Hand-Heart Design Firm (registered as Shouxin Zhiye Co., Ltd.) is a brand design firm founded in Kaohsiung in 2014. It works on corporate identity systems (CIS), rebranding, packaging design, wayfinding system design and visual design. What sets it apart from a typical design firm is not a choice of adjectives but the scope of what it delivers and how: brand projects move from interviews to proposals to final designs, which are then written up as guidelines; wayfinding projects run from calculating character heights all the way to construction supervision; and the firm holds three Republic of China (Taiwan) invention patents.
The hard part of choosing a design firm is this: every one of them says it is professional, attentive and reliable. So this page leaves the adjectives aside and sticks to what can be checked: six things Hand-Heart does that most firms in our field do not, and the basis for saying so.
Every firm says it is professional, attentive and reliable. So we only talk about what can be checked.— every point below comes with a real project or a patent number
Six ways Hand-Heart is different, and the evidence
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We stay through construction supervision, not just until the drawings are delivered
Half of a wayfinding system’s success is decided on site: glare from the material, the interface with the building structure, installation tolerances. None of that shows on a drawing. Most design firms stop at the drawings, and the client then contracts fabrication and installation separately; when something goes wrong, nobody is responsible for pulling it all together. Hand-Heart covers planning, design, fabrication and construction supervision in one service, and provides a completion report once the work is finished.
Evidence: Hand-Heart took the site-wide wayfinding design and installation at the National Palace Museum Southern Branch, and the wayfinding at Kaohsiung National Stadium and the research building of National Kaohsiung Normal University, from design through to construction supervision. See the five-stage process →
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We hold three invention patents, turning method into technology
Of the three kinds of patent in Taiwan, the invention patent is examined most strictly: it requires substantive examination and proof that the technology is novel and involves an inventive step. Few firms in design services hold one, because what most of them produce is creative work, not a method that can be protected.
Evidence: invention patent No. 908504, Sign Board; invention patent No. 908503, Printing Method for Invisible Patterns and the Printed Matter Thereof; invention patent No. 934355, AI-Assisted Brand Strategy Insight System. Patent holder: 手心志業有限公司 (Shouxin Zhiye Co., Ltd.). Kaohsiung Pose, a work that uses the invisible pattern printing technique, received a Red Dot Design Award (Germany) in 2023 and a Silver Award at the DFA Design for Asia Awards in 2025. What was recognised was not only the visual result but also the printing method behind it. See the patent details →
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We calculate type size with a formula instead of guessing by eye
“Is this type too small?” is the question most often settled by instinct in a wayfinding project. Hand-Heart uses the legibility height formula (α = 3438 × L ÷ D) to work out the minimum character height for every position, then verifies it on site in three stages: 1:1 full-size printouts, physical mock-ups, and checks for light levels and backlighting. We have even tested sign background colours: in 2019 we measured, on site at Kaohsiung National Stadium, the furthest distance at which text could be read on each of five background colours.
Evidence: the formula comes from a 2011 master’s thesis by Hsu Chih-yang and from the ANSI/HFES 100-2007 human factors standard. See the full formula and the verification process →
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We treat rollout as part of the delivery
Whether an identity system survives depends on whether the person in charge can actually apply it. A guidelines manual cannot support everyone who has to work with it, but a video lets the people doing the work follow along. That is why Hand-Heart projects include training for the people applying the identity and a rollout plan, rather than ending with the handover of a manual.
Evidence: for the National Central Library project we produced training videos for the people applying the identity, and ran a 6-hour brand alignment workshop with 30 senior managers so that the decision-makers reached agreement first. See the project →
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We know how public sector procurement and acceptance work
The hard part of a public sector project is not the design. It is how the tender documents are written, how proposals are reviewed, how acceptance is signed off, and who looks after it once it has been handed over. Hand-Heart has completed more than thirty projects for public bodies and cultural venues, and knows what the procurement officer will actually be asked at each stage.
Evidence: the National Central Library, the National Palace Museum Southern Branch, the Legislative Yuan, the National Institute of Cyber Security, the cultural affairs bureaus of Kaohsiung City and New Taipei City, Kaohsiung National Stadium and the Tainan Public Library Main Branch, among others. Hand-Heart has also published a CI/CIS procurement and acceptance guide for commissioning bodies to use.
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We use internal processes to reduce the risk of staff changes mid-project
The most common risk with a design firm is staff turnover: the designer on your project leaves, and the project has to start over. We will not try to prove anything with a retention rate, because we have no published figures. What you can check are three practices.
First, every project is assigned a project lead (PM or planner) and an account manager as soon as it is set up, and both names are recorded in our internal project sheet rather than agreed verbally. Second, project files are kept in a shared system, so any colleague who takes over finds them in the same place, not on someone’s own computer. Third, handovers are documented: guidelines, decision records, the client contact and open items. The person leaving hands them over, and the person taking over signs for them.
We also treat keeping our people as a matter of policy: remote work, three-day weekends and regular pay rises. These are our own practices, not a promise to you; the real guarantee is the three practices above, which you can ask about and inspect at any time.
Why this matters to you: brand and wayfinding projects usually run for months, and a change of personnel mid-project means rebuilding an understanding of your organisation, your decision-making process and your existing material. The point of these practices is to make sure the cost of a handover is not passed on to you.
Where can you see these differences in published projects?
The evidence for the six points above leans towards wayfinding and public sector projects. The same approach also appears in branding, packaging and illustration work, documented on each project page. The examples below are grouped by approach so you can compare them for yourself.
