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Lighting Up Hong Kong

The City of Lights is burning brighter than ever this year as Christmas decorations paint a festive glow across Hong Kong

The Christmas season is finally upon us. But for Sonya Wu, Christmas began five months ago.

"We need to start work on designing Christmas lighting decorations and street displays in the summer and then submit our tenders to the government," the Parsons School of Design and Harvard-trained graphic designer says. "So I guess I'm quite lucky in that Christmas lasts for half a year for me." 

Her latest project, to design and install Christmas decorations for Tuen Mun and Shamshuipo, began in June with research into the areas to find out how local people would like to see their neighbourhoods decorated. Her team of designers then started work on bringing those ideas to life in lights.

"Shamshuipo is well known for computers and IT equipment, and also as a wholesale fashion area, so we have tried to customise these local flavours into the Christmas decorations," she explained.

Combining traditional Christmas decorations and themes with local characteristics in the designs helps promote the districts, and adds a dash of uniqueness to the areas. Such an approach has also helped her win government tenders for the National Day festivities in October, and the Chinese New Year festival and tourism promotion lighting for the Eastern, Shatin, Cheung Sha Wan, Lai Chi Kok, Mei Fu and Tsuen Wan districts.

Beyond design, Ms Wu says the technical considerations also play a significant role in determining how the displays will look.

"We also need our structural engineers to evaluate the installation, weight, wind factor, voltage, maintenance, et cetera, to make sure everything is as safe and as practical as possible," she says.

Once designs are finalised, plans are sent to her family's business, Hong Kong & Asia Ltd., to be produced. The arrangement ensures that strict quality control standards are adhered to. "Obviously, if even a small part of a lighting installation fails then the whole display can be ruined, so we have to make sure no corners are cut on quality," Ms Wu says.

Although Aspirations was founded in 2001, focusing mainly on providing a graphic design and corporate branding solutions to clients, outdoor lighting contracts now account for around 40 percent of the company's turnover, Ms Wu says, followed by around 30 percent for events. 

"These services that we offer may seem to be unrelated, but in fact they are actually interwoven," she says. "From the posters and brochures that we create to promote the events, to the planning, management and launch of events; they all need graphic design as their foundation to be a success."

Her formula seems to be paying off. For a relatively young company, Aspirations has a wide portfolio of clients, running from government, to hotels to pop stars, and has even created a new livery and global brand launch for First Cambodia Airline.