DESIGN NEXTGEN AWARDS EXALTS LOCAL YOUNG TALENTS AT HKDA 2016

Hong Kong Designers Association (HKDA) today announces the winners of HKDA Design NextGen Awards 2016 . Seven students have come to the fore from over a hundred entrants. HKDA acknowledges their outst anding works by presenting Gold, Silver, Bronze awards alongside three Excellence awards and a special award called Full-Brain Innovator.

Brand new awards to nurture local design students

HKDA Design NextGen Awards (also known as DNA) is a brand new award as a celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of HKDA Global Design Awards ( HKDA GDA). It is the student edition of the acclaimed HKDA Global Design Awards, which offers l ocal design students an opportunity to test their strength and creativity. In the meantime, H KDA inaugurates the Best Design Educator Awards to recognise the design tutors who are influenti al to the awardees. Therefore, the Design NextGen Awards not only exalts the emerging brilliant designers, it also underlines the significance of design education.

The Gold Award goes to Lai Yiu Sing. He designed and d eveloped a thematic font type called Temple-Type at the age of nineteen only. The font epitomises Chin ese culture, religion and aesthetics. ‘The success of Sing ’ s Temple-Type also lies in his insight to discover the sim ilarities between Chinese architecture and font structure,’ the judges added. The Silver Award goes to Charles Lai with his branding project Exploring Tai O . It offers a set of software that traces the simplicity and beauty of this fish village in an attempt to excite the locals and the tourists. The Bronze Award goes to Gary Hon. His entry Motional In-Architecture is an experimental urban planning concept in the hope of motivating human-human and human-space interaction.

HKDA Design NextGen Awards 2016 also presents a special award called Full-Brain Innovator (FBI) to Gap Chung. The award comes with a cash prize sponsored by Tung Fat Ho Building Material Ltd. to encourage the young generation to e xecute design for social and business innovation. Gap’s entry Unplanned Green Block attempts to draw the public ’ s attention to the unremarkable wild plants for their potential to beaut ify the urban landscape.

Tony Lau, Sub-Committee Chairman of HKDA Global Desig n Awards 2016, compliments the winners, ‘I am delighted that the Design NextGen Awar ds have received an overwhelming response as a new award. The panel of judges were all impressed by the quality entries from the proficient young designers. We are also pleased to see t hat the next generation is trying to add value and vitality to tradition. It shows that cultura l root and history are essential to designers.’

The Next Design Exhibition is unveiled

On the other hand, HKDA Design NextGen Awards 2016 also unveils The Next Design Exhibition where the aforesaid works are featured. This exhibition displays twenty finalists’ entries spanning Digital, Graphics, Products (including Fashion), and Spati al & Environmental designs. Famous architect Emilio Ambasz once said, whenever he was asked to pick his best work, he would answer ‘the next one’. Hence, HKDA named the fruit of the Design NextGen Awards The Next Design Exhibition. It alludes to the incessant design process of refining that gives rise to the best of the best design. ‘These interactive exhibits are living examples to show that the best designs have undergone rounds of trials and improvements. They also embody the DNA in the younger generations who always go beyond to design what is forthcoming and future-relevant,’ Tony Lau added. This exhibition is open to public for free at K11 Art Mall now.

Complete Winners List of HKDA Design NextGen Awards 2016

Gold Award – Temple-Type , Lai Yiu Sing Best Design Educator – Keith Tam, Associate Professor, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading