The Young Designers’ Exhibition (YODEX), world’s largest and oldest joint exhibition of design departments and schools, will take place from May 13 to 16 at Halls 1 and 3 of the Taipei World Trade Center. The opening ceremony will be held on the morning of May 13. Supervised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, organized by the Industrial Development Bureau, and executed by the Taiwan Design Center, YODEX is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2016, and this year’s exhibition will feature over 4,000 works as well as see participation by over 9,000 young designers from 136 departments from 64 domestic institutes, and 13 design institutes from seven foreign countries (the UK, U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and Japan). The works display unique avant-garde individual design styles, demonstrating the logic and creative methods of a new generation of designers in dealing with various issues and problems.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs launched the “Young Designers Academia and Industry Cooperation Graduate Project” in 2014 to enable the creative energy of design students to integrate further with the industry. Eleven companies and institutes, including Campal, Microsoft Taiwan, Merry Yard International Enterprise, SYM, NOVA Design, HAITEC, Carol Electronics, Apex, the MiTAC-SYNNEX Group, Lion Pencil, and the Taiwan Design Center, have been invited to set topics covering 10 areas, such as ICT, medical equipment, stationary, transportation vehicles, etc. A total of 34 teams, with a total of 101 students, have been selected to participate. The academia-industry cooperative project not only provides students an opportunity to be involved in industrial practice ahead of their graduation, it also narrows the gap between the academia and industry, guiding design students in a practical creative direction to further meet the needs of the market and consumers. The Third “Young Designers Academia and Industry Cooperation Graduate Project” for 2016-17 is now open for submissions. The deadline is October 3, and the Ministry encourages more companies to partake in the project, and more design students to jump on the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Another bright spot at this year’s YODEX is the “Animation and Games Design Section” launched in Hall 3 of the Taipei World Trade Center, where visitors interested in animation, game design, and multimedia can enjoy all the wonderful works together. The section covers diverse contents, such as micro movies, interesting games, multimedia works, short films, and animations. Visitors are not only are treated to a visual feast, they can also experience immersive audio and video effects that provide a wide range of sensations.