Designers in Taiwan Win Top-3 Open Group Awards at 2009 TIDC

Student designers in Taiwan also

The Taiwan Design Center (TDC), a national design center on the island, recently announced the winners of the 2009 Taiwan International Design Competition (TIDC), which once again showed Taiwanese designers' prowess by winning the top-three-gold, silver, bronze awards-in the "Open Group," with the student designers also scoring the highest honors in the product and visual communication design categories in the "Student Group."

Clearly a global event, the TDC, the administrator of the 2009 TIDC, co-organized by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and the Ministry of Education, says the design contest attracted more than 6,000 submits from 30 countries. A jury of seven renowned judges evaluated the submits, with the award-winning products being displayed at a creative-theme park in Taichung, central Taiwan for about two weeks for free viewing.

Restore as Theme

With the theme "Restore" that implies anticipation of restoration of prosperity, likely in the throes of the rebounding downturn, the TDC says the theme also underlines the 2009 event's goal to improve life quality through better design.

Besides drawing global participation, the TDC says that the 2009 TIDC has been certified by both The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), a global non-profit organization promoting better design worldwide with over 150 members in more than 50 countries, and Icograda (The International Council of Graphic Design Associations), the world body for professional communication design. Having such official approvals from these two world-leading organizations give the event more clout as a significant concept design contest, in addition to its peers as the iF, reddot, and International Design Compeition Osaka.

Award-Winning Products

Open Group

Award: Gold Award

Title: Restore Health

Country: Taiwan

Designer: C.P. Lai & M.H. Yeh

"Restore Health" is an amusing and novel solution to a rampant problem afflicting office workers today-lack of regular exercise. Sitting for extended periods causes muscular tension that result in fatigue. This ingenious device, also a practical exerciser, asks office workers every 50 minutes to walk out to relieve fatigue by pulling and regenerating the battery inside the Restore Health, which then powers the table lamp another 50 minutes. Killing two birds with one stone has never made more healthful sense.

Award: Silver Award

Title: Guide

Country: Taiwan

Designers: S.H. Chang & W.C. Hsiao

The Guide may be a radical approach to energy-conservation. Integrating an extension cord with a rechargeable radio, the Guide diverts the miniscule power used while the radio is turned off to its battery, minimizing energy waste. So even during blackouts, the radio can reliably keep users connected to essential information.

Award: Bronze Award

Title: Time Switch

Country: Taiwan

Designer: C.H. Tu

Another novel solution to eco-friendly energy-conservation, the "Time Switch" uses a clock spring to enable users to control the duration of POWER ON, for example a light. Pull the ring-pull to turn on a light, the longer the pull the longer the light stays on. This may be the start of higher energy savings.

Also allowing a tri-mode operation, the "Time Switch" can be pushed ON and OFF as a typical switch. Secondly push the switch ON and then pull the string to set duration of POWER ON. Push the switch again to return the string to its original position, also to POWER OFF. Finally pull the string to POWER ON and set duration as needed.

Student Group

Award: Gold Award

Category: Product Design

Title: Pebble Eraser

Country: Taiwan

Designer: C.H. Tu

Not exactly one to change history but fully reflecting the mindset of students, the Pebble Eraser integrates seemingly minor but useful corners to effectively enable erasing tough-to-access spots. Available in various colors and shapes as selling point, the Pebble Eraser is gradually rounded with use, imitating the erosion of stones as they tumble downstream.

Award: Silver Award

Category: Product Design

Title: Light-emitting Door

Country: Taiwan

Designer: C.R. Hsu

Another version of the EMERGENCY EXIT sign often installed above fire doors, the Light-emitting Door adopts LEDs around the edge of fire-escape doors to visibly show the way out. The designers believe that quickly building smoke often mask conventional emergency signs above fire doors, a weakness overcome by the LEDs used for the Light-emitting Door. Another notable feature is the bottom-mounted door handle, which allow trapped victims, who should be crawling on hands and knees in a fire, to open the door safely.

Award: Bronze Award

Category: Product Design

Title: Nest

Country: Taiwan

Designer: C.T. Fan & P.J. Wang

Just what busy offices need in this world of recovering economy-the Nest is a warm-and-fuzzy approach to improved desktop organization. This magnet-integrated egg conveniently keeps pesky paperclips together for easy use.

Award: Gold Award

Category: Visual Communication Design

Title: Reborn

Country: Taiwan

Designer: Y.J. Lai & J.H. Yang

Adding graphic voice to the often muffled whispers of many religious groups and charities, Reborn tries to address a social problem generally relegated to the backburner-apathy, anger and indifference that inundate us.

Award: Silver Award

Category: Visual Communication Design

Title: Human Footprints

Country: Germany

Designer: Carla Isabel Stockheim

Likely reacting to the rife terrorism, economic catastrophe due to greed, and mega-scale natural disasters in 2009, the designer speaks out graphically to take people back to normality, which starts with small steps.

Award: Bronze Award

Category: Visual Communication Design

Title: Green Dream

Country: Taiwan

Designer: H.H. Huang

An inspiring triptych, the Green Dream reminds that each of us is a global citizen obliged to empower the capacity within to restore to sylvan health Mother Earth. The message is that plant life, driven by photosynthesis, has to be continued as the essential path for human survival, and that each person can sow the seed of hope to plant trees as the ultimate solution to eco-problems on terra firma.

Award: Silver Award (Gold Award absent)

Category: Animation Design

Title: Red Alley

Country: Taiwan

Designer: W.J. Yen

Mainly a romanticized interpretation of veterans' neighborhoods and life in Taiwan that inevitably formed when hundreds of thousands of soldiers and family members retreated from China in 1949 to the island, the Red Alley depicts the charming, colorful and reality-shaped lifestyles that sprang up as the mainlanders intruded into the spaces of the original inhabitants. Also a walk down memory lane, Red Alley may be a warmhearted reminder to those who lived such improvised life, as well as a history lesson for youngsters who fortunately missed the hardship, significant as modernization in Taiwan threatens to transform forever the cultural niches into restored relics and fading recollections.