| Include Asia 2013 Conference | Editor |
KODW 2013 started off with the Include Asia Conference, a 2-day program focused on inclusive design. The biennial conference debuts in Hong Kong since its launch in 2001 in London, partnering The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design (PolyU Design), the Royal College of Art (RCA) and Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) for the first time. This year’s theme ‘Global Challenges and Local Solutions in Inclusive Design’ spurs participants to explore and respond to concerns such as ageing population, climate change and rapid urbanisation for individuals and communities.
Held at Hotel ICON, the program welcomed keynote speaker, Kathryn Firth, Chief of Design at London Legacy Development Corporation. Also speaking at the conference was Paul Thompson of RCA, Keiji Kawahara of International Association for Universal Design, and Dan Formosa of Smart Design, who also held workshops.
As tradition, the Include Conference committee recognises members of the inclusive design field for their contributions to the community. This year’s recipients of the Champion of Inclusive Design were Yasuyuki Hirai (Kyushu University, Japan), Joseph Kwan (UDA Consultants Ltd.), and our very own, Michael Siu Kin Wai (PolyU Design). We would also like to congratulate Susan Barnwell and Jasmien Herssens on winning the Best Paper Awards.
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 15.07.13 | No Comments » |
| PolyU Students’ Design for The Future Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong | Editor |
(From lower left: Mr Manfred Yuen (PolyU Design), Mr Sjoerd Hoekstra (PolyU Design), Mr Jonas Schuermann (Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong), Mr Byron Wong (Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group), Dr Kacey Wong (PolyU Design), and Mr Horace Pan (PolyU Design).
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) joined hands with the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong in organising the “Hotel of the Future” competition in celebration of the hotel’s 50th anniversary.
A total of 39 year-two Environment and Interior Design students from PolyU participated in the seven-week programme from 25 March to 14 May this year, forming teams to design certain areas of the hotel, including “rooms and suites”, “lobby and reception”, “spa”, “food and beverage outlets” and “function rooms” with the theme of the next 50 years. Their designs incorporated the history of Hong Kong, the surrounding area and the design elements of this iconic hotel which ultimately presents “a sense of place” to the guests.
The shortlisted teams presented their designs to the management of Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, the Head of Design of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and the faculty of PolyU School of Design (PolyU Design) on 14 May. Lee Kwok Kwong and Mak Chu Leung were selected as the winning team. With the concept of “Spreadism”, Kwong and Leung elegantly centred on the phenomenon of Chinese ink spreading out in water and on paper. They created a multi-functional zone in the double height area of the hotel with the use of spreading-out ink stones commonly seen in Chinese paintings. The stones are used to form an exhibition area or stage for jazz performances according to the purpose of space, and to allow guests to interact with not only each other but also the space.
“I was truly impressed and delighted to see the enthusiasm of not only the students but also the professors,” said Mr Jonas Schuermann, General Manager of Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong. “What struck me the most was how the students captured the essence of the brand and were able to visually capture what luxury means to today’s affluent travellers.”
“The PolyU Design’s visionary proposals were supported with serious analysis and imagination. The students’ ideas possess ample intelligence with a refreshing sprinkle of innocence,” added Mr Byron Wong, Head of Design of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.
The winning prize is a three-night “Travelling Scholarship” to another iconic hotel in the group, Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, where the team will submit a travelling report. The eight finalist projects will be put on display from 1 July to 4 August at the Clipper Lounge and an award presentation will be held at the PolyU Design Annual Show opening ceremony in August.
Education at PolyU emphasises work-based learning experience and collaboration with the industry to help students better appreciate what they have learnt in class, so as to integrate theory with practice, to enhance all-round development and to make better career plans. The teaching team at PolyU Design who led the student project included Horace Pan, Kacey Wong, Manfred Yuen, Peter Hasdell and Sjoerd Hoekstra.
Learn about the design concept of Spreadism and read more…
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 28.06.13 | No Comments » |
| Pioneering Research in Asian Consumer Products Earns Roger Ball One of PolyU’s First-ever Endowed Professorships | Editor |
With immense pride, the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU Design) – Asia’s best among the world’s top 25 design schools – is thrilled to announce that Professor Roger Ball has been named one of only eight recipients of an endowed professorship in PolyU’s first-ever Endowed Professorship Scheme.
At a special inauguration ceremony held on 29 May at the PolyU campus, Professor Ball was singled out for his outstanding academic and research achievements and officially awarded the Eric C. Yim Professorship in Asian Ergonomics. Mr. Eric Yim, who founded the highly successful design firm POSH Office Systems and serves as its Chairman and CEO, generously underwrote the professorship.
Professor Ball has won international recognition for his trailblazing work at SD’s Asian Ergonomic Lab, founded in 2003 and soon after awarded a multimillion dollar grant for its first major project, SizeChina. An innovative 3D survey of Chinese heads and faces, SizeChina helps designers make consumer products that properly fit Asian body sizes. 90% of all consumer products are based on body shape data from Western people.
Professor Ball’s work has resulted in significant funding awards, consultancy projects with leading corporations, and most recently this prestigious endowment. Professor Ball and his team at the Asian Ergonomic Lab have boosted PolyU’s rising reputation as an influential world-class research institution.
Professor Ball’s primary research is to collect through digital scanning the full range of sizes and shapes of the Chinese population, such as their hands, feet and ears. The data from SizeChina is already poised to be used by diverse faculties within PolyU, including Health and Social Sciences, Engineering, Applied Science and Textiles, and Nursing.
Whether designing new respiratory protection products or paving the way for better-fitting eyewear, shoes and automobiles, Professor Ball has tremendously contributed to both academic and industry interests. The SizeChina Project led to the first-ever digital database of Asian head and face sizes for extensive use by manufacturers and designers.
SizeChina is training the next generation of designers with cutting-edge technologies. PolyU Design as a whole has developed practical workshops, curricula and textbooks, positioning its graduates and partners in Hong Kong and across the globe to create truly revolutionary applications in popular industries such as electronics, fashion, transportation, furniture, and medical devices, to name just a few exciting possibilities.
The School of Design joins everyone at PolyU in extending heartfelt congratulations to Professor Ball and his pioneering team at the Asian Ergonomic Lab. Their fascinating work is inspiring and meaningfully changing our everyday life for the better.
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 30.05.13 | No Comments » |
| INCLUDE ASIA 2013 – FINAL CALL FOR PAPER | Editor |
“Global Challenges and Local Solutions in Inclusive Design”
2-3 July 2013, Hong Kong Design Centre, Hong Kong, China
Organised by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Hong Kong Design Centre and the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, London, is pleased to announce that Include 2013, the seventh international conference on inclusive design, will take place on 2-3 July 2013 in Hong Kong, China.
Include Asia 2013, organised in partnership with the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) and the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, marks a major international departure for the Include series after six successful conferences in London.
Include Asia 2013 will form part of HKDC’s Knowledge of Design Week 2013 and draw in new design researchers and practitioners from south-east Asia to the Include network.
We are inviting paper proposals for Include Asia 2013 on the theme of Global Challenges and Local Solutions in Inclusive Design.
Researchers and practitioners are asked to consider the role of inclusive design within the context of emerging global challenges such as ageing populations, rising healthcare costs and climate change and the need for local tailored solutions for individuals and communities.
In effect we want to explore the paradigm shift from scaling up (the main driver of design over the past 50 years, through mass manufacturing, global branding and so on) to ‘scaling down’ to meet specific human needs.
We welcome paper proposals (abstracts) from researchers, designers, educators and policymakers that address the Include Asia 2013 theme. Authors of accepted paper proposals will be asked to develop their ideas into full (10 page) papers for oral presentation at the conference held in Hong Kong. Venue for the conference will be Hong Kong’s new Jockey Club Innovation Tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
Paper proposals can contribute to inclusive design theory, provide examples of empirical research or use case studies (design stories) to illustrate how, when and why an inclusive design approach can address wider challenges and/or local needs.
Include Asia 2013 will be a forum for the exchange of ideas, academic research projects and models of best practice from the global community of those engaged in inclusive design. Accepted papers will be published online in the Include Asia 2013 proceedings.
