4th Taiwan Design Award Picks 9 Winners from Five Categories

The jury for the 2008 or the 4th version the Taiwan Design Award (TDA) had selected 9 winners or design teams from five categories, including two Gold Award winners each from product design, visual communication design, packaging design, and interior design; as well as one Special Theme Award winner in eco design.

The TDA, kicked off in 2005, is sponsored by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and organized by the Taiwan Design Center (TDC), a national body, and the Chinese Society of Interior Designers (CSID), the largest trade association of its kind on the island, with the awards given out seen as the highest honor for the local design industry.

Besides recognizing local designers, companies, and products that have achieved success in Taiwan and perhaps have become benchmark for the design industry, the TDA also aims to inspire companies to invest more in innovative design, through which the development of the design industry on the island would continue to upgrade.

Clearly regarded as a priority event on their calendars by the design industry and professionals, the TDA has since its inauguration attracted over 300 submissions yearly.

The TDA also honored this year W.L. Chen, president of Nova Design Co., Ltd., with a Special Achievement Award, recognizing his firm as the most outstanding design company of the year, as well as its active participation in international design activities and Chen's lifelong dedication to the local design industry.

The Nova Design chief's devotion to design is also reflected by his many memberships in high-profile bodies, including the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID, a global non-profit organization that promotes better design worldwide with 150-plus members in more than 50 countries; and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) of the United States; with his being the first Chinese juror for the global-standard-setting iF design award in 2005 also notable. Plus Chen is known as the godfather of the Taiwan design industry.

Nova Design, established in 1988 by the Chinfon Group and headquartered in Taiwan, is the largest of its kind in Greater China, and runs five branches overseas, including ones in Shanghai, Xiamen, Sondrio (Italy), and San Jose (USA). The leading design house specializes in optimal design consultancy that considers, melds Eastern and Western perspectives, which is achieved via strategic partnerships, tapping business experience in Asia, manufacturing know-how, and globally integrated design networks.

Taiwan Design Award Winners

Category: Product Design

Award: Gold

Product: Waving Cooling Pad

Designer: Duck Image Co., Ltd.

Made of the most advanced PU-molding technique to combine special heat-conductive PU with high-ventilation mesh, the Waving Cooling Pad features efficient heat sinks without the need for extra power or cooling fan. This cooling pad is also low-noise, biodegradable, easily rolled for storage, ultra-light at only 247g, and doubles as a shock-absorber placed in the notebook PC bag.

Category: Product Design

Award: Gold

Product: 180-degree Reversible Pen YP-M-01

Designer: Yeduo Design Co. Ltd.

Featuring the exclusive inverse-cartridge design, the 180-degree Reversible Pen YP-M-01 is amusing for its ink cartridge automatically slides down ready for writing upon being turned upside down; while its simplified styling and high-tech feel achieved with adopting fine metal and special surface-finishing enables the pen to be an attractive art object on a desk.

Category: Packaging Design

Award: Gold

Product: Tian Yuan Hsiang, traditionally-brewed vinegar

Designer: Leaf.Design Co., Ltd.

The paper-bag packaging tries to evoke the natural fermentation process via using traditional Chinese ink painting, as well as a mountain, river scene to convey a natural manufacturing process of handmade with traditional fermentation. The winning packaging design successfully achieves a contemporary feel but preserves the traditional feel of making vinegar the old fashioned way.

The designer purposefully adopts thicker cardboard to give the packaging extra substance, enabling the easy removal of the vinegar without fussing with opening a paper box.

Category: Packaging Design

Award: Gold

Product: TEA KINGDOM Taiwan Tea

Designer: Hua Cheng Advertising Co., Ltd.

The design utilizes smooth-flowing, simple Chinese calligraphy, a tea-leaf symbol, and colorful ink wash to achieve integrated packaging elements for various packaging solutions. Achieving versatility, this packaging design solution works for various outer packaging materials or forms, as well as effectively conveying dedicated tea-drinking culture in Taiwan.

Category: Visual Communication Design

Award: Gold

Product: Saville Row Tweed、Saville Row Pinstripe

Designer: Stony Image

Besides adopting the well-known names of Saville Row fabrics, the designer used the characteristics of various materials as pottery, ceramic, fabric, crystal, glass, bronze etc. to create a series of paper that caters to users who care about luxury but understated lifestyle.

Category: Visual Communication Design

Award: Gold

Product: Jing-do House Restaurant Brochure

Designer: UP Creative Design & Advertising Corporation

Attempting to achieve the natural feel of wood and nostalgia, the designer uses dark craft-paper combined with wooden strips for the restaurant brochure cover. Laser sculpted calligraphic name of the restaurant helps to further enhance the earthy tone. The inside of the brochure features calligraphy on folding scroll to tell the restaurant's history via a traditional technique.

Category: Interior Design

Award: Gold

Product: Ching Jia Sales Office

Designer: AURA Architects & Associates

The Ching Jia Sales Office, a temporary structure for a to-be-built landmark, is most obvious for its glass brick on water design, which effectively achieves "otherworldliness."

The sales office features ample glass bricks to create curvilinear walls that wind from the outside to the interior, with the reflection defining and interpreting the voids and solids of the building as well as inter-spatial relations. The glass bricks used achieve contrasting day-to-night views, allowing light in during the day and becoming a light source at night. The designer uses solid recyclable materials such as charcoal to define boundaries.

An interesting feature is the creation of the lit, curved glass-brick wall that defines, separates light between the outside and inside, which seems to tell two stories happening in the same space.

Category: Interior Design

Award: Gold

Product: NIKE Airmax 360 Exhibition

Designer: Mark Lintott Design (MLD), Mark Lintott

MLD was invited to develop a promotional space for launching the new "Airmax 360" Nike shoe.

The promotional slogan for the new shoe is "run on air," with the transparency and lightness of the shoe structure being the main promotional theme. With this in mind, MLD designed a space that was defined by transparency and line-work rather than hard surfaces or walls in the conventional sense.

The boundaries of the space are defined by lightweight transparent fabrics stitched together to form a "room." Behind these "walls" on the two long sides of the space are hung clear acrylic display cases showing previous "Airmax" shoes.

The center of the exhibition space has six transparent acrylic balls which are suspended only by fiber-optic cables, which display the new "Airmax 360." All other graphics such as the Nike logo are stitched into the fabric walls and thereby maintains the transparency and lightness of the product itself.

Category: Eco Design

Award: Special Theme Award

Product: Ching Jia Hospitality Center

Designer: AURA Architects & Associates

(Also the winner of the Gold Award for Interior Design above)

Award: Special Achievement Award

Name: W.L. Chen, president of Nova Design Co., Ltd.

A veteran designer with international reputation, Chen specializes in transportation vehicle design and design management, having accumulated over 20 years of field experience and know-how.

Tapping his background and expertise, Chen set up Nova Design in 1988 and has cultivated the firm to rapidly grow into the largest of its kind in Greater China, as well as having groomed numerous talented designers in Taiwan.