Taiwan wins big at 2015 Golden Pin Design Award

2015/12/14

Taiwan swept the field at Golden Pin Design Award Dec. 10 in Taipei City, claiming 16 out of 29 top honors in four categories attracting 2,384 entries from 17 countries and territories.

Notable Design of the Year winners include EHS ArchiLab’s spatial planning for Toyo Ito’s Eslite Hotel; Gearlab Co. Ltd.’s highly durable and eco-friendly Akiak Greenland Paddle; National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute’s breakthrough technology for mass production of bamboo chairs; and Qisda Corp.’s Viva Pro Ultrasound Tablet for medical checkup.

In addition, young local designers Bryan Leung and Yeh Shih-yu were named inaugural Concept Design Award honorees. They each picked up a cash prize of NT$300,000 (US$9,153) along with a certificate and trophy.

Organized by Taipei City-based Taiwan Design Center, the event was restricted to homegrown designers over its past 32 editions. In 2014, TDC elected to transform the event into an international competition, resulting in the presence this year of entrants from locales like Bulgaria, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Macau, Poland, Russia, South Korea, the UK, U.S. and mainland China.

According to TDC, grand prize recipients in interior, packaging, product and visual communication were determined by an international panel. The nine members include Chan Wei-hsiung from Taiwan, founder of Business Next; Naoto Fukasawa from Japan, designer of the Tang Prize medal; and Harry Williamson from Australia, an inductee into that country’s Design Institute Hall of Fame.

The jury praised the winning projects for displaying remarkably high levels of innovation and professionalism. “Through the dazzling array of creative products fusing bold artistic expressions with cutting-edge materials, we are pleased to see the emergence of a distinct design language informed by Chinese cultural legacy.”

Of the other 13 Design of the Year winners, 10 hail from mainland China and three from Hong Kong.

All finalist pieces are on display until April 3, 2016, at the GPDA Exhibition in Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=240078&ctNode=2194&mp=9)