For Shanghai Marathon 2025, UDL developed a comprehensive visual identity system based on Nike Run’s global visual identity, extracting visual cues from speed, forward movement, and local context. The system extends across race kits, apparel, event materials, Nike By You customization graphics, and multi-city adaptations, accompanying runners throughout different stages of the race journey.

“上马” (Shanghai Marathon’s Chinese abbreviation) is a familiar expression within the running community and carries the cultural recognition accumulated throughout the history of Shanghai Marathon. Starting from this existing race language, UDL translated “上马” into a distinctive Chinese visual expression based on Nike Run’s global typographic language — clean, direct, and confident.
The typography draws from the reverse-contrast structures commonly found in Shanghai display lettering from the Republican era, reinterpreting Chinese character forms through a contemporary approach. A restrained blur effect creates a sense of motion trails, capturing the speed experienced during the race. The solid, structured lettering contrasts with dynamic photographic elements, creating a visual identity with strong tension and energy. This typographic language extends across route landmark names, pacer signs, participant wristbands, race apparel, and special sub-three-hour finisher jackets, maintaining a consistent visual expression across key touchpoints.

Speed, distance, and physical endurance shape every runner’s experience — each step forward represents another challenge to overcome. For this edition of Shanghai Marathon, UDL transformed familiar elements from the running experience into a cohesive graphic system, including personal best (PB), coordinates, route landmarks, and race information. PB serves as one of the core elements, representing runners’ continuous pursuit of personal breakthroughs. Arrows provide a direct visual expression of forward movement, maintaining a strong sense of direction and momentum throughout the system.

Starting and finishing point coordinates were integrated into the graphic language, offering another way to interpret the race route beyond traditional distance markers. Each coordinate corresponds to a real location within Shanghai, turning the 42.195-kilometer journey into a tangible urban memory.
Landmarks along the route were transformed into highly distilled graphic forms. By preserving recognizable silhouettes and applying exaggerated perspectives, the illustrations capture the sensation of moving through the city at speed, like a series of visual snapshots experienced along the route.
Race information such as BIBs and RUNSWOOSH were integrated into a traffic-sign-inspired graphic system, bringing the visual language of city streets into the race environment. This familiar yet slightly unexpected approach adds a sense of playfulness while strengthening runners’ connection to Shanghai as the setting of the event.

Shanghai-specific elements such as the magnolia flower were reinterpreted through the same blur and halftone treatments used in the “上马” typography, creating subtle retro details while allowing local characteristics to naturally merge with Nike Run’s overall visual system.
The visual identity further extends into Nike By You’s event-exclusive graphics, transforming route information, Shanghai elements, and race symbols into personal keepsakes that runners can carry beyond the event.

Through this project, UDL translated Nike Run’s global brand language into a local visual language for Shanghai Marathon, creating a connection between Nike’s global running spirit and the character of Shanghai. The experience maintains the consistency of an international brand while giving local runners a stronger sense of cultural belonging, allowing those who understand the sport to naturally immerse themselves in the city, the route, and their own 42.195-kilometer journey.