Taipei, TAIWAN — There’s just one week until the Golden Pin Design Award (GPDA) closes its 2021 call for entries! As one of the iconic annual design awards in Asia, the GPDA is a golden opportunity for companies, design teams, and individuals from all around the globe to demonstrate design excellence in Taiwan, Asia, and beyond. This year, since it opened for submissions in April, the organizer has received thousands of entries from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Germany, Canada, South Korea, Poland, the United States, and Vietnam. Among these entrants are global brands or big name corporations and design agencies in Asia such as HP Inc., Acer, KOKUYO, 3M Taiwan, TCL, Changi Airport Group (Singapore), NOSIGNER etc. These high-caliber entrants will vie for the top prize at this year’s awards ceremony.
The Golden Pin Design Award organizer highlights 10 exciting entries among submissions across categories to promote the awards’ 2021 Call for Entries, which will close at 5:00 p.m., Thursday, July 15th (GMT+8 Taipei).
10 Exciting Entries from Golden Pin Design Award 2021
1. Thinkk & SHOOT digital camera
– Category: Product Design
– Country/region: Taiwan
– Design Company: Paper Shoot Technologies Inc. & Thinkk studio (Thailand)
The design concept goes beyond the restrictions and the competing of traditional digital cameras’ specification-oriented focus; instead, it combines Taiwan’s advantages in electron optics, and Thailand’s craft designs to create the idea of “a camera no one has ever seen before”, and producing a design-oriented and environmentally-friendly camera. It uses teak as the material for the motherboard, and utilizes magnets to easily change and replace the frontal board with Thailand’s local natural-material-made and hand-crafted frontal boards.
2. ALNPET Multi-Sterilizing Motion Sensor Pet Water Fountain
– Category: Product Design
– Country/region: Taiwan
– Design Company: PettoFund
With the multiple filtration system, ALNPET intercepts small particles, hair, residual chlorine, heavy metal ions, and other impurities layer by layer, purifying and softening water quality, improving the taste of drinking water, and protecting pet’s health. Equipped with UV-C light and Nano Silver filters, it can create the highest anti-bacteria performance as 99.9% through SGS certificated, helping pet’s water stay fresh and clean at all times.
3. Creative Labs animation: Cities of Innovation
– Category: Communication Design
– Country/region: Poland
– Design Company: Admind Branding & Communications
– Client: Creative Labs
Creative Labs (CL) is an innovation lab that fosters entrepreneurship and implements innovation programs. This project aims to create an engaging animation that would reflect CL’ character, identity, and innovative approach, as represented by CL offices in three different European cities. In the completed animation, everything revolves around two words: creativity and lab. The playful and vivid 3D animation communicates brand values and its service.
4. Nibbo Bean to Bar Chocolate Packaging Design
– Category: Communication Design
– Country/region: China
– Design Company: lowkey design
– Client: Nibbo Bean to Bar
Nibbo offers a wealth of distinct tasting experiences to chocolate lovers, just like a “museum of chocolate flavor.” The design therefore revolves around positioning the chocolate as a fine collection of goods that customers will want to try out one by one. Included in the packaging are also cards with detailed notes on the flavor and a corresponding flavor number, designed to call to mind item descriptions seen in museums. As a finishing touch to the visual, the outer container is also designed to resemble a mini-collection folder in morphology.
5. Dali Tea Packaging Design
– Category: Communication Design
– Country/region: China
– Design Company: Linshaobin design
– Client: Dali Tea
Dali mixed tea is a tea brand made from a variety of teas. Unlike conventional tea packages, it deconstructs and reconstructs the Chinese character of “tea” across brand identity, visual, and packaging. Along with creative tea drink, this tea set provides a lively and diverse image for younger consumers, who love tea culture and like to make tea by themselves.
6. Kumamoto Castle Reconstruction Observation Path
– Category: Spatial Design
– Country/region: Japan
– Design Company: NIHON SEKKEI, Inc.
– Client: Kumamoto City
Kumamoto Castle was heavily damaged in the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016. This project is a temporary aerial observation walkway existing only for 20 years as a witness to the completion of the castle restoration which enables to see the restoration work closely rather than closing the restoration site. This project shows not only a new direction in restoration work as a tourist attraction, but also presents a new approach to how new architecture can co- exist with heritages.
7. Xi’an Fangsuo Commune
– Category: Spatial Design
– Country/region: China
– Design Company: LSD Interior Design
– Client: Fangsuo Commune
The origin of Xi’an Fangsuo Commune bookstore is a single commercial complex building characterized by complication and diversity. In the interior part, the nest relation among the city walls, lanes and roads in combination with the use of different spaces give the design logic by means of an overall spatial planning. The building is an east-west rectangular space with main axis formed by interconnecting the east-west main entrances and the pedestrian circulation. The sacred “East Building” space corresponding to oriental cultures, and the “West Building” space corresponding to Western culture and with attributes of community and neighborhood stand respectively on the east and west sides in combination with internal functions and site conditions of Fangsuo Commune.
8. Tidewater Gap
– Category: Spatial Design
– Country/region: Taiwan
– Design Company: Waterfrom Design Co., Ltd.
– Client: China Resources Land Ltd.
Facing the sea, the building is located in the harbor area with diverse histories. The designer responsible for the space design of this center intends to present the natural magnificence of the rising and falling of waves through the architectural structure. The void in the center of the entrance brings the contrast feeling of enlargement after entering the building. While the long and extended special paint marks in the horizontal direction hint a sense of flow like layers of ocean waves, it also conveys smoothness and perspective.
9. Crowd Check Toolkit – Covid-19 spatial distance PVC pipes toolkit
– Category: Spatial Design
– Country/region: Thailand
– Design Company: Everyday Architect & Design Studio
– Client: Creative Economy Agency (CEA)
From everyday materials like PVC pipes, “Crowdcheck Toolkit” is used to create social distance walkway in public areas. Commissioned by CEA, it is put into use during Bangkok Design Week 2021. It is a device similar to a fence panel that defines various thoroughfares. PVC pipes are used to bend two lines running parallel to each other. There is one pipe as the main form and the other to create a push distance to create social distance. This low-cost and practical design can be reproduced easily to support pandemic measures in cities.
10. Design Movement on Campus – Chiapei ARC Concert Hall
– Category: Integration Design
– Country/region: Taiwan
– Design Company: Nano Lucky Interior Design
– Client: Chiapei Elementary School
Due to the hasty formation of class in the beginning, the classroom lacks of proper planning for its function and the traffic flow. This project redesigns the music classroom with flexible and scalable layouts for events, storages, and other needs. It transformed the classroom into a field with aesthetic immersion, and also guides the students to develop good using behaviors and habits. It also engages students through design activities, so they understand how this space comes from and how to use it. Both teachers and students will enjoy such an aesthetic learning environment that resonates with music.
* About “Design Movement on Campus”: Commissioned by the Ministry of Education (Taiwan) and executed by the Taiwan Design Research Institute, this project is designed to reform the public spaces and objects that are part of students’ lives, encouraging students and teachers to suggest areas for improvement. After participating schools are selected they are then matched with relevant designers, who will first conduct an on-site assessment at the campus, and then work with the school to lead an aesthetic transformation. “Chiapei ARC Concert Hall” is one case of this project.
2021 Final Call for Entries
The clock is ticking down for submissions to the 2021 Golden Pin Design Award! Welcoming designers all around the globe, this is an unprecedented opportunity to prove your prowess in creative design!
The Golden Pin Design Award honors exceptional designs that have already been brought to market or actually executed. This year, in light of the global pandemic, entrants with epidemic prevention-related designs may qualify for a registration fee waiver. The submission deadline is 5:00 p.m., Thursday, July 15th (GMT+8 Taipei), and the entry fee is just NT$5,000 per item (approx. US$170) with no additional charges. Regarding registration guideline, please visit the official website for more information.
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 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 Research Institute and organized by the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs acts in an advisory capacity.
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International Media Enquiries
Golden Pin Design Award Team|Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI)
Henny Tsai, Press Coordinator
http://press.gpaward@tdri.org.tws