Project / Teluk Bidara Tourism Project
Task / Logo and Visual Identity
Client / ECERDC
Year / 2009
In collaboration with DTZ Malaysia
The East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) initiated the Teluk Bidara project along the coast of Dungun, Terengganu, in 2009.
The project is a 115.3-hectare beachfront development, focusing on low-density, holistic boutique resorts with a traditional Terengganu Malay kampung (village) feel.
It aims to boost the local economy by creating jobs for the poor, as well as opportunities for enterprises in the eco-tourism and hotel sector.
By having a collection of resorts on the mainland—from 5-star luxury to affordable—the project hopes to draw the crowd away from the popular resort islands off the Terengganu coast, which are facing environment problems (infrastructure and sewage) as they struggle to cope with an increased influx of holiday-makers.
Our involvement was limited to logo design and a simple identity guideline. The brief was to “make something beautiful”.
Teluk Bidara beachfront
To ensure quality design, we benchmarked the Teluk Bidara logo against many tourist destination logos around the world. Terengganu, on the East Coast of Malaysia, is remembered by its image of the morning sun rising over the South China Sea; as well as the bangau, the wooden guard on East Coast fishing boats, often enriched with low relief carvings of flora—intricate and hand-painted.
The bangau in the Teluk Bidara logo is based on a Terengganu bangau, now in the Collection of the National Museum.
“We also used the symbolism of the bangau for the logo of the Muzium Sultan Abu Bakar, although it was presented in a stylised form instead. This bangau, which we used as a reference, is in my personal collection.”
