The Golden Pin Design Award has some interesting stuff to show but stretches the point of design in asking for connections to Chinese culture.
The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/04
By: Morley James Weston
It’s easy to lament Taiwan’s woes in design and marketing; the country has a dearth of internationally
Credit: Golden Pin
recognized brands and uses the same skyscraper on every promotional brochure, but the government is working to pull the country out of this slump with a well-funded award promising access to the Sinosphere’s growing middle class.
The Golden Pin Design Award is hosting a ceremony on Dec. 7 in tandem with an exhibition at Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park’s Taiwan Design Museum that will run through Feb. 25.
The main selling point of this exhibition is variety; visitors can nod thoughtfully at designs for fonts and entire movie theaters in the same context. A cassette player offering a “fresh user experience” is displayed alongside a three-wheeled motorcycle, a menstrual cup and an external hard drive.
Variety aside, the competition’s defining feature is that it is intended for the Chinese-speaking, or huaren, world, and is sold as offering “entrants an unprecedented opportunity to prove their prowess in the world’s largest market.” One can’t help but think that the world’s largest market is in fact global, but there you are. [FULL STORY]
