Project Brief:
To replicate an existing English skincare product brochure into Mandarin, to be printed and distributed to the Chinese-speaking customers at trade show / exhibitions.
The Process:
We first researched the brand’s identity, story behind it and the target audience, by going on their website and social media accounts, to know the tone & language to use.
As many English words, once translated into Mandarin, do not retain their original meaning. Throughout several brain storming sessions, we came up with a few options; either to closely resemble the sound of the brand name; Native Man, or for the words to be a direct translation of the original words, but with their meaning to be linked to nature and native plants (as this is what the brand was associated with).
The Result:
We kept the sound of the name Native Man similar in Mandarin (帝男 Dì nán), so that the brand did not lose its identity after the translation. Choosing like-sounding words, we also had to keep the same image of the brand in the translation, selecting words which linked to original, nature and man-related.
With the actual brochure itself, we manage to retain most of the positioning and order of most words, with a few had to be altered to make sense in spoken/written Mandarin, whilst descriptions of the products needed to be accurate, but also appeal to the Chinese community.
Detailed translated work can be seen here: