▲ The successful entrant from the Product Design category: “EC-05” (Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.)
The 2019 Golden Pin Design Award and Golden Pin Concept Design Award began revealing their secondary selection shortlists in mid-July. The numbers of total entries for both awards have reached a record high this year, receiving nearly 8,000 entries from 31 worldwide regions. The Golden Pin Design Award received a total of 3,091 entries from 23 regions including Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Canada, Poland, USA, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and Thailand; with first-time participation from Vietnam, Brunei, India, Israel, Russia, Slovenia, and the United Arab Emirates, demonstrating the growing international influence of the Award. The Golden Pin Concept Design Award continues a stable growth in entries, with fierce competition between a total of 4,846 entries this year from across 5 continents and 24 regions.
The Golden Pin Design Award released its secondary selection shortlist on July 18th, including a total of 1,657 entries with several outstanding works. In the product design category, numerous big corporate names performed exceptionally, such as the “EC-05” electric scooter which is jointly developed by Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. and Gogoro Inc. With an overall design based on the concept of “Jin-Ki Kannon” aiming for enhanced handling and ride quality, this new model has combined with Gogoro’s swappable battery sharing system to create a more comfortable and convenient riding experience. In the communication design category, the various entries rendered spectacularly, each with unique characteristics. For example, SomethingMoon Design of Macau designed the promotional posters for “Modern Drama and Contemporary Theatre for Beginners,” expressing the academic profoundness of the lecture in a clear and lively visual manner, a truly eye-catching piece of work.
▲ The successful entrant from the Communication Design category: “Modern Drama and Contemporary Theatre for Beginners (Macau and Hong Kong)” (SomethingMoon Design)
In the spatial design category, the OPEN Architecture of Mainland China designed the “UCCA Dune Art Museum” as a series of cellular shaped continuous spatial design, creating an art museum that blends into the beach of Bohai Bay. The elegant and unique form of its cavern-like space combines artistic aestheticism with environmental protection awareness, protecting the fragile sand dune ecosystem surrounding it. In the integration design category, established just in the previous year, there is a near 50% growth in the number of entries. These projects are diverse and unique, such as “DaxiDaxi” created by BIAS Architects & Associates as an important religious festival for Daxi, Taoyuan, integrating local beliefs, modern design, and local communities to promote traditional culture and community development with a modern take on regional festivals.
▲ The successful entrant from the Spatial Design category: UCCA Dune Art Museum (OPEN Architecture)
For the preliminary selection this year, the Golden Pin Design Award invited 21 expert judges from various fields including design, architecture, aesthetics, media, and film. As a judge for the product design category, Dave Chien, founder of Mistolab, speaks on the uniformly high standard set by this year’s entries, which shows the mature understanding entry companies are beginning to master regarding the quality of design. Moreover, the number of robots, drones, and AI products has increased dramatically, with more diverse occasions for application such as underwater inspection, fire-suppression support, learning-companion, and home-delivery. It can be foreseen that these high-tech products will become handy assistants for future living. Ting-An Ho, art director of UltraCombos and a judge for the communication design category, mentions how when seeing works that differ from current design trends, he would pay more attention to their potential in paving the way for future designs and the designers’ intent to question or comment on society through their products, hoping to discover designs that are both innovative and socially aware.
Well-known writer Yi-Lan Yeh, a judge in the category of spatial design, believes that designs are not just simple artistic creation, but also solutions to problems that reflect practical needs. Yeh looks beyond the aesthetics and visual impact on entries when judging and is more concerned about how the design responds to practical needs under the limitations or conditions of the environment. In designs of living spaces, Yeh also values the designer’s rendition of wonderful living as reflected in their work. Jonas Ho, CEO of CMP PUJEN Foundation for Arts and Culture and a judge for the integration design category, observed increasing maturity in the planning and execution of an enhanced participation experience, mentality, and attitude expressed in the exhibition entries of recent years. Ho also asserts that entries originated from the designer’s personal culture with authenticity will be especially outstanding.
▲ The successful entrant from the Integration Design category: DaxiDaxi (BIAS Architects & Associates)
The First Year of the Integration Design Category: Entries for the Golden Pin Concept Design Award Hits a Record High
The 2019 Golden Pin Concept Design Award adjusted its entry categories, combining visual communications with packaging design to form the communication design category, and implementing the integration design category to reach a wider variety of innovative designs in different fields. The total number of entries reached 4,846 this year, with entries from 24 regions across 5 continents, with first-time participation from Lebanon, Yugoslavia, and the Central African Republic. A total of 303 products entered for selection, with several outstanding entries since preliminary selection competing for the winning honor.
Henry Chang, the chief designer of GEARLAB and a preliminary selection judge for the product design category, states that the product entries this year are very diverse in subject. Besides the significant increase in disaster relief and medical apparatus products, there are also many designs of educational products with derivative systems. To exert greater influence on others, these entries with derivative systems integrated usage and experience into their design concepts, and this manifests the prevailing transformative design mindsets. Hsien-Hsun Huang, visual director of 247Visualart, speaks of the broadness of the communication design category. When judging the entries, he values the front-end planning and reason behind the topic of work, and evaluates the practicality of the proposed solution to the problem or its execution, putting emphasis on exceptional depth and meaning in a design.
Fang-Yi Lin, director of xinArchi and a judge for the spatial design category, expresses her anticipation for entries that reflect time-relevant social issues, including how creativity can respond to sustainability, combine architectures with geographic environments, or make use of the traits of the city or community on site. Lin expects to see no lack of exceptional works this year. In the category of integration design, Liangyi Chang, senior partner of Plan b, mentions that his main focus when judging entries is to examine if the design touches the core of the problem, as well as the feasibility for the product to be realized within five years; Chang looks forward to discovering good designs that can solve problems of the modern era.
The 2019 Golden Pin Design Award and Golden Pin Concept Design Award will hold their secondary selections in August and September to select entries that shall win the honorary mark. The overseas events of the two awards will be held in Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, and Shanghai in early August. The Taiwan events of “Golden Pin Concept Design Award” and “Golden Pin Design Award” will be held in Taipei on August 14 and September 19 respectively. The final selection of the two awards shall proceed in late September, and the award ceremony will be held on December 5th in Taipei, where the winners of the “Best of Golden Pin Design Award” and the “Best of Golden Pin Concept Design Award” will be revealed. For the latest news on the Golden Pin Design Award, please visit the official website and follow on social media.
Golden Pin Design Award 2019 Preliminary Selection Shortlist
https://reurl.cc/4K95V
Golden Pin Concept Design Award 2019 Preliminary Selection Shortlist
https://reurl.cc/aOylX
