The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced on May 29, 2015, that Taiwan Design Expo, co-organized by both central and municipal governments, will be held at Chung Hsing Cultural and Creative Park in Yilan from October 17 to November 1, 2015, making a return to Yilan after 12 years. Minister Deng Chen-Chung of MOEA and Yilan County Magistrate Lin Tsung-Hsien jointly attended the signing ceremony on May 29, and announced that this year’s theme is “Makers Boom!” The event is projected to attract over 100 thousand visitors, and give rise to yet another wave of design trends in Taiwan.
The theme of this year’s Taiwan Design Expo is “Makers Boom!” which strives to emphasize how design concepts need to be constantly tested, and overcome various real challenges in order to be transformed and made into actual daily objects, becoming “real” designs that impact our daily life.
Yilan is well known for its traditional crafts such as carpentry, papermaking, as well as weaving and dyeing. With determination, persistence, and devotion, artisans continuously experiment with and perfect their skills in pursuit of excellence. This year’s Taiwan Design Expo will facilitate the cooperation between local Yilan artisans and designers to create more daily objects, generating more business opportunities for perceptual consumption as well as greater values for Yilan’s local industries.
Taiwan Design Expo 2015 invites over ten design teams to use wood, paper, and fabric as the three main elements to combine with Yilan’s three local industries—furniture, stationery, and toys—for creative design products, so that design can incorporate local features, culture, and industries to produce new signature works for Yilan. The design of the space in the “Annual Theme Pavilion” will incorporate the best known images of Yilan and move the landscapes of the spacious Yilan Plain into the exhibition venue, creating a magnificent stage to showcase the marvelous works of the designers; this symbolizes that this land that nurtures us is the inspiration of our designs. Also, another highlight of the exhibition is the “Local Beauty Pavilion,” which will display Yilan’s proud traditional theatrice culture and dyeing techniques. By using innovative methods, visitors will experience close encounters with and knowledge of the beauty of Taiwanese traditional theater through physical displays and interactive experience.
The Design Expo also specifically produces Yilan Design Map for visitors to explore Yilan in depth; the map includes hostels with unique interior designs, local unique architectures and public artworks, and tourism factories and workshops that provide hands-on experiences. The Design Expo also collaborates with Yilan Literary Museum, Taiwan Theater Museum, Lanyang Museum, and Yilan Museum of Art, so that visitors can explore Yilan’s cultural and creative beauty, and admire Yilan’s wonderful landscapes.
Since 2003, Taiwan Design Expo has joined forces with municipal governments each year to exhibit the unique local features. The Design Expo has been held in Taipei, Yilan, Kaohsiung, Tainan, and Taichung; over the past twelve years, the Design Expo has accumulated over 4.25 million visitors, becoming one of the most important annual design exhibitions in Taiwan.
The core value of Taiwan Design Expo is to cultivate people’s design aesthetics, and to maximize the benefit by utilizing resources of central and municipal governments. Together, Taiwan Design Expo and municipal governments jointly build the stage that benefits the design industry, the general public, and the government. We hope that, through this stage, Taiwan’s design industry will continue to grow and thrive!