Those that graced the stage included: Lyndon Neri of famed Shanghai-based Neri&Hu Design & Research Office; renowned Japanese industrial designer, Naoto Fukasawa; and William To, Creative and Programme Director at PMQ, one of Hong Kong’s most innovative department store concepts
Yesterday, Thursday, December 10, 2015, attendees at the day-long Golden Pin Design Award 2015 Forum in Taipei, Taiwan, enjoyed a rare opportunity to hear the stories behind the success of 11 locally and globally renowned design industry and business leaders, and their thoughts on design innovation for and within huaren (Chinese-speaking) communities.
Under the title “Design: Ideas Realized,” this year’s Forum was held at Eslite Spectrum Performance Hall in Taipei’s Songshan Cultural Park, and was co-organized on behalf of the Golden Pin Design Award by CommonWealth Magazine, Fubon Art Foundation, and the Taiwan Design Center. Johnason Lo, Founder and Creative Director of Taipei-based motion graphics studio, JL Design, served as consultant for the event.
Special guest speaker and Golden Design Award Best Design Jury Chair Naoto Fukasawa opened proceedings with a speech noting the increasing importance of communications and interactive design. “The form of things is no longer relevant. In the future, the emphasis will be on the relationships between things, a trend that is reflected in the entries of this year’s Golden Pin Design Award,” he said.
Lyndon Neri of famed Shanghai-based Neri&Hu Design & Research Office gave a truly thought provoking talk on the ten-plus years of his practice, emphasizing the role of “reflective nostalgia” in his work, and the importance of taking small projects that preserve the memories of buildings themselves. Neri’s work fuses public and private space through innovative and surprising sectional design, and the play of views through and between spaces and scenes. “Western society likes the ‘wow’,” Neri said. “They like to see the big idea in one big move. Asian design is never one big move, it’s about seeing through things. Asian clients have many ideas that they want to work as one.”
Vivian Cheng, an industrial designer and design studio founder based in Hong Kong and Copenhagen, and a member of the Final Selection Jury for both the Golden Pin Design Award and the Golden Pin Concept Design Award, held up Ming Dynasty chairs as emblematic of good huaren design for the way they consider the posture necessary to perform calligraphy correctly, contrasting this careful consideration of function with designs that “just suck in Chinese elements” like dragons and phoenixes without consideration for how they improve the function of products. “Don’t force it; it’s there [within you],” she advised up-and-coming designers considering how to implement huaren elements. “Do less and eliminate waste.”
Page Tsou, Art Director of Taipei-based studio Auspicious, which has worked on projects for companies like Disney, YAMAHA, and Moët & Chandon, not to mention the 2015 Golden Pin “Design Mark” winning visual identity for the Taipei restaurant of world-renowned Chef Andre Chiang, stressed the need to focus on doing good work to gain recognition in the international market. “In the UK, they recognize my work is not entirely Western, but that’s not intentional—I’m a product of my background and education,” he said. Tsou also raised the issue of the constraints that Taiwan’s education system places on the creativity of students. “We need to challenge the root of education and focus on nurturing appreciation of intangibles,” he said, establishing a theme that was returned to later in the day in the context of China and Hong Kong. Tsou also noted that it is “too early to predict what Taiwanese design will grow into” and that the market here is still more about “individual ideas” rather than the distinctive color palates and unifying stylistic elements evident in other markets.
Katsutoshi Ishibashi, Editor in Chief of long-running Tokyo-based bilingual design magazine, AXIS, explored how the magazine had managed to stay current for so long by focusing on how design can be used to solve or address social issues, for example disaster response planning or the use of design to improve agricultural systems. However, he cautioned, “There are fewer and fewer original prototype designs being put into production because of the cost,” and that under Japan’s present system there is not enough of a connection between the research being done in big companies and designers outside those corporate cultures.
William To, Senior Consultant for the Hong Kong Design Centre, shared the inspiring story behind the launch of PMQ, Hong Kong’s most innovative department store concepts and a nonprofit platform that nurtures young design entrepreneurs. “Rents in Hong Kong are too expensive so there is nowhere to host or showcase design/brand work,” To said. “In Hong Kong, public space is overwhelmingly important as they are often the only places where people can learn, exchange ideas, and connect.”
The issue of public space was discussed further in a lively panel discussion in the afternoon session, during which Neri and To were joined by Miao Shi, chairman of Fuyi Culture Investment, who emphasized the importance of adding unique elements to public spaces to break down the “sameness” of shopping complexes, hotels and cineplexes, particularly in China. “Education is problematic in China,” Shi said. “Young architects should have different perspectives and aesthetics, but everything has become homogeneous; this is terrifying. We need to have more education and activities for kids to explore their local culture and history.”
During the morning panel session, Grace Wang, one of four partners in the ever-expanding VVG Lifestyle Village in Taipei, which took home a Best Design trophy in the 2014 edition of the Golden Pin Design Award, and the trend-setting hospitality, retail, and food-and-beverage group’s manager, and Sheng-Yuan Huang, Principal at Fieldoffice Architects in Taiwan, agreed that there is no need to restrict design to one particular audience or concept. “We don’t need to categorize–Chinese or not Chinese; there are differences across individuals, not just ethnicities or cultures,” Huang said. “We haven’t been considering categorizations like West versus East–we just consider things that make us happy, and then just do it,” Wang added. “That’s the role design plays in people’s lives.” Chris Chienwei Huang, Head of Creative at YOW!Design in Taiwan, the firm behind the popular office accessories brand Urban Prefer, reflected on the issues facing the development of design and brand in Taiwan: “Taiwan cannot seem to distance itself from OEM,” he said. “Taiwanese companies don’t know how to adopt a brand perspective, or they are not audacious enough to shift their thinking.”
The Golden Pin Design Award 2015 Exhibition, a multimedia exhibition of products from Golden Pin Design Award 2015 Design Mark winners, also opened its doors to the public on December 10, 2015. The exhibition, which features the most innovative huaren market products and projects from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, and even Germany, has been designed as a multimedia experience. Visitors to the Taiwan Design Museum at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei, where the exhibition is being held, can see winning products from all industries, including home living, medical, electronic, and hi-tech industries.
About the Golden Pin Design Award
The Golden Pin Design Award repositioned itself in early 2014 to celebrate product, packaging, spatial, and visual communication design works already on the market that were created for and within the huaren communities. In 2015, the three-decades-old award attracted a record-setting 2,360 entries from 10 countries around the world, and expanded the Golden Pin Award Group to include the Golden Pin Concept Design Award, the Young Pin Design Award, and two Special Awards.
The competition is named its Best Design and Special Award winners in a lavish ceremony last night, Thursday, December 10, 2015, at the Eslite Spectrum Performance Hall in Taipei, Taiwan.
The Golden Pin 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, and the award is sponsored by Canmeg AVEDA.
For more insights into huaren design (design created for and within Chinese-speaking communities), visit Perspectives: http://designperspectives.org.
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