Submission Guidelines
Please make a submission by paper proposal (abstract) for a full paper. All proposals for full papers will be reviewed anonymously by two reviewers on the Include International Review Committee.
- The template for submitting abstracts can be downloaded here
- 1000 word abstracts should be submitted now through Kinetix Events
- The deadline for abstract submissions is 15 February 2013
- Selected Authors will be informed of review decisions on 15 March 2013
- Full papers will need to be submitted by 1 May 2013
More details on the Include conferences can be found here.
For abstract and submission queries contact us here
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 05.02.13 | No Comments » |
| Advertising graduates join Hong Kong teams to compete in international awards shows | Editor |
Three teams of young creatives from advertising agencies were recently selected to represent Hong Kong in leading international awards shows (Young Creative Section) this year. Each winning team was formed by two members, among which one worked on art direction, another copywriting. All of the art directors are Advertising graduates of PolyU Design.
They are:
Wong Ming Lun, Alan, Class of 2009 (Art Director, TBWA Hong Kong)
Tse Kin Wai, Donald, Class of 2010, ‘Best of Show’ (Assistant Art Director, Publicis Hong Kong)
Shum Wing Yan, Rita, Class of 2011 (Associate Art Director, JWT Hong Kong)
The teams from TBWA, Publicis and JWT will compete in the Adfest Young Lotus in Thailand in March, Cannes Young Lions in France in June, and Young Spikes in Singapore in September respectively. They went through a strict judging process by the HK4As’ team of professional judges. The achievement has laid a tremendous stepping stone for their future career and international exposure.
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 04.02.13 | No Comments » |
| PolyU Design students earn 5 awards at Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards and Perspective Awards | Editor |
With the impressive design concepts of their final year projects, PolyU Design students from Interior and Environment, and Industrial and Product Design swept five awards from two competitions as 2012 came to the end. The list of award winners is as follow:
The 20th Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards
http://www.apida.hk/2012/
Mr Tommy Yeung Kwun Ting
BA(Hons) in Design (Environment & Interior), Class of 2012
Project: Seaweedscape
Supervising tutor: Valerie Portefaix
Award: Student Category Bronze Award
2012 Perspective Awards
http://www.perspectiveglobal.com/perspective-awards
Mr Gideon Lai Ming Ho
BA(Hons) in Design (Industrial & Product), Class of 2012
Project: High Walker
Supervising tutor: Scot Laughton
Award: TROPHY (First Prize 冠軍) of Product Design, Student Category
Ms Chloe Yau Chiu Ting
BA(Hons) in Design (Environment & Interior), Class of 2012
Project: Stilt Walker-A New Cultural Hostel Experience in Tai O
Supervising tutor: Horace Pan
Award: Certificate of Excellence of Space, Student Category
Mr Tai Ka Cheong
BA(Hons) in Design (Industrial & Product), Class of 2012
Project: Sounds Amass
Supervising tutor: Benny Leong
Award: Certificate of Excellence of Product Design, Student Category
Mr SO Ho Lung, Bosco & Mr CHO Hing, Nathan
BA(Hons) in Design (Environment & Interior), Class of 2012
Project: Greenshaft (note: This is not a final-year project but an assignment on Redemptive Landscape Architecture.)
Award: Certificate of Excellence of Architecture, Student Category
Click here to read project details>>
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 28.01.13 | No Comments » |
| PolyU students win Best Design Team at Tsinghua University Art & Design Month | Editor |
With their innovative concept for designing a smart kitchen, four students of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Design (PolyU Design) have recently won the Best Design Team Award at the Collaborative Innovation Design Workshop held during the fourth International Art & Design Academic Month organized by Tsinghua University.
The PolyU Design team competed against six other teams, which came from Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, School of Design of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology of Taiwan, Department of Industrial Product Design of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and other three universities in China.
The workshop brief was to design an integrated concept for family kitchen which caters for Chinese lifestyle. The PolyU Design team designed “A Smart Kitchen On-demand”, which is set up to cater for the needs of modern Chinese cooking and dining behaviors. It is designed to enhance the value of the kitchen in a family, providing a platform to communicate, share and show caring. The design provides a solution making kitchen no longer a fixed space at home but part of the living room.
