On Sunday, May 15, 2016, design students all over Taiwan gathered at the Taipei World Trade Center for the 2016 Young Pin Design Award Ceremony. The highlight of the ceremony was the announcement of seven Young Pin Best Design Award winners. Government officials including Jong-Chin Shen, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Chun-Chang Chu, Deputy Director General of Department of the Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, and Dr. Ming-Ji Wu, Director General of Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs were in attendance to show their support for these young innovators.
The Young Pin Design Award is the official award of Taiwan’s Young Designers’ Exhibition (YODEX), which is the largest exhibition of college graduate design work in the world. Students, tertiary institutions, and businesses alike view the award as a career launching platform for young designers, and earning this award signifies an importance unlike any other in the field of emerging design in Taiwan. In 2016, the award attracted 4,462 entries–a substantial increase across all seven award categories from 2015–and 759 finalists were in the run to take home Young Pin Best Design and Design Awards.
Each year, the award, under the arrangement of the Taiwan Design Center, announces the recipients of seven Young Pin Best Design Awards and 35 Young Pin Design Awards. The Good Design Association, Taiwan also oversees the gifting of 76 Young Pin Sponsor Awards. The cash prizes on offer total more than NT$2 million.
The Young Pin Design Award is known for its complex judging system that strives to be highly professional, thorough, and fair. Each year, seven leading Taiwanese design industry leaders are appointed to head a team of jurors for each of the seven award categories. In 2016, the head judges were Jung-Ya Hsieh, President of Gixia Group (Product Design), Jun-Liang Chen, General Manager of Freeimage Design (Craft Design), Joe Fang, Design Director of Joefang Studio (Packaging Design), Zhong-Han Tang, Design Apartment Design Director, Apu Jan, Brand Design Director of APUJAN (Fashion Design), Qingyang Xiao, Art Director of Qingyang Xiao Studio (Visual Communication Design), and Keng Liu, President and Creative Director of Bito Creative Studio (Digital Multimedia Design).
In 2015, the Young Pin Design Award, formerly known as Young Designers’ Award, was brought into the Golden Pin design award group (http://www.goldenpin.org.tw/). Today, it sits alongside leading international Golden Pin Design Award and Golden Pin Concept Design Award. Jointly hosted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Education, the Young Pin Design Award gives young designers a platform to showcase their design prowess and works, while encouraging each new generation of designers to strive for their dream. This award is a clear demonstration of the government’s support for design education and design students.