At the annual Red Dot Design Awards in Essen, Germany, companies from around the world compete for recognition of having the best designs. Held since 1954, Red Dot is one of the most important design competitions worldwide, attracting nearly 6,000 submissions from 52 nations in 2006, the organization's Web site stated.
Taiwan-based BenQ Corp. won six awards for its digital projectors, cameras and portable liquid-crystal-display TVs, according to an April 9 company press release. Moreover, a small company from central Taiwan, Duck Image Co. Ltd., won first prizes at Red Dot, iF, and U.S. Industrial Design Excellence Awards last year, according to an Aug. 15, 2006 report in the online biweekly Business Next. These achievements marked a transformation in Taiwan's industries from a focus on price to value, the report said.
"From the recent performance of Taiwanese companies on the world stage, we saw that the concept of design has been widely applied in different fields," Nina Ay, director of design counseling at Taiwan Design Center, said April 30. Assisted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, TDC was founded in 2004 to increase the nation's international competitiveness by integrating design and innovation facilities, as well as helping Taiwan's designers go global, claimed Ay. TDC now has over 70 employees and an annual budget of US$6 million, she added.
Cultivating local talent was important, Ay said. Every year, TDC selects outstanding Taiwanese designers after a rigorous screening process and dispatches them to top design companies in Europe and the United States to participate in training programs. "We believe this can get them deeply involved in the Western mindset of design and broaden their horizons by integrating it with Eastern cultural features," she said.
In 2006, TDC sent three Taiwanese designers to Kontrapunkt A/S, a Danish company that provides a full range of design and strategic branding services to clients such as organizations, multinationals and even countries. "It's our first time to have Taiwanese designers for internship training, and they did such an impressive job here," Kontrapunkt's Brand Strategy Director Rasmus Hansen said April 19.
The three trainees were assigned to different sections, including architecture design, graphic design and industrial design, in accordance with each person's interests and specialties. Their education began by working on actual company projects. "The best way of training, in my opinion, is to have trainees involved in the real experience," noted Hansen.
Founded in 1985, Kontrapunkt has created brand identities for numerous Danish government ministries, public institutions and companies. One of its clients is Danske Bank, a large financial institution in Denmark. Danske expanded quickly during the late 1990s and hired Kontrapunkt in 2000 to launch a huge design campaign that included over 40 logos and signs for 600 bank branches. A year later, Kontrapunkt was selected to design the Danish crown on the national seal. In 2002, Kontrapunkt created a new name, corporate typeface and uniform for Billund Airport in western Denmark.
"At Kontrapunkt, I was completely exposed to the northern European logic, methodology and perspective of the design field," Hsueh Tsui-ling, an art director at My Story Island Co. in Taiwan, said April 27. "All their designs are based on human needs," commented Hsueh. "They always work from the consumer's perspective." She highlighted the necessity of thoroughly understanding the spirit of a company. "What matters in branding is not how fancy it is but what kind of message it tries to convey," Hsueh pointed out.
A central component of any brand identity was the look and feel, noted Hansen, who explained that the former was the physical appearance of a logo while the latter referred to the inspiration behind the brand. "People working in Kontrapunkt all put great emphasis on the necessity of making a complete background story to demonstrate the life of the products they've designed," Kris Tseng, a designer of furniture and household appliances at Kangaroo Co. Ltd. in Taiwan, said May 1.
"What inspired me most during this training program was the importance of family to Danes, whether in their work or in their daily lives," Aken Ke, a senior mechanical designer at Taiwan-based Asustek Computer Inc., said April 30. Experiencing the Danes' family culture, Ke said, prompted him to marry his girlfriend and start his own family immediately after returning. "Back at the company, I tried to share with my colleagues the secret of success in Scandinavian design: simplicity and humanity," he explained.
"During the period of this year's training program, it's not only Taiwanese designers learning from us," Hansen said. The Danes had learned from the Taiwanese as well, he added, referring to the trainees' graphic arts skill, sense of fashion and knowledge of Asian culture.
In the past when Taiwan's economy was dominated by manufacturing, a designer simply did drawings. As consumers became more sophisticated, Taiwanese businesses switched to a brand-driven business model, Ay noted. In addition to training local designers, TDC offers a wide range of services to Taiwan's companies. To help local enterprises innovate and create value-added products, the center established three special facilities: a human-behavior laboratory, a color and material laboratory, and a design studio.
The behavior lab is the main place to conduct market research. One of the primary tools that the lab employs is an electronic headset that measures brain activity by recording data from electrodes placed on the scalp. After a person puts the headset on, technicians are able to produce a digital map of the brain to test and analyze how the brain reacts to different visual features, such as shapes and colors. This data can then be used to assess how to attract a potential buyer's attention, Ay explained.
The second lab has a variety of colors and materials that could inspire companies to create new designs. These resources assist clients to see how their product will look before being made. One feature of the design studio is a simulation room where users experience the difficulties that disabled people might encounter in daily life. Running simulations help companies to create products that are more practical for consumers. "The facilities in our labs are useful for companies seeking to make breakthroughs in product design," Ay claimed.
TDC also participated in drafting policies for industry development, gave guidance to domestic enterprises in building up their brands and forged cooperative partnerships with design institutes and companies overseas. In addition to these initiatives, the center regularly held events to publicize the design industry to the general public and promote Taiwan's designers to the world, Ay explained.
Asian designers have become a force to be reckoned with in the European and American markets, according to the May 2007 issue of the Chinese-English bilingual monthly Taiwan Panorama. In order to create more international brands, an increasing number of countries in Asia, such as Taiwan, South Korea and China, invested substantial resources in design facilities and attempted to attract customers with distinctive products rather than low prices, the magazine stated.
Taiwan's companies have been known for their world-leading manufacturing capabilities in the information technology sector, Hansen claimed, so quality design has become even more crucial for the country to maintain its competitiveness in the global market. "In the end, design aims to improve our quality of life," Ay said, suggesting that in the process, society as a whole would benefit.
Write to Allen Hsu at allenhsu@mail.gio.gov.tw