Moutai Experience Centre
From Brewing Heritage to Experiences
Brand Experience Space
Challenge
Strategy
Visual System
Interactive Experience
Application
Outcome
Reflection
Client
Moutai
Agency
R&D Studio
Role
Visual & Experience Designer
Deliverables
Spatial Visuals, Digital Media, Illustration, Interactive Touchpoints
Year
2024
Location
Beijing, China
Challenge
Beyond Brand Recognition.
Moutai is one of China’s most celebrated names in baijiu, a grain spirit often described as the country’s national drink. Yet while it is known across China, the history, brewing craft and cultural traditions behind each bottle are rarely understood in the same depth. The Moutai Experience Centre set out to turn this lesser-known heritage into something visitors could take part in.
Located in Henan, far from Moutai’s roots in Guizhou, the centre had to bring both places into one story. And because it was meant for newcomers and a younger audience as much as for long-time enthusiasts, that story needed to stay approachable without losing its depth, whether told through graphics, physical installations or digital interactions.
Strategy
From Brewing Heritage to Experiences.
We structured the visitor journey around Moutai’s brewing culture, from the natural environment and ingredients that shape its production to traditional brewing craftsmanship, cultural heritage and sensory experiences. Rather than presenting these themes as separate exhibits, we brought them together into a seamless brand narrative.
Henan winter wheat, used in Moutai’s fermentation starter, provided a link to the local region and became a thread running through the halls. Huang Tingjian’s calligraphy and Song dynasty aesthetics, both tied to Henan’s Song heritage, informed the space’s cultural expression. These threads carry through every touchpoint, letting visitors experience Moutai’s heritage rather than simply read about it.
Visual System
Integrating traditional Chinese cultural elements with modern graphic design, the visual system establishes an exhibition visual language that balances Eastern aesthetics with contemporary clarity.
Drawing on Huang Tingjian’s calligraphy, I selected symbolic Chinese characters to reflect the themes of different exhibition areas. Their brushstrokes were reinterpreted as distinctive background graphics, bringing traditional calligraphy into a contemporary visual context.
For the exhibition layouts, I combined traditional vertical Chinese text arrangements with modern information hierarchies. Through bilingual headings, column-based compositions, and considered use of negative space, the design stays easy to read while keeping every hall visually connected.
Starter Making
Brewing & Distillation
Ageing & Blending
Packaging
Across four key stages of production, I designed a series of process illustrations that balance technical clarity with a distinctive graphic style.
Using axonometric perspectives, simplified geometric forms, and clean linework, I depicted brewing equipment, ingredients, and key production steps. I also used granular textures and selective colour accents to highlight material qualities, translating complex traditional techniques into accessible visual information while establishing a consistent visual foundation for the interactive interfaces and animations.
Interactive Experience
The experience centre adopted different forms of interaction to bring Moutai’s brewing craftsmanship, cultural history and sensory traditions to life, inviting visitors to actively engage through hands-on activities, responsive visuals and sensory exploration.
Wheat Sprite
Sorghum Sprite
Moutai's complex brewing process was transformed into a series of hands-on interactions. From ingredient testing and fermentation starter production to brewing, storage, and packaging, visitors could explore each stage through physical touchpoints that triggered digital animations and visual feedback.
I led the visual and interactive experience design for the Brewing Process Hall, developing the interaction concepts and flows alongside the process illustrations, screen interfaces, and animation storyboards. By integrating wheat and sorghum characters as playful guides, I used visual prompts and animated feedback to make complex brewing knowledge more accessible and engaging.
Wheat Quality Testing
Wheat Milling
Foot-Pressing Starter Bricks
Starter Brick Transport
Sorghum Steaming
Mixing Fermentation Starter with Sorghum
Liquor Ageing
Labelling & Ribbon Tying
Drawing on Song dynasty literati culture and traditional Chinese calligraphy, the Scent & Quality Hall combined scent exploration with animated ink-wash visuals. As visitors activated the scent installation, aromas were translated into flowing calligraphic characters and growing ink-wash elements, giving form to an invisible sensory dimension.
I designed the sensory interaction and visual storytelling for the installation, mapping how visitors' physical engagement would trigger a sequence of evolving digital visuals. Through calligraphic motion and ink-wash imagery, I helped shape an experience that connected physical interaction, digital responses, and cultural heritage into a cohesive multisensory narrative.
The Microbial World brings fermentation into a space visitors can step inside. The microorganisms behind Moutai’s brewing are invisible to the eye. Here they become translucent blue forms that drift, gather and scatter at a visitor’s touch.
I co-developed the concept and designed the visuals as part of the centre’s visual system, so the most immersive room still belongs to the same story as the rest of the space.
Application
The Moutai Experience Centre brought together the brand's history, responsive interactions, sensory experience, and immersive environments to create a cohesive visitor journey. By integrating diverse media, the project took brand storytelling beyond static displays and into the hands of visitors.
Outcome
The Moutai Experience Centre extends the brand’s identity into a spatial journey through its craft, history and heritage. By weaving Henan’s regional culture with Moutai’s legacy through layered visual storytelling and interactive touchpoints, the design offers an accessible narrative for newcomers while opening deeper layers of exploration for connoisseurs.
Now in operation, the centre provides an ongoing space for cultural engagement, extending Moutai’s value beyond product quality through an immersive exploration of its heritage.
Reflection
"Let culture shape the narrative, not just the visuals"
"Media do not merely convey content, they shape understanding"
"Less information, more room to feel"
The central challenge for me was balancing Moutai’s brand heritage, Henan’s regional culture, and complex brewing knowledge. Through in-depth research, I realised that the key was not to present these elements separately, but to uncover their underlying connections and let them shape a cohesive narrative across the visual and spatial experience.
While the initial brewing illustrations explained the process, hands-on interactions and digital feedback encouraged visitors to explore it through participation. I realised that choosing the right medium means considering both the nature of the content and how people experience it, whether through physical interaction, sensory experiences, or immersive spaces.
Looking back, I found that cultural experiences don't need to explain everything at every stage. In future projects, I would pay more attention to the balance and rhythm between information and sensory experiences, leaving visitors room to pause, reflect and explore their own interpretations.
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