue the idea of the hat, it has one already:)

 

Thanks a lot for the suggestion, Shelley. I can see a smiley guy in this one too, but now I'm scared of the whole idea. I might just draw a little robot or something. Turning a Chinese character into a hat wearing mascot sounded like the smartest idea yesterday. Today, not so much anymore.

 

But I do like the general shapes of these ideograms, a lot, so what I think I'm gonna do is strip them away and go full mascot with it, instead of this word-character Frankenstein. I'm gonna roll the dice and ask some more people around if this little dude in the red box triggers them somehow. I think the conical hat has to mean more that a racial stereotype. I'll make sure it does.

[imron]

9 hours ago, Light-Rock97 said:

and ask some more people around if this little dude in the red box triggers them somehow

It's an Egyptian man squatting down to do a poo, with the pyramids in the background to provide a sense of setting and ambiance.  That's the general concept you were going for right?

[Tomsima]

I love your enthusiasm, but the way you are approaching this is the same as a someone who goes to get a tattoo of a Chinese character because it looks interesting to them. Even if your market audience is unfamiliar with Chinese and thinks your 'mascot' looks exotic, its still a bad approach in the long term, as it will almost certainly be misunderstood by a Chinese audience. 

 

If you must stick with 'meaning', consider the (in my opinion) better looking and richer literary character 義. Add your own flair to it by all means, but be aware that your conception of what the hat means is different from most people, particularly Chinese people.

 

Lastly, changing the 丶to a 㐅 is just gonna cause confusion for everyone