Following our work for the 2025 Nike ACG Chongli 168 Ultra Trail, UDL continued its collaboration with ACG, developing a series of Chinese display typefaces for the launch of ACG Radical AirFlow. Once again, we brought a sense of the wild into the letterforms, allowing the typography to reflect the varied outdoor conditions at the heart of ACG.

Building on ACG’s brand language and global visual system, the typefaces begin with bold, highly legible forms. Rocks, vegetation, insects and abrasion marks are then introduced according to the structure of each Chinese character — embedded within strokes or extending from their edges.

The inherent legibility of Chinese characters leaves room for these interventions. Even when parts of a stroke are replaced by imagery, the underlying structure keeps the characters readable. The density and tonal weight of each natural element are carefully adjusted, allowing different forms to coexist while giving the overall type system greater variation and a consistent visual identity.

Rather than applying the same treatment across every character, each one is developed individually: the meaning of the word informs the choice of imagery, while the structure of the character determines how that imagery enters the letterform. ACG’s sense of the wild becomes part of the Chinese typography itself.

–
Designed by UDL
Partner Team: Li Xiang, Xing Chen