The PolyU Design team, consisted of four year three students of Industrial & Product Design, won the award for their outstanding performance of teamwork and design concept. “We are very excited and surprised to win the award from this large-scale design workshop, where other teams were highly professional and some of them were formed by master’s students,” Jack Chun Yueng -chiu, one of the members of the PolyU Design team said. The team was led by Mr Fred Han, Assistant Professor of PolyU Design, other team members included Yan Hei Ho, Tung Ting Kan and Bao Bo.
“We noticed that most people do not enjoy cooking at all,” Jack Chun explained. “We hope to design an environmentally friendly kitchen system, which could turn cooking into a joyful experience and at the same time, act as health consultant and cooking process assistant.”
The workshop and the fourth International Art & Design Academic Month was held from 10 to 14 December 2012 in Guangzhou, China.
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 18.01.13 | No Comments » |
| Professor Wang Min appointed as Chair Professor of Communication Design | Editor |
PolyU School of Design is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Wang Min to the post of Chair Professor of Communication Design effective from 2 January 2013.
Professor Wang received his Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Art from the China Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Hangzhou, China in 1982. He obtained a Master degree in Fine Art from the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, USA in 1988.
Professor Wang has a good mix of academic and industrial experience. He started his academic career in 1982 as Lecturer at the CAFA in Hangzhou, China. Professor Wang has been Visiting Fellow in Germany at the Akademe der Bildenden Künste, Munich and the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin during 1983 to 1986. He then joined the Yale University School of Art in 1989 as Lecturer. In 1990, Professor Wang worked as Senior Graphic Designer, Senior Art Director and Design Manager at Adobe Systems in USA for eight years. During 1998 to 2003, Professor Wang worked as Design Director at Square Two Design in San Francisco with clients including Adobe, IBM, Intel, Netscape and Standford University. Since July 2003, he has been the Dean of the School of Design at the CAFA in Beijing.
In 2004, Professor Wang was appointed as the Design Director in the Art Research Centre for the Olympic Games (ARCOG) at the CAFA and created a unique working group. Under Professor Wang’s leadership, the ARCOG design teams, including CAFA students, have developed a comprehensive design system for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games including the design of medals, pictograms, colour system, image and identity guidelines. During October 2006 to October 2008, Professor Wang was appointed as the Design Director for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Committee. In 2007, Professor Wang has been elected as the Vice President of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) and he was the Academic Director of the ICOGRADA World Design Congress 2009 which has been the most significant and largest-scale design event in China.
Professor Wang has been giving talks in USA, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and invited as judge for design competitions. Professor Wang’s work has been exhibited internationally in showcases such as the Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno, Czech Republic; Graphic Design Show in Beijing, China; Type Directors Club Exhibition in New York; Print Annual; and the International Poster Biennial in Lahti, Finland and in the collection of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany, Museum für Gestaltung Zurich Kunstgewerbemuseum in Switzerland.
Professor Wang was awarded the Chang Jiang Professorship in 2007 by the Ministry of Education and he is the only recipient of this award in the field of Art in China.
Photo captions:
(From top to bottom, left to right)– Portrait of Prof Wang Min
– Poster design for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
– Book design
– Poster design on anti-smoking campaign
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 20.12.12 | No Comments » |
| VC students win prizes for mobile app and contemporary almanac design projects | Editor |
Two fresh graduates of BA(Hons) in Design (Visual Communication) (class of 2012) recently received awards with their final year projects under supervision of Hung Keung, Assistant Professor of PolyU Design.
With the project “MINGLE”, Ms Karen ZHANG Xiaowen was named the winner of Honorable Mention Award of 2012 Adobe Design Achievement Awards, announced at the DesignThinkers 2012 conference in Toronto, Ontario.
Ms Quai CHAN Wing Kei, impressed the judges with a contemporary Almanac “Not a Theory”. She won the CreateSmart Young Design Talent Special Award 2012 and received a sponsorship of HK$250,000 for overseas work attachment.
Congratulations!
| CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE>> | 19.12.12 | No Comments » |
| Toilet design for the visually impaired recognised with international aircraft interiors award | Editor | |
| ATypI Call for Programme Proposals | Rennie Kan | |
