Following the Design Perspectives x Golden Pin Salon organized by the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Golden Pin Design Award in Taipei on June 6, the salon arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on June 11 and was held that evening at the PAM Centre. The organizer invited guest speakers Huat Lim, managing director of the Malaysia-based ZLG Design; Keng-Ming Liu, the Taiwanese founder and creative director of Bito; and Yao-Pang Wang, director of InFormat Design Curating and InFormat Paper to share their spectacular experiences. The star-studded list attracted the participation of hundreds of designers and design enthusiasts, and facilitated active Q&A sessions.
To continue strengthening the connection with design in Southeast Asia, Golden Pin Salon was first organized in Malaysia in 2017, Singapore in 2018, and has continued its expansion this year, hoping to facilitate further exchanges in design at the culturally diverse and creatively vibrant cities in Malaysia and Macau. As stated by Tung-Jung Sung, CEO of the Taiwan Design Center, Golden Pin Salon has organized seminars in 20 major Asian cities in the past four years, and is grateful to be back in Kuala Lumpur with the help of Malaysian graphic design agency Tsubaki Studio. Sung says that in facing the complex issues of today, design can not only empower people, but also create value, and shape a new world; Golden Pin Design Award will continue to strive for good design.
▲ Huat Lim gave a speech titled “Ethos: A Journey of Sustenance.”
The first speaker of the evening was Huat Lim, an eminent designer from Malaysia and the current managing director of ZLD Design. Lim graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and had lived in England and France for several years. He had partaken in and led multiple famous design projects, including the London Stansted Airport, the ASTRO Asia Broadcast Centre in Kuala Lumpur, and the National Library of Singapore, all of which has received much attention.
For the event, Lim gave a speech titled “Ethos: A Journey of Sustenance,” in which he discussed his major sources of inspiration, such as books, words, or nature itself, as well as his perspective on sustainable architecture through his career in design. Lim believes that to talk sustainability, one must first return to the essence of architecture, which is the relationship between architecture, humans, and nature. Lim believes that sustainable design should work in harmony with the natural environment and humanistic society. Other than sharing how to learn from nature and use waste wood as construction materials, Lim mentioned his experience with the River of Life project in Malaysia, and pointed out that putting value in the environment, people, and their cultures, can transform a once-declining waterfront to a new landmark and cultural center of Kuala Lumpur.
▲ Themed around motion design, Keng-Ming Liu shared his experiences and approaches in his speech titled “Almost There.”
Next up was the Taiwanese director Keng-Ming Liu, founder and creative director of renowned Asian motion design company Bito. Liu resided in New York for ten years, directed for several top international brands, and further opened the public’s eye to motion design and aesthetics with his promotional video for the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade and his visual designs for the 28th Golden Melody Awards after returning to Taiwan. Liu had been the executive art director for the Golden Pin Design Award for three years since 2016, and has constantly delighted the audience with spectacular visual experiences.
Themed around his specialty of motion design, Liu generously shared his experiences and approaches in his speech titled “Almost There.” Liu believes that good motion design can attract the audience’s attention in an instant, and submerge them in an emotional, daring, energetic, and impactful sensory experience. From the general outline to the final product, Liu used Bito’s motion design projects for the 28th Golden Melody Awards and the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade as examples to explain that the inspiration and execution for every project is a process of challenging existing perceptions and deriving creative ideas from experimentation. The essence of “Almost There” is to aid this process, to persist until the moment of satisfaction. This memorable mantra inspired the audience to call Liu by the name of “Mr. Almost There” during the Q&A session.
▲ Yao-Pang Wang gave a talk on “From the Body—Exhibition Reconstruction and On-site Experiences” described his experience with the curations.
The final speaker was Yao-Pang Wang, acclaimed Taiwanese curator and current director of InFormat Design Curating and InFormat Paper. Wang has closely followed the curations and interdisciplinary integration of Taiwanese architecture, design, and art culture, and won three Golden Pin Design Awards for Best Design in 2017 and 2018. This time, Wang’s talk on “From the Body—Exhibition Reconstruction and On-site Experiences” described his experience with the curations and the underlying philosophy, such as how, during the curation of the 2018 Creative Expo Taiwan, they took inspiration from the human body’s sensations of nature.
Wang also mentioned how curations are a route to view and understand the world and an excellent way to communicate messages of brand value. He used the “UP TO 3742” exhibition, which he curated for Samsung, as an example of the team using 4K TVs to display a difficult hike, and create the ambiance of personal presence in the exhibition. Wang pointed out that brand creation is no longer about slapping a logo onto a product and one-sided advertising; it involves getting inspiration from the resulting effects, and constructing unique value through experiences.
▲ The Q&A sessions that followed the three speeches.
▲ The audience actively participated in the Q&A sessions.
The audience actively participated in the Q&A sessions that followed the three speeches, and generated a lot of inspiring exchanges. The event organizer further introduced the audience to the Golden Pin Design and Golden Pin Concept Design Awards. The two awards are currently calling for entries, with deadlines on June 27 and June 20 respectively. Designers from around the globe are welcome to enter for an inspirational challenge!
▲ The Golden Pin salon arrived in Kuala Lumpur, hoping to facilitate further exchanges in design in Malaysia.
After Taipei and Kuala Lumpur, the Design Perspectives x Golden Pin Salon 2019 will be taking place in Macau on June 15, organized by the Macau Fair & Trade Association, and will begin at 2:30 pm in Halls 4-5 on the 4th floor of Macau Tower. Speakers include Au Chon Hin, creative director of UNTITLED MACAO; Keng-Ming Liu, founder and creative director of Bito; and Gina Hsu, founder of Dong Hai Hospital Design Studio. For further updates on the Golden Pin Salon, please be sure to follow the Golden Pin Design Award via its website or various social media platforms.
