Inside the D&AD Pencil: Taiwan Tech hosts D&AD Awards Annual Exhibition
The Taiwan Tech community has been following the recent transformation of the on-campus exhibition pavilion with increasing curiosity. When the design was finally revealed, everyone was stunned by the Fruit-filled pencils that decorated the outside of the pavilion to attract visitors into last months D&AD Design & Advertising Awards Annual Exhibition.
For two weeks, from 29 December 2021 to 14 January 2022, design-lovers had the chance to see the best works of the UK-based Design & Art Direction Awards (D&AD) in the Taiwan Tech exhibition pavilion, a rare opportunity during the Corona-pandemic when most events have moved online.
The pencils represent the actual trophies that are handed to the winners of the competition under the D&AD Awards which is one of the world’s most renowned competitions for advertising design.
And while the pencils are just symbolizing the awards – starting from the Wooden Pencil to the Black Pencil Award – the inside of them reveals the connection with Taiwan: There is hardly a better place in the world to enjoy delicious tropical fruit!
Ken-Tsai Lee is a Professor at the Taiwan tech Department of Design and it is due to his efforts that the touring D&AD exhibition was brought to Taiwan Tech. Lee is not only a three-time D&AD-award winner but was also nominated judge of the competition in D&AD 2021, a rare honor for a Taiwanese and a rare honor for an academic. Lee led a team of Taiwan Tech graduate students to organize the whole show to let me gain experience in curation, exhibition design, and promotion. Apart from this hands-on training, students also had the opportunity to join a three-day workshop that prepared for the D&AD New Blood Awards. The workshop was conducted by Weiwen Tu, an outstanding Taiwanese advertising designer and educator with more than 18 years of professional experience.
Ken-Tsai Lee, who has also organized typography exhibitions of the New York-based Type Directors Club (TDC) on the Taiwan Tech campus for eight consecutive years, is convinced of the importance of this kind of international exchange, said: “The D&AD UK awards include a wide range of diverse creative aspects, they give creative energy and will inspire and stimulate the viewers. While it is important to get familiar with developments in Western design circles, we also want to draw attention to the work that is done in Taiwan. Our exhibition fulfils this purpose: We are introducing international design to Taiwan Tech, and we are gaining international recognition for the design of our exhibitions, both for Taiwan Tech and for the design community in Taiwan.”
