Golden Pin Design Award Sets Up Shop in Good Design Award’s Tokyo Marunouchi Store! Permanent Display Exhibits and Sells Award-winning Designs
SKB Eco-friendly Pens, PaperShoot Cameras, Mogics Light Debut!
Golden Pin Design Award-winning products are now available for purchase in Tokyo! The Golden Pin Design Award and the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP), which organizes the Good Design Award, joined forces to set up a permanent display inside the latter’s “Good Design Store Tokyo by NOHARA” located in the KITTE Marunouchi Shopping Center next to Tokyo Station. This special area has opened in January 2023 and exhibits and sells past Golden Pin Design Award-winning products.
Six brands from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore were rigorously selected to kick things off, including PaperShoot, Celement Lab, TAGather Goods, Mogics, Yuan Design Studio, and SKB. Their creative designs are set to charm people through Japan’s most iconic exhibition and sales platform!
“Good Design Store” is a select store certified by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion. It specializes in selling products that have won the Good Design Award. It successively opened in Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Japan to promote good designs that enrich life and society. This time, a special area for the Golden Pin Design Award was established. It’s hoped that this collaboration will result in the introduction of outstanding products from overseas that offer different perspectives and further promote cultural exchanges. This is also the first time that the Golden Pin Design Award is promoting award-winning designs abroad through a permanent sales base, excluding past participation in international exhibitions.
The Golden Pin Design Award worked with its Japanese counterpart to select six brands from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore to form part of the first exhibition and sale. There are lifestyle products, functional stationery, stylish bags, and creative lights.
Taiwanese digital camera brand PaperShoot is known for applying unique creativity and exquisite craftsmanship to make camera cases from eco-friendly paper. Products from various series are available to satisfy all styles and preferences, including award winners “Wood Camera Made by Taiwan Cypress,” which is made from quality Taiwan cypress wood and exudes natural phytoncides, and “CROZ DIY Vintage Camera,” a self-assembly kit that allows users to experience the joys of DIY.
Design brand Mogics is a collaboration between teams from Taiwan and Singapore, and its “Mogics Coconut Light” is a new kind of LED light with a foldable design. It’s lightweight, portable, and waterproof, making it useful in a wide range of settings including homes, camping sites, swimming pools at night, and disaster prevention sites.
Taiwanese brand TAGather Goods is an expert at using recycled canvas to make stylish bags and accessories. It makes use of stitch variations and material properties in its “Crystal” bag to create a bag that can be stored flat but easily transforms into a trendy 3D bag that is full of personality.
As for stationery and lifestyle products, there is Yuan Design Studio from Hong Kong, which is known for designing quality office and stationery products. Products in its “TP” pen series innovatively combine a ballpoint pen and scale ruler. The design is functional yet innovative. Taiwanese design brand Celement Lab specializes in using its proprietary celement, a soft concrete material that is a mixture of cement and silicone. “Celement CARDX2” has a unique aesthetic and offers a comforting touch.
The appearance and materials for established Taiwanese stationery brand SKB’s “ES-380 Black-faced Spoonbill Recycled Plastic Fountain Pen” were both inspired by the form of the black-faced spoonbill, an endangered species. The pen is made from recycled plastic materials and packaged in a recycled pulp box. The company aimed to raise public awareness on ecological and environmental sustainability through a normal, everyday item of stationery.
The Golden Pin Design Award selects excellent and innovative designs every year. It also actively promotes award-winning designs through cooperation with domestic and international design organizations, awards, exhibitions, and media partners. In the future, there will be opportunities to assemble more award-winning products and design brands in the Good Design Store Tokyo by NOHARA’s Golden Pin special section to further develop overseas markets. For the latest information, please visit the Golden Pin Award’s official website or follow us on Facebook , Instagram or Twitter .
Store Info.
Good Design Store Tokyo by NOHARA
■ Location: KITTE Marunouchi Shopping Center 3F
(〒100-7003 東京都千代田区丸の内二丁目7番2号KITTE丸の内3階)
■ Open Hours: 11:00-21:00 / 11:00-20:00 (Sundays and National Holidays)
■ Official Website: http://gdst.nohara-inc.co.jp
____________________________________________________
➀ Wood Camera Made by Taiwan Cypress & CROZ DIY Vintage Camera
PAPER SHOOT Technology (Taiwan)
- Introduction:
PaperShoot digital cameras have cases made from eco-friendly paper and a one-button system for switching on and off the camera. Photography enthusiasts around the world are fans of the cameras’ lightweight and compact form and unique shooting experience.
“Wood Camera Made by Taiwan Cypress” (below left) won the Golden Pin Design Award in 2015. This style is made from quality Taiwan cypress wood and exudes faint natural phytoncides. It not only has a minimalist and stylish appearance, but also displays the beauty of traditional craftsmanship.
“CROZ DIY Vintage Camera” pairs a wood case with a brass frame, a combination that has a warm texture and unique vibes. It is a DIY, self-assembly kit that enlivens the usage experience for photography enthusiasts. This camera was submitted as a concept and awarded the Golden Pin Concept Design Award in 2016. It became a huge hit with customers after it was mass-produced and launched. It is now one of PaperShoot’s classic products.
② TP Series
Yuan Design Studio (Hong Kong)
- Introduction:
“TP” is a writing instrument that combines a ballpoint pen and scale ruler. The design of the pen cap allows it to be used for measuring and drawing lines, and the ruler is dual scale. The pen cap can also be used to hold the pen in another way. The pen shaft can be popped out using one hand thanks to a unique magnetic design. The material is aluminum alloy for added portability.
- 2021 Golden Pin Design Award winner
③ Celement CARDX2
Celement Lab (Taiwan)
- Introduction:
Celement Lab creates stationery and home and lifestyle products out of its proprietary celement, an unusually soft concrete material made from a mixture of cement and silicone. The material looks rigid and hard, but actually feels soft to the touch.
“Celement CARDX2” has a flexible open top that makes it easy to access business cards. It can hold approximately 35 business cards of normal thickness. This time, other products made from celement, including handbags, key chains, coasters, and trays, will be exhibited and sold at the same time.
- 2019 Golden Pin Design Award winner
④ Crystal (Re-birth series)
TAGather Goods Co., Ltd. (Taiwan)
- Introduction:
TAGather Goods uses PVC canvas retrieved from events all across Taiwan and transforms it into stylish bags and accessories. The “Crystal” bag in the Re-birth series has a hexagonal shape when flat and can be worn across the chest for a trendy look. It makes use of stitch variations and material properties to help users intuitively transform it from a flat object into a 3D bag in just one second.
- 2020 Golden Pin Design Award winner
⑤ Mogics Coconut Light
Advance Design Limited (Taiwan) & Aplustec LLP (Singapore)
- Introduction:
The development team behind “Mogics Coconut Light” comprises designers from Singapore, Taiwan, the Netherlands, U.S., and Japan. They created a new kind of LED light with an innovative foldable design. The light is easy to use, and the illumination level can be adjusted simply by pressing down on the spheroid. The light is also waterproof, making it suitable for camping, nighttime swimming, and disaster prevention.
- 2019 Golden Pin Design Award winner
⑥ Black-faced Spoonbill Recycled Plastic Fountain Pen
SKB (Taiwan)
- Introduction:
SKB was founded in 1955, making it a long-established stationery brand in Taiwan. Its classic products include fountain pens and the “Secretary” ballpoint pen series, which is representative of the history of stationery in Taiwan. The excellent quality and affordable prices of SKB’s products are highly acclaimed by consumers. Many Taiwanese people have grown up alongside SKB’s products.
- 2020 Golden Pin Design Award winner
