Sai Kham Leik

Brand guidelines for Sai Kham Leik, the Shan singer-songwriter whose folk-rock songs have been loved across Myanmar for more than five decades. One hand-drawn mark brings together his guitar, his pen and the culture his songs carry.

Client

Sai Kham Leik

Year

2026

Scope

Logo, color, type

Output

Visual guidelines

The artist

Sai Kham Leik was born in 1949 in Hsenwi, northern Shan State. A physician by training, he started making music in 1969 after meeting the singer Sai Htee Saing; together they formed The Wild Ones. He has since written more than 500 songs in Burmese, about 200 in Shan and about 35 in English, including the much-loved “Panglong Agreement”.

The guitar blossom

The mark is one continuous line. A hand-drawn guitar for five decades of folk rock. A pen nib set where the bridge would sit, for the songwriter behind more than 700 songs. And a neck that grows into a blossom: songs that take root and bloom, carrying Shan heritage with them. It sits beside an English wordmark in Grandstander and his name hand-lettered in Shan.

Rules that keep it whole

Three lockups cover every space, from stage banners to app icons. The guide sets clear space from the height of the wordmark, minimum sizes where the Shan lettering and pen nib stay legible, six approved color versions, and the do’s and don’ts that keep the mark from being stretched, recolored or retyped.

Deep plum, mauve and white

Deep Plum leads, Mauve supports and White gives the mark room to breathe, in a 60 / 25 / 15 balance. Every text pairing was checked for contrast: white on Deep Plum reaches 16.5 : 1, and the one pairing that fails, Deep Plum on Mauve, is marked to avoid.

Type in three scripts

Grandstander carries headlines and the wordmark, with Familjen Grotesk for body text. Padauk covers both Shan and Burmese in one family, set at 160% line height or more so stacked marks never collide. The Shan name in the logo stays hand-lettered and is never retyped in a font.

The brand in use

Album covers, profile pictures, stories, concert posters, tickets, vinyl labels, merchandise and stage banners put the system to work. The blossom also crops into a large brand graphic for backgrounds.

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Soutsakan Institute

Hein is a designer, product thinker working across Product, Design, Branding & Motion helping teams build scalable brands & products.

© 2026 Hein Thant Zin

Hein is a designer, product thinker working across Product, Design, Branding & Motion helping teams build scalable brands & products.

© 2026 Hein Thant Zin