Clarify the problem first, then decide what to design
The rebranding of Tintin Drugstore did not start with drawing a logo. It began with interviews across every level, from the decision-makers to department heads and frontline pharmacists, which distilled three core values: trust, teamwork and companionship. Only then were the new logo, the colour scheme and the brand identity guidelines developed. For Little Thing Toast Architects, the starting point was where the shop would open and who it was for. The work began with its surroundings in Jiufenzi, Tainan, and the Taijia residential community, before the wordmark and illustrations were extended to the signage, packaging, menu and delivery boxes.
Proposals lay out several directions, and the final design comes with reasons
The brand identity style proposal for 12th Oasis used mood boards to present three style directions; once one was chosen, it was extended to plant tags and a brand guidelines book. The first-round proposal for the Legislative Yuan’s 2024 Year of the Dragon New Year card offered four directions, and the one selected, “Great Fortune in the Year of the Dragon”, combines two dragons chasing a pearl with mandarin oranges. Wabao, the frog mascot of the Tainan Public Library, developed through three style directions and two rounds of sketches, and was finally modelled on the Farmland green tree frog of the Sankandian Sugar Factory in Yongkang.
No unnecessary design, one set of rules for a whole series
The four Tai He Shang agarwood packs share a grey box and a white label, with only ink-wash brushstrokes and a main colour to tell the fragrances apart. The five tiers of the China Airlines membership card follow one set of card guidelines: the card number and name are placed and sized by the same rules, and a signature colour distinguishes each tier. For Wenhsiung Optical, the “W” and the lens elements of the original logo were kept and redrawn, then documented in a basic brand guidelines book and a signage guidelines book.
Checked on site and on the finished piece, not just on screen
Both first drafts of the Hakka-language environmental graphics for Wanluan Township Kindergarten placed the illustrations onto photographs of the actual staircase, to check in advance how the floor graphics would look when applied to the steps. The Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor 2024 Year of the Dragon commemorative bottle went from a style proposal and three first-draft dragon designs all the way to the bottle printing and the refined drafts of the outer box; in the end the dragon was drawn as a finely detailed illustration and printed on the clear glass bottle.
What we believe
Hand-Heart believes good design stands where three things meet. Science supplies the basis: visual angle limits, eye-height statistics, material properties and user research can all be measured and verified. Aesthetics decides whether the result can sit comfortably in its surroundings and become part of the space and the brand rather than a patch. Philosophy answers the more fundamental question: how does this organisation want people to be treated? Leave out any one of the three and problems follow, so every decision at Hand-Heart has to rest on a sound theoretical basis.
The two characters in our Chinese name, meaning “hand” and “heart”, are also our working principles. “Hand” stands for reliability, honest simplicity and friendliness; “heart” stands for warmth, kindness and sincerity. Our work avoids unnecessary design, starts from solving the problem and treats “less is more” as its core. In how we run the firm we hold to honest simplicity: no shortcuts, just doing each piece of work well, one step at a time.
Do the right things well, and do the good things right
In every beginning think of the end.
Pay attention to what our partners need, understand where the company has come from, and picture where the brand is going. Friends for life rather than a one-off piece of design: this is how Hand-Heart has worked since 2014, across more than 500 projects, and it has never changed.
Which partners are a good fit for Hand-Heart?
Public sector procurement officers, small and medium-sized brands, and partners who care about smooth handovers are all welcome to discuss their needs with Hand-Heart.
- If you are preparing to tender a public sector identity or wayfinding project, you can start by clarifying the scope of services and the acceptance criteria.
- If you run a small or medium-sized brand, you can begin with the core of the identity and the applications you use most, and phase in the rest later.
- If you are worried about staff changing mid-project, you can ask Hand-Heart at the first meeting to show you the fields of its project sheet and a sample handover document.
Working together starts with a requirements interview and a free consultation; how each stage is signed off is explained on our design process page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest difference between Hand-Heart and other design firms?
Three differences that are easy to check. One, Hand-Heart offers a single service from design through fabrication to construction supervision, while most design firms stop at the drawings. Two, Hand-Heart holds three Republic of China (Taiwan) invention patents, turning design method into protectable technology. Three, decisions at Hand-Heart rest on theory rather than individual experience: character heights are calculated with the legibility height formula, background colours are tested on site, and the process is split into stages that can each be signed off.
How large is the Hand-Heart team, and who is responsible for a project?
Hand-Heart is a design team of more than 20 people, organised into groups by project type and covering brand strategy, graphic work, space and wayfinding, structure and materials. A stable team matters to clients: brand and wayfinding projects usually run for months, and a change of personnel means rebuilding an understanding of the organisation. Hand-Heart has made staff retention a matter of policy: 3 days of remote work a week, one week a month with a three-day weekend, and a fixed pay rise of NT$400 every quarter, so that the same people can see a project through to the end.
Does Hand-Heart only take large or public sector projects?
No. Hand-Heart’s clients range from national institutions to listed companies, and also include small and medium-sized brands such as a bakery, a bubble tea brand and a natural soap brand. We first clarify the problem you actually need to solve and then define a suitable scope of work. If a partial update is all you need, we will not expand the scope just to make the project bigger.
We have a limited budget. Does it still make sense to come to Hand-Heart?
Talk to us directly. Hand-Heart defines the scope within a reasonable, realistic budget and puts the resources where they will do the most good, for example by doing the core of the identity and the most-used applications first and the rest in later phases. In the free consultation we will tell you honestly how far your current budget goes and which items we would not advise saving on.
Want to know what Hand-Heart could do for you?
Tell us about your situation, whether a brand needs rebranding, a space needs a wayfinding system, or you are preparing to put a project out to tender. The first conversation is free, and there is no obligation to go ahead afterwards.
Book a free consultationOr call us on +886-7-285-7000｜[email protected]