Oki Sato of Nendo (Japan); Mårten Claesson of Claesson Koivisto Rune (Sweden); renowned graphic designer Bi Xuefeng (China); and Shikuan Chen of Compal Electronics (Taiwan) named among nine judges
Thursday, August 11, 2016 - Taipei, Taiwan --(ASIA TODAY)-- The Golden Pin Design Award–an annual award organized by the Taiwan Design Center that seeks to raise global awareness for design created for and within huaren (Chinese-speaking) communities–today announces its line up for its 2016 Final Selection Jury.
International design professionals, scholars, and business leaders from Sweden, Japan, China, and Taiwan make up the nine-member strong judging team, who together will be responsible for the mammoth task of evaluating hundreds entries and, through a rigorously managed voting system, selecting this year’s Golden Pin Design Award Finalists and Best Design winners.
World-leading Japanese-Canadian designer, Oki Sato, Chief Designer and founder of the famed Tokyo-based studio Nendo, will lead the 2016 selection committee as Jury Chair. Sato is regularly named “Designer of the Year” by magazines such as Wallpaper and ELLE DÉCOR, and in 2006 was named one of “100 Most Respected Japanese” by Newsweek. Designs by his studio feature in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Musee des Arts decoratifs and Centre Pompidou in Paris.
“Design is an effective way to solve all kinds of difficult problems, also is a tremendous force to bring vitality to society. Sometimes, a huge and impactful design comes from a small and simple idea. I sincerely hope to encounter many wonderful designs at the Golden Pin Design Award, and am very much looking forward to everyone’s participation,” Sato says of his appointment. Visitors to Taipei in August, September, and October can view works by Nendo in an Asia-first exhibition held at the Taiwan Design Museum.
Also on the panel in 2016 is renowned Swedish designer, writer, and lecturer Mårten Claesson, who is most well-known as co-founder of Claesson Koivisto Rune, an architectural and design studio that is multidisciplinary in the classic Scandinavian way. Claesson is well versed as a design award jury member, having sat on the panels of prestigious international competitions such as Red Dot Design Award and China Good Design. Taking the global significance Japanese design has achieved in the past 20 years–which is a relatively short period of time when compared to the development of design industries in Europe and North America–as an example, Claesson notes that he is “expecting the same kind of thing to happen in Taiwan [and other regional communities] over the next 10, 15 or 20 years.”
Chinese graphic designer Bi Xuefeng, who is Art Director of the highly successful studio Bi Xuefeng Graphic Design Consultants, also joins the Final Selection judging group this year. His designs are held in museum collections both locally and abroad, and over the years, he has won more than 100 awards for his work. Bi was also an instrumental figure in the construction and promotion of the City of Design–Shenzhen. “With design becoming increasingly globalized, I care more about the way in which Eastern culture is presented through design,” notes Bi of his appointment to this year’s jury. “The Golden Pin Design Award emphasizes huaren philosophies and ideologies in design and, although the award’s definition of ‘huaren’ is different to my personal views on ‘Eastern design,’ I believe the award represents an opportunity to explore contemporary design in the context of an Eastern or huaren cultural background.”
Among the five Taiwanese members of the 2016 Final Selection Jury is Shikuan Chen, Vice President of Corporate Experience Design at Compal Electronics, and a professor of design at Taipei’s Shih-Chien University. Known as one of the most prominent personalities in design in the Greater China region, Chen is also a Board Director of the World Design Organization (formerly known as Icsid) and a member of the international advisory board for the World Design Capital Taipei 2016. “Recently, Asia and the huaren (Chinese-speaking) market have gradually gained a louder voice due to the evolution of the global economic structure. The Golden Pin Design Award is making an effort to encourage and document the rise of a huaren design philosophy within this current economic framework,” Chen notes when asked what stands out as unique about the award.
Other members of the 2016 Final Selection jury include Takeshi Yamamura, Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Waseda University in Japan; and from Taiwan, Jun-Liang Chen, General Manager at Freeimage Design Co. Ltd; Wei-Hsiung Chan, Founder of Business Next Magazine; Taddy Ho, Director of Operating Committee at BBDO Taiwan Advertising Co.; and Cheng-Neng Kuan, Vice President of Shih-Chien University.
With the Preliminary Selection period already wrapped up, the Golden Pin Design Award is now heading into the Secondary Selection period, which will run through August and September in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. The list of the 2016’s Golden Pin Design Mark recipients will be announced on the Golden Pin Design Award's official website in late September (www.goldenpin.org.tw), and Best Design winners will receive their trophies on stage at an invitation-only ceremony held in Taipei, Taiwan on December 1.
About the Golden Pin Design Award
The annual Golden Pin Design Award is the longest-running international design award that celebrates products and projects expressly created for huaren (Chinese-speaking) communities, offering entrants an unprecedented opportunity to prove their prowess in the world’s largest market. Entries to the Golden Pin Design Award are accepted in four categories: Product Design, Visual Communication Design, Packaging Design, and Spatial Design. Entered products and projects are assessed in three stages by an expert panel of international judges. Entrants who pass the second selection will receive a coveted Golden Pin Design Award Mark–an indicator of innovation that they can use to market their product or design project. Just a small portion of these Golden Pin Design Award Mark recipients will receive a Best Design trophy in a grand award ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan in December.
The Golden Pin Design Award is administered 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 the latest news on the Golden Pin Design Award, visit:
For more insight into what it means to the design for the huaren market, visit: http://designperspectives.org/.
Kate Nicholson
International Media Liaison, DDG
kate.nicholson@ddg.com.tw
+886 2 23117007 x 402
Entrant Enquiries
Janice Cheng
Golden Pin Design Award Team
janice_cheng@tdc.org.tw
+886 2 2745 8199 x 335
- ASIA TODAY Newswire http://www.AsiaToday.com
