The 2018 Design Mark Winners Unveiled
The Design Mark winners comprise the top 1% of the total 4,640 entries in this year’s award. Of the 45 Design Mark winning concepts, 30 are from designers in Taiwan, 13 from China, 1 from South Korea, and 1 from the UK. There are 18 winning concepts in the Product Design category, 19 in the Visual Communication Design category, 2 in the Packaging Design category, and 6 in the Spatial Design category. A selection of Design Mark winning concepts are profiled below with images attached. Follow this link for the Design Mark winners’ list.
Product Design category:
Change View
• Concept designed by Luo Shuzhen and Dongguan GAFA Cultures & Creativity Institute (China)
In her reflections on normal human viewing behavior, Luo Shuzhen departs from the established form factor of eyewear, exploring a new user perspective and discourse on design. “Change View” is a combination of mirrored materials within a variety of goggle structures. The result is periscope-like eyewear, which refracts different viewing angles, creating a unique visual experience for the wearer. Luo Shuzhen hopes it will inspire new methods of communication.
Easy to Pick Tea Up
• Concept designed by Cai Wan-Lin (Taiwan)
Workers in Taiwan’s tea plantations do not have special tools for picking tea, which can lead to serious occupational injuries such as deep incisions caused by razor blades, and in the long-term spinal injuries are often sustained due to carrying heavy loads on their backs. Easy to Pick Tea Up is a user friendly design concept, which aims to alleviate these health and safety issues. The finger sleeve is a safe instrument for picking tea leaves, while the polypropylene basket is designed to be lightweight.
Clamp Basket
• Concept designed by Kang seungwan (South Korea)
Kang Seungwan designed the concept for Clamp Basket to be a convenient alternative to the conventional office waste basket. Clamp Basket is fastened to the edge of the desk so that any waste on the desk can be simply swept away using the brush attached to the basket. Additionally, Clamp Basket is equipped with a pencil sharpener, which is convenient for designers who often choose graphite over ink. While creating convenience, Clamp Basket also saves floor space.
Visual Communication Design category:
Studio Calendar
• Concept designed by Hudobivnik Rok (UK)
Studio Calendar is a fully blind-embossed, yearly collaborative work calendar for the studio, showcasing the paper itself as a beautiful object rather than a printed matter. A blank canvas that needs to be written on, and therefore “completed” by the user, the calendar is a physical and tactile experience that makes it’s owners want to feel it’s relief and texture. Studio Calendar is embossed on Conqueror Wove Brilliant White 300gsm paper, 700mm x 1000mm.
Printing on the Tiny
• Concept designed by Chen Yi-Xuan, Tsai Yen-Chen, and Tao Rui (Taiwan)
Printing on the Tiny is both an educational and practical guide, which provides the rudiments to explore the world of printing through the patterns, colors, and structure of insects’ bodies. The book is designed for freshmen students who major in design, as well as fresh graduates who are about to enter the design industry. Not only does the book guide readers through the theoretical knowledge about printing, but they can also appreciate the real prints.
Packaging Design category:
Oh Oh Pressure Go
• Concept designed by Ku Pei-Wen, Chiu Yu-Ching, Shih Mei-Ju, Weng Ching-Te, Yang Po-Zhi (Taiwan)
Oh Oh Pressure Go is a pair of packaging design concepts for pain relief patches. Both concepts exhibit a strong sense of huaren design. One is inspired by the Jiangshi (Chinese zombie) with its characteristic paper talisman and mandarin hat. The other is a book about the heart, which features a traditional Chinese stitched book binding. The designers believe that pain is not always physical; it can be psychological, and it can be caused by the heart. The packaging design concepts are meant as an alternative treatment to the pain relief patches inside the packaging.
BUBBLE – Identifiable Beverage Can Design
• Concept designed by Chia Yu-Hsuan (Taiwan)
At events, parties, nightclubs, and karaoke, people usually drink canned beverages likes beer and coke, but they often forget which can is theirs. BUBBLE is an identifiable beverage can design concept, which helps people to easily recognize which beverage can belongs to them. When people receive the BUBBLE beverage can, they may use the keypad on the beverage can to key-in their birthdate and gender, as a unique pass key that will distinguish their beverage can from others at the event.
Spatial Design category:
Build Fender
• Concept designed by Chi-Shan Chen (Taiwan)
The rapid advancement of industry has led to an influx in the number of factories and houses over a relatively short period of time, and caused tremendous damage to the natural environment. The concept of Build Fender is to metabolize pollution caused by human activity. The building is composed into cells, which each have a biological function, divided by cell walls that control of the entry and exit of materials, much like the cells of plants and fungi. Each cell has a role in purifying the environment of the whole.
Autonomous Tectonic – Meta Matter
• Concept designed by Chen Wei-Ting (Taiwan)
Using state of the art architectural software and custom-designed 3D printing robots, this spatial design concept is demonstrated in the form of a gothic cathedral. However, it could literally take any form. Meta-Matter is about the matter of the matter; the beginning of this design is the origin of the design concept. Meta matter does not have any established form; space is created through the process of material generation. The material system gradually changes its nature in response to the setting.
Judges’ Remarks on the Secondary Selection
Keng-Ming Liu (Creative Director of Bito) and David Wang (Founder of bod design corp.) both agree that the trend of “localization” is most evident among the Design Mark winners. Many of the design concepts reflect cultural phenomena in the designer’s local area, or convey concerns for workers in the agriculture, forestry, fishery, and farming industries. Shu Chang Kung (President of the Chinese Society of Interior Designers) comments on the changing role of spatial designers over the past two or three years. Spatial designers increasingly highlight the importance of building materials, production models, and the relationship of manmade structures with the environment. Often, he finds that these considerations are becoming more important than the design itself, which he says is reflected in this year’s winning design concepts.
As for the judges’ marking criteria, Keng-Ming Liu says the design concept should be honest, unconstrained, and endowed with the designer’s sense of humor. Chi-mei Chang (Honorary President of Taiwan Graphic Design Association) is attracted to the sense of simplification through design, and rejects those that over design in an effort to win the award. Shu Chang Kung believes that the enemy of concept design is kitsch or populism, and like Keng-Ming Liu, he appreciates the designer’s sincerity. Tahan Lin (CEO of Backer-Founder) warns of concept design without purpose. Lin says, whether the designer researches well, and whether the user can experience the designer’s vision, are his most important considerations.
Follow this link for the Golden Pin Concept Design Award 2018 Jury list
Golden Pin Concept Design Award 2018
This year, the Golden Pin Concept Design Award received a record-breaking 4,640 entries from designers in 23 countries and regions. Among them, just 365 passed through the Preliminary Selection judging, and after the rigorous Secondary Selection judging, a total of 45 Design Mark winners have been selected to receive the 2018 Design Mark certificate, as well as the right to adorn their winning works with the coveted Design Mark. In addition, the Golden Pin Concept Design Award is collaborating with crowdfunding consultant company Backer-Founder, which offers crowdfunding training to all of the 2018 Design Mark winners. The workshop includes advise on how to deliver a successful pitch, implement fund raising activities, and followup promotion.
All 45 Design Mark winners will come under scrutiny once more at the Final Selection judging on September 21. The judges will select just three Best Design winners, to be announced at the Grand Ceremony on November 29. The Best Design winners will receive the coveted Golden Pin Concept Design Award trophy, along with the 2018 Best Design certificate, and a cash prize in excess of US$13,000. Additionally, the three Best Design winners will also receive tailored, one-on-one crowdfunding services, working directly with Backer-Founder on their projects, and paving the way to successfully bringing their design concepts into reality.
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 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/
