【Announcement】 Winners of 2018 Taiwan International Student Design Competition

Grand Prix: Download Winners List 

Product Design: Download Winners List 

Visual Design: Download Winners List 

Digital Animation: Download Winners List 

Service Design: Download Winners List 

As the world’s largest-scale international student design contest, 2018 Taiwan International Student Design Competition has now released its winners list. This year, there are in total 20,833 participating entries, which come from 66 countries/regions and 895 design schools worldwide. There were 15 jurors in the preliminary selection in Singapore, 25 jurors in the preliminary selection in Taiwan and 32 jurors in the final selection, all of whom constituted a large jury panel with members from 26 different countries/regions. After lively discussion among these design experts, 73 winning entries were picked from the 618 finalists. With regard to the grand prix, it has been won by “A Gong” of the digital animation category and the designers of which are Yen-Chen Liu, Ellis Kayin Chan, Zozo Jhen, Tena Galovic and Marine Varguy, coming from Gobelins, l’École de l’image, France. The setting of this work is the traditional culture of Taiwanese funerals, and the animation depicts the transitions of feelings in the mind of a seven-year-old boy faced with the decease of a close family member. The atmosphere established in the animation is touching, and the storytelling resonates with most watchers. The imagery and artistic style are delicate, and the emotions are subtle and moving. “A Gong,” therefore, has received the acclaim of the majority of the jurors and won the grand prix of the year with the reward of NT$ 400,000.

Organized and promoted by the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education, executed by Asia University, and sponsored by iSee Taiwan Foundation and Sayling Wen Cultural & Educational Foundation, Taiwan International Student Design Competition has marked its eleventh anniversary this year. The theme for this year is “Breakthrough and Innovation,” and the four competition categories are “product design,” “visual design,” “digital animation” and “service design.” The 73 winning entries include 1 grand prix; 1 gold prize, 1 silver prize and 3 bronze prizes for the three categories of “product design,” “visual design” and “digital animation, respectively;” 23 honorable mention prizes for these three categories altogether. The prizes mentioned above are provided by the Ministry of Education. The 73 winning entries also include 20 international design association special prizes, sponsored by iSee Taiwan Foundation; 1 gold prize, 2 silver prizes, 3 bronze prizes and 8 honorable mention prizes in the category of “service design,” also sponsored by iSee Taiwan Foundation. “Service design” is a new category this year, and the aim is to realize diverse, innovative and creative thinking in the Competition with a different form of design.

This year, the gold prizes of the four categories have all been won by Taiwanese students. The gold prize winner of the product design category, Jie-Yu Gu, comes from Shih Chien University, and her entry is titled “Safe Cloak,” which addresses the issue of the global refugee crisis. With her concern about basic human rights as the starting point, the designer’s thorough consideration for human needs can be seen in her design details. This is not just a nice-looking product or a set of equipment with good functions—it aims to put forward a solution to improve the lives of many, which is worth applause indeed. The gold prize winner of the visual design category, Xiang-Xin Wan, comes from National Taiwan University of Arts, with her entry titled “Under 1.0.” This work combines endangered animals from all over the world with eye charts, and the designer uses different illustration techniques to present the diverse styles of numerous countries and species. The concept of this work is simple, yet the techniques involved are highly skillful. This work adopts a new perspective and focus to look at the crisis of endangered and extinct animals, reminding human beings to treat the natural environment well. The gold prize winners of the digital animation category are Jia-Yu Guo, Nien-Chen Wu, Ling Po, Tzu-Yi Liao and Ki-Lung Lee from Chaoyang University of Technology. The theme of their entry, titled “A Mess,” is bullying. In this animation, hairstyle represents the mood and appearance of a person, and the story symbolizes the discrimination and unfair treatment in our society on account of one’s appearance. This work explores multiple social issues, and the technique and style of its storytelling are very innovative and highly appreciated by the jury panel. The gold prize winners of the service design category, Chien-Chih Hsu, Hou-Jun Chen and Hsuan-Tzu Shen, come from National Cheng Kung University, and their entry is titled “Game Creatures.” This is a service system for teachers to teach students how to design games, and it allows instructors and teachers to learn about design thinking and creativity through teaching game design. Hence, the acclaim of the gold prize of the service design category awarded to it.

The winners list has been released onto the official website of the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education (https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ed2200/) and the official website of 2018 Taiwan International Student Design Competition (www.tisdc.org). It is planned that on November 30, the award ceremony and the exhibition of the winning entries will take place in eslite Performance Hall inside Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (No.88, Yanchang Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City 110, Taiwan (R.O.C.)). In order to enhance the visibility of these works and provide the public with more opportunities to appreciate the works, the exhibition of the winning entries will also be held in National Library of Public Information (No.100, Wuquan S. Rd., South Dist., Taichung City 402, Taiwan (R.O.C.)) in December 3 to December 17.

Grand Prix: A Gong