2021 Golden Pin Design Award
This year’s Golden Pin Design Award saw 115 entries from all participating categories nominated for Best Design. In the end, only 31 designs were selected, including eight in the Product Design category, nine in Communication Design, nine in Spatial Design, and five in Integration Design. Finally, two designs were selected to receive the Special Annual Award, which recognizes outstanding projects in the fields of social design and circular design.
A number of well-known manufacturers submitted entries in this year’s Product Design category, including ASUS, BenQ, HP and Casio. The entry from Roland Corporation was named winner, due in part to their timely and innovative designs in response to current trends. Winning designs in the Communication Design category included works such as the COVID-19 prevention info website PANDAID, created by Japanese designer Eisuke Tachikawa and his design firm NOSIGNER, and Hebe Tien’s music video for One, after Another, shot by Grass Jelly Studio. Another winner in this category, Hong Kong design studio Toby Ng Design, has now received the Best Design trophies three years in a row. The studio struck gold again this year with its winning design Uth KLUB, a brand identity made for Hong Kong’s K11 Art Mall membership program.
The winning designs in the Spatial Design category were varied, with many Taiwanese designs working towards the rejuvenation of old spaces, such as J.C. Architecture’s Not Just Library, Forest Wood Archi-Tect’s Maker Space – Popup Taipei, and ChingChing Interior LAB’s barbershop Agreeable Keep No.47, which was converted from the chassis of an MC8 bus. The winning designs from abroad were also impressive, including works such as Thai architectural design firm Creative Crews’ farm homestay project Ahsa Farmstay and Singaporean firm Formwerkz Architects’ unique courtyard house design Cloister House. The winners of the Integration Design category were all from Taiwan, and produced works that spanned exhibition planning, school environment improvements, and firefighting equipment redesign. The designs all showcased their ability to integrate concepts from differing fields.
This year’s Special Annual Award for Social Design went to S.SELECT LAB and ZUO STUDIO’s Public Health Center Re-Design project. Their optimization and redesign of New Taipei City’s Xizhi District and Yingge District public health centres received praise from the panel of judges, with final selection judge Johnason Lo, founder of JL DESIGN, highlighting the manner in which the overall design focused not only on usability, but also considered the long-term management and how their design could provide a model for the Taiwanese public health sector. In addition, the Special Annual Award for Circular Design went to Zen Zhou Social Enterprise Co., Ltd.’s Zen Zhou Biodegradable Treepot. British industrial designer and final selection judge Tom Dixon praised its eco-friendly and low-tech design for providing a simple and effective solution for plants growing in harsh conditions.