Golden Pin Design Award 2018 Best Design and Special Annual Award
Of the 34 Golden Pin Design Award 2018 Best Design winners, there are 12 in the product design category, 11 in the communication design category, 8 in the spatial design category, and 3 in the integration design category. Additionally there are 2 Special Annual Award for Green Design winners and 1 Special Annual Award for Social Design winner. One Best Design winner also won the Special Annual Award. Among the Best Design and Special Annual Award winners are 23 from Taiwan, 9 from China, and 4 from Hong Kong. One of the Special Annual Award for Green Design winners is WOWMOON, a glassware collection made for the moon festival celebrations at Taipei W Hotel’s WOOBAR. Among the Best Design winners is Prismverse, a branded installation created for Dr.Jart+, and The Affairs newspaper that was founded by the editor-in-chief of The Big Issue Taiwan.
Looking back after judging, the jury members gave their comments on the Best Design winners. Chief editor of Fountain magazine, Tieh-chih Chang feels that the standard this year is really high, especially in the communication design and spatial design categories. He remarks on this year as a real breakthrough for those categories. Senior Vice President of Compal Electronics Inc., Shikuan Chen comments on the rise of artificial intelligence. He sees a lot of consumer products using AI, particularly educational products for children. Honorary Chair Professor at the Department of Industrial Design in Shih-Chien University, Kuan Cheng-Neng notices that many of the winning designers are catering to trends in our aging society. His examples include medical products and communication designs for social impact.
Preliminary, Secondary, and Final Selection
This year’s jury was the biggest in the awards’ history. A panel of 76 design experts scrutinized the entries over three rounds of judging. A combined total of nearly 7000 entries were received in the Golden Pin Design Award and Golden Pin Concept Design Award before the call for entries deadline in June, and Preliminary Selection began in July. Secondary Selection took place from August to mid-September in Taipei, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, and Shanghai, whittling down the entries to just 742 Design Mark winners, 91 of whom passed through to the final judging stage. The Final Selection jury convened in Taipei at the end of September to decide on the Best Design winners.
Ceremony Opening Video by Bito
Nature Knows is Bito’s concept for this year’s ceremony, emphasizing the importance of cycles in nature and sustainability in design. The opening video at the ceremony echoes this concept, featuring a girl who finds pollution, and sets out on a journey with the pollution through jungles, oceans, and outer space. In the end, she plants the pollution in the ground as a seed that grows into tree, representing a cycle in nature. The opening video’s message to designers at the ceremony is to promote sustainability in design. It took Bito six months to create the video, using 3D animation techniques.
Watch the teaser video on the Golden Pin Design Award’s official Facebook page
Ceremony Host, Interval Performance, and Installation Art
Mickey Huang hosted the award ceremony for a third consecutive year. As ever, Huang brought his charm and humor to the event, along with his vast knowledge of Taiwan’s design industry. During the ceremony interval, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Crowd Lu performed three songs to much applause from the audience. Lu has risen to fame in Taiwan over the past decade and it was an immense privilege to have him play at the ceremony. The audience also had the opportunity to appreciate installation art by WHYIXD in the ceremony reception. The kinetic sculpture entitled X Land is made from recycled Brightness Enhancement Film, inviting onlookers to rethink the relationship between sustainability and design.
About the Golden Pin Design Award Group
The annual Golden Pin Design Award is the longest-running international design award that celebrates products or projects expressly created for and within huaren (Chinese-speaking) communities, offering entrants an unprecedented opportunity to prove their prowess in the world’s largest market.
The Golden Pin Design Award Group is comprised of two international awards — the Golden Pin Design Award, the Golden Pin Concept Design Award — and the Young Pin Design Award for students in Taiwan. The Golden Pin Design Award Group is executed by the Taiwan Design Center and organized by the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs acts in an advisory capacity.
For more insight into what it means to design for huaren communities, visit: designperspectives.org/
For the latest news on the Golden Pin Design Award, visit:
Official Website: goldenpin.org.tw/en/
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For the latest news on the Golden Pin Concept Design Award, visit:
Official Website: GoldenPin.org.tw/en/
Facebook: facebook.com/GoldenPinConcept/
Instagram: instagram.com/GoldenPinConcept/
Weibo: weibo.com/GoldenPinDesign
WeChat: 金点设计奖