An annual exhibition showcasing the winners of the Golden Pin Design Awards opens in Taipei today.
Organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) Industrial Development Bureau and the Taiwan Design Research Institute, the exhibition is themed “Zone,” representing a psychological state and physical space, organizers said.
The exhibition features 130 projects that won a Golden Pin Design Award or a Golden Pin Concept Design Award and were granted the right to use the Golden Pin design symbol, they said.
Among them is “Go! Go! South Pole: Adventurous Horizon,” an exhibition held in Taipei last year by InFormat Design Curating and the Gamania Cheer Up Foundation that “utilized augmented reality and digital technology to let visitors experience an Antarctic expedition through their own senses,” organizers said.
A redesign of the signage system at Kaohsiung’s Shoushan Zoo by design agency Project on Museum, and the Taipei Metro Travel Pass designed by Taipei-based studio Whitelight Motion are among the other projects on display.
While the Golden Pin Design Award recognizes commercialized products and completed projects, the Golden Pin Concept Design Award is given to products and projects that have not been mass-produced or sold on the market, or are in active development, they said.
This year, the Golden Pin Design Award competition received 2,333 entries from 20 countries and regions, and 526 won awards, organizers said.
The Golden Pin Concept Design Award was given to 60 winners chosen from 5,348 submissions from 24 countries and regions, they said.
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, organizers were able to assemble an 85-member international jury and attract 7,681 entries across the two awards, institute president Chang Chi-yi (張基義) told a news conference yesterday.
Japanese designer Eisuke Tachikawa, Swiss graphic designer Felix Pfaffli, Taiwanese graphic designer Aaron Nieh (聶永真) and Vogue Taiwan editor-in-chief Leslie Sun (孫怡) were among the jury members, organizers said.
An awards ceremony themed “2020” is to be held in Taipei on Dec. 11 to announce the winners of the Best Design and the Special Annual awards, organizers said.
The ceremony is to be streamed live on Facebook and on YouTube in Mandarin and English, they added.
The Golden Pin Design Awards group, which was founded in 1981, comprises the Golden Pin Design Award and the Golden Pin Concept Design Award, along with the Young Pin Design Award, which is presented to graduating students from university design departments in Taiwan at the annual Young Designers’ Exhibition, organizers said.
The institute, which was established this year as an improvement to its predecessor, the Taiwan Design Center, collaborates with not just the MOEA, but also other government agencies, including the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Ministry of Education, bureau Director-General Leu Jang-hwa (呂正華) said.
The institute’s many efforts won it the biennial Presidential Innovation Award in the group category in August, he said.
“Zone” is at the Taiwan Design Museum inside Songshan Cultural and Creative Park until Feb. 28.
The exhibition is open from Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm.
General admission is NT$150 and student and group tickets are NT$100, organizers said.
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