Golden Pin Design Awards 2018
Established in 1981, Taiwan’s Golden Pin Design Award is the most influential design award in the global Huaren (Chinese speaking) market.
Established as a system to reward outstanding product design with a goal of promoting nation-wide emphasis on good product design, it has now gone global by providing an opportunity to the designers and professionals from all over the world to showcase their work and expose their design strengths.
At the artistic front, along with the winners being announced, the audience admired and cherished the installation art by WHYIXD at the ceremony’s reception. The kinetic sculpture entitled X Land is made from recycled Brightness Enhancement Film, inviting onlookers to rethink the relationship between sustainability and design.
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A few of the selected entries from various categories worth a mention are:
Installation
Prismverse (China) by XEX/XCEPT:
Created for global skincare brand Dr. Jart+ to introduce its skin-brightening product “V7 Toning Light”, Prismverse is an installation inspired by the maximising light reflection effect with diamond’s brilliant cut.
With a 10-meter-wide LED floor and the complex geometrical tessellated mirror wall, the highly illuminated interior becomes a metaphor for the instant tone-up effect of the product. The visitors are immersed in a kaleidoscopic view of brilliance provided with a chance to reimagine the new dimension of light.
Project by:
Green Design & Environmental Sustainability
WOWMOON
Is one of the winners of the Golden Pin Design Award 2018 Special Annual Award — Green Design.
Sustainability and the Circular Economy are topics that have captured the world’s attention. Designer Pili Wu collaborated with the glassware manufacturer Spring Pool Glass on the project, a continuation of the W Hotel’s Green Oasis Project.
They developed a sustainable mechanism that reduced W Hotel’s champagne bottles back to their original material and then recycled them into cocktail glasses. Since the overarching elements of the project were defined very clearly from the Installation Green Design & Environmental Sustainability beginning, the project discussions mostly focused on pinning down minor details, for example, how the mould should open?
Because the design was meant to be in parallel with the W Hotel’s mooncake promotion in September, Wu created mooncake-shaped cocktail glasses that were both seasonal and rich with Chinese tradition. The elongated crystalveined pattern formed an elegant yet simple design. This may have heightened the mooncakebuying spirit, as mooncake sales were better than all years previous.
Project by:
Product Design
1. Comicam T1 Kid’s Camera
Guokun Liu, the Creative Director at Shenzhen XIVO Design created Comicam T1, an instant camera that prints pictures as soon as the shutter is pressed, specifically for children aged five and over.
Commissioned by Hangzhou Rulei Technology, this camera is based on the popular animation series Chicky Rainbow and is in the shape of a dialup box reflecting the animated chickens’ daily life.
These days children are tech-savy at a very young age, thus prone to harmful impacts in the future. Attempting to counter the global trend of digitalisation, this product offers kids a chance to break away from the digital space, make memories and even foster creativity - as children can draw on printed photos and tape them into their diaries. The use of BPA-free heat-sensitive paper makes it much more suitable for children’s use and also pictures can be stored for 20 years without fading.
Project by:
Guokun Liu
Creative Director at Shenzhen XIVO Design Co. Ltd.
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2. Plume Dip Pen X Inkwell
Unlike typical writing instruments, plume pens enable writers to control the width of each stroke, allowing them to create characters that are at once beautiful and individual - making the art of writing a joy in itself.
Dipping a plume pen into an inkwell evokes a tangible feeling of nostalgia. Sammy Chan, the Creative Director at Gecko Design, designed the “Plume Dip Pen x Inkwell” not to chase the latest fashion, but to submerge users in their warm memories from the past.
To ensure a smooth functioning, Chan kept the technical aspects in mind while designing the product. To eliminate the risk of ink bleeding, the opening of the inkwell needed to be of specific dimensions, complying with the laws of nature. For this, Chan worked closely with the glassmaker to find the perfect balance and craft all pieces alike. For the pen to be dipped without causing the ink to overflow, 8 grooves were designed to keep the ink pooled within the well.
Project by:
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Spatial Design
1. Lishin Elementary School Library
A wooden, latticed bookcase wall is the soul of the Lishin elementary school library design.
It holds plenty of space for the library’s extensive collection of books, while the extension of the bookcase all the way up to the ceiling creates a cozy reading environment. On the lower level, cobblestone-like bookcases create a natural living space.
The audio-visual teaching area is a hexagonal space that echoes the concept of the reading rooms.
Appreciated by the judge for the use of simple materials in an inventive way, the design amplifies the space beautifully and graciously. The materials also create shapes that invite play and exploration in an imaginative way.
Project by:
Tsai Shian-Gung & Liu Ying-Chen
Tali Design
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2. Concept for Digital Construction - RobloX
Created by Cheng-Han Yu, Hung-Da Chien, Yen-Fen Huang, and Anna Uborevich-Borovskaya from Bartlett School of Architecture, London, RobloX is one of the Golden Pin Concept Design Award 2018 Best Design winners.
Project RobloX was inspired by the theory of 'Digital Material', which originated from MIT’s Centre for Bits and Atoms in 2014, relating to the complete digitalisation of construction, including discrete design and robotic assembly.
RobloX makes use of UHPC (Ultra-high-performance- concrete) produced by LafargeHolcim to develop a standardised UHPC pre-cast system. Compared to traditional approaches, this system depends on strong and lightweight building blocks with high structural adaptability.
The team developed a system for unique joint parts to be assembled into extremely complex structures through simple fixed contact points. Digital construction has been developing for around 20 years, but team RobloX is one of the pioneers in utilizing UHPC to achieve construction breakthroughs and create new building blocks.
Project by:
Cheng-Han Yu
Hung-Da Chien
Yen-Fen Huang
Anna Uborevich-Borovskaya
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