▲ The 2023 Golden Pin Design Award has announced the list of jurors. From left to right in the top row are Winy Maas (the Netherlands), Chen Yan (China), Kazushige Miyake (Japan), and Andy Liu (China); from left to right in the middle row are Johnason Lo (Taiwan), Võ Trọng Nghĩa (Vietnam), Sarah M. Whiting (U.S.), Audrone Drungilaite (Lithuania); from left to right in the bottom row are Yu-Fen Lo (Taiwan), Jui-I Huang and Hjalti Karlsson (Iceland).

The 2023 Golden Pin Design Award has announced the list of jurors today! The jury is made up of 97 experts from around the world with diverse backgrounds in design, architecture, media, advertising, and fundraising and venture capital, and includes the likes of Vietnamese architectural master Võ Trọng Nghĩa, Japanese product designer Kazushige Miyake and Co-founder of Dutch architecture firm MVRDV Winy Maas. This outstanding jury lineup will come together to explore this year’s innovative design submissions. The early bird registration discount for the Golden Pin Design Award has been extended to Monday, June 19th, with registration closing on Tuesday, July 5th. The 2023 Golden Pin Concept Design Award will be open for submissions until Thursday, June 29th. We welcome outstanding designers from around the world to seize this opportunity to step onto the international stage!

Since opening its global call for entries in 2014, the Golden Pin Design Award has invited experts from around the world in the field of design and creativity to serve as jurors, injecting an international perspective into the evaluation process. This year, the Golden Pin Design Award and Golden Pin Concept Design Award have gathered a panel of jurors from 19 different countries and regions, including Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Thailand, India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Iceland, Canada, Vietnam, Norway, Turkey, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. This represents the largest and most diverse group of jurors in the history of the awards, covering the initial, secondary, and final stages of the judging process.

This year, Vietnamese architectural master Võ Trọng Nghĩa will judge the final selection of both awards. Võ, who established VÕ TRONG NGHIA ARCHITECTS (VTN ARCHITECTS) in 2006, is famous for his practice of natural building techniques and innovative bamboo architectural design that can be seen in such works as the Vietnam Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo, where Võ used bamboo to conceptualize a space that evoked the form of Vietnam's national flower, the lotus, in an achievement that drew international praise. He also leads his architects to realize the philosophy of co-existing harmoniously with nature by incorporating traditional crafts and cultures into the design of private residences, community activity centers, dining spaces, schools, etc. Võ has been awarded numerous international prizes, and was honored as a Prince Claus Laureate in 2016 in the Netherlands in recognition of his exceptional contributions to Vietnam. CNN has referred to Võ as “the architect transforming Vietnam’s city skylines.”

Acclaimed Japanese product designer Kazushige Miyake will judge the final selection of this year's two awards. He established Miyake Design in 2005 and has designed for both Japanese and international brands. Miyake’s designs include Muji circulating fans, Plusminuszero air purifiers, and Yamaha headphones, all of which have become best-selling products. He has also served for many years as a juror for the Good Design Awards in Japan and Singapore as well as for the iF Design Award. It is anticipated that he will contribute his wealth of experience to provide professional insights for the Golden Pin Design Award.

Well-known Taiwanese multi-disciplinary creative professional Johnason Lo will serve once again as a juror in the final selection of this year’s Golden Pin Design Award. Ever since he established Taiwan’s very first company specializing in dynamic motion graphics design, JL Design, in 2005, Lo has been exploring the possibilities of visual design for leading brands such as HBO, Disney, and Netflix with his forward-thinking design philosophy. He has also taken charge of visual production for the well-known music and film awards in the Chinese-speaking world, "Golden Melody Awards" and "Golden Horse Awards" ceremonies and in the process rewritten the visual aesthetics of large-scale ceremonies in Taiwan. In addition to having extensive experience in international collaborations, Lo has been invited multiple times to serve as a juror for prestigious international design awards such as the PromaxBDA Awards and the Red Dot Design Award. His participation is expected to provide the Gold Pin Design Award with in-depth insights and an international perspective.

