Asian Design Prize 2019

Conceptualized in 2017, and currently on the road to its fourth edition in 2020, Asia Design Prize has really evolved from an idea to a massive awards program that’s been supported by and organized with partnership from design institutions and professionals around the world. Asia Design Prize’s biggest success story is its judging procedure, an elaborate, accurate, and fair judging system that gives everyone from students to professionals, and even multi-disciplinary design studios equal preference, judging the quality of the idea and the project in the most ethical and fair way possible.

The Asia Design Prize’s judging procedure relies on its strong jury of 42 design professionals, design educators, and design journalists from 14 countries. Projects are presented to the jury members without revealing the designer’s name, nationality, organization, or any other personal information. The process occurs in two rounds, with different judges in each round looking at the work, resulting in an evaluation that’s fair and accurate. The chairman of the jury judges the top 10% of the awarded works to decide the grand winner of the Asia Design Prize for the year. At the end of the programme each year, ADP organizes an awards gala for its winners, where they receive their certificate and trophy, and also network with one another as well as with their jury panelists. Winners of the ADP award are also included in Asia Design Prize’s annual yearbook, a permanent place in the Asia Design Prize’s online exhibition, and even have their works featured in prominent design magazines and journals across the world, truly bringing attention and credibility to their work and their skill sets!

As the wheels begