Kan Tai-keung was born in Panyu, Guangdong, in 1942 and moved to Hong Kong in 1957, working at first as a tailor. He began studying art and design in 1964, learning drawing and watercolour from his uncle Kan Mei-tin, and in 1967 took the design course of the design educator Wong Wucius, beginning professional design work; that same year he started studying painting under the ink artist Lui Shou-kwan, and from 1969 produced ink paintings, becoming active in Hong Kong's New Ink Art Movement and later serving as chairman of the One Art Group. From 1970 he was involved in art and design education, and in 1976 he founded his own design firm, working across branding, books and packaging. Blending traditional Chinese culture with modern aesthetics, he is best known for the Bank of China emblem, a coin outline with a square hole and vertical strokes forming the character for 'China'; commissioned in 1980 and formally adopted in 1986, it won an Art Directors Club (CA) annual design award and established his international standing. He also designed several sets of Hongkong Post stamps, a city emblem for Chongqing and the torch for the East Asian Games. In 1979 he became the first designer named one of Hong Kong's Ten Outstanding Young Persons; he won the Urban Council Design Award in 1984 and the Hong Kong Artist of the Year (design) award in 1991, founded the KTK Design Award for tertiary design students in 1999 and received the Bronze Bauhinia Star that year, followed later by the Silver Bauhinia Star. Awarded an honorary doctorate in design by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2005, he is honorary dean of the Cheung Kong School of Art and Design at Shantou University and an honorary professor at PolyU, and has long trained a new generation of Chinese designers through teaching and his design award.
Kan Tai-keung brought Chinese elements into modern graphic design; his Bank of China emblem became a model for Chinese bank identities, and works such as the Hongkong Post stamps carried design into public life. A long-time design educator who founded the KTK Design Award to nurture Chinese design talent, he is among the most representative names in Hong Kong design and a driving force in its New Ink Art Movement.
Achievements
- 1979 · Became the first designer named one of Hong Kong's Ten Outstanding Young Persons.
- 1986 · His Bank of China emblem was formally adopted.
- 1999 · Founded the KTK Design Award and received the Bronze Bauhinia Star the same year.