In the second selection of both awards, we have invited renowned Dutch architect and urban landscape planner Winy Maas to judge in the spatial design category. Maas is famous for his experimental and sustainable design philosophy, and has led the multi-disciplinary MVRDV team to create well-known buildings and urban spaces such as Crystal Houses in Amsterdam, the Tianjin Binhai Library, and The Spring Hele Plaza in Tainan. Keita Suzuki, Creative Director of the Product Design Center, will serve as a juror in the product design category. Suzuki’s designs, which combine aesthetics with functionality, have won widespread recognition in the industry. His works span a wide range of categories, from everyday objects to furniture to public facilities, showcasing his versatility. Suzuki has designed multiple train exteriors, interiors, and seats for passengers who are waiting for their train for Sagami Railway, along with products for companies such as Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten and DYK, a kitchen tool brand under Takagi.

The panel of jurors for the second selection also includes experts such as Iceland’s Hjalti Karlsson, the co-founder and creative director of top New York-based visual design studio Karlssonwilker, Vip Buraphadeja, Editor-in-Chief of iconic Thai trend media happening, Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Ken Nah, Professor of Design Management at Hongik University International Design School in South Korea, Joe Fang, Creative Director of JoeFang Studio, Yu-Fen Lo, Creative Director of Pinyen Creative, Chen Yan, General Manager of the User Research and Experience Design Department at Tencent, Andy Liu, Founder of Oracle Creative Design, and Yen Junting, CEO and Co-founder of Pinkoi. This impressive line-up spans the breadth of academia and industry.

The jury panel for the Golden Pin Concept Award is also impressive. For the first selection, we have invited Japanese design procurement expert Yu Yamada, who served as a buyer for the well-known curated shop IDEE SHOP in Minami-Aoyama for several years. Since establishing the studio Method Inc., he has been active in a range of fields such as store planning and industry revitalization in both Japan and Taiwan, and is known for his flexible approach to project planning and execution. His works include innovative museum shop SOUVENIR FROM TOKYO at Tokyo’s National Art Center, the idiosyncratic souvenir shop Tokyo's Tokyo, and the Design Pin at the Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, among others. We are looking forward to seeing him apply his creative perspective to the discovery of innovative works. The jurors for the first selection this year will also include several highly acclaimed emerging designers, such as Bohan Shih, who won the Best Design Award in 2017 for his work Cream Mincho.

Renowned producer Isaac Chen, who has worked on major ceremonies such as the Golden Melody Awards, Golden Horse Awards, and Golden Pin Design Award; crowdfunding platform Zeczec co-founder Quake Hsu; Jui-I Huang, co-founder of the creative visual studio Mist Room Art; DHHS design director Gina Hsu; well-known design pundit and curator Wu Dung Lung; and Executive Director of the Vilnius Academy of Arts Design Innovation Centre Audrone Drungilaite are also among the members of the jury panel. Through their diverse perspectives on design, culture, and market trends, they will collectively select this year’s works with the greatest potential.

2023 Final Call for Entries!

The awards for this year are now open for submissions. The Golden Pin Design Award is calling entries for commercially available products or completed and operational spatial/integrated design works. Applicants can be either the business owners or design teams. The registration deadline is July 5th at 17:00 Taipei time (GMT+8), with an early bird extension until June 19th at 23:59 Taipei time. Registering and completing the payment within the specified period will enjoy discounted registration fees.

The Golden Pin Concept Design Award is also accepting submissions until June 29th at 17:00 Taipei time, and there is no registration fee. The top three winners of the Best Design Award will receive a substantial cash prize of NT$400,000. Don't miss this opportunity and make sure to submit your entries on time!

For the complete list of jurors: https://www.goldenpin.org.tw/en/jury