Golden Pin Design Award exhibition to open in Taipei

Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) More than 100 designs that either made it to the finals or received a Golden Pin Design Award Mark will be showcased at an exhibition in Taipei starting Thursday.

Among the works to be displayed are a set of magnetic East Asian name chops that enable the owner to swap the heads of the seals to different names or fonts of the same name.

The "Kuan Personal Seal" allows people to carry multiple seals by having one chop and multiple different seal heads engraved with various styles of name, Mark Stocker, creative director of Kuanism Limited, told CNA.

"My idea is to have one seal, where you can interchange the lower design, so one is for your bank, one is for any contracts and you might have a personal seal as well," he said.

Kuan Personal Seal

Also on display are "Rice Husk Beach Toys," a set of environmentally friendly children's sand toys, containing a sand bucket, spade and trowels made out of recycled rice husks.

Han Shih-kuo (韓世國), a representative from DOT design, which produces the beach toys, said that even if the product is left outdoors it is biodegradable and non-toxic.

Rice Husk Beach Toys

The exhibition will run until April 19 2020 at the Taiwan Design Museum, Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.

Taiwan's Golden Pin Design Award was introduced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) in 1981, to recognize innovative designs in the Chinese-speaking world and is organized by the Taiwan Design Center.

This year, almost 8,000 designs were submitted, but only around 139 will be showcased at the exhibition, in an intimate setting with the products close to one another, said Yang Chih-ching (楊志清), IDB deputy director.

Meanwhile, the Golden Pin Concept Design Award will honor 71 designs, with 64 best design awards and seven best concept design awards, at a ceremony to be held at Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative Park on Dec. 5, said Taiwan Design Center Chairman Chang Chi-yi (張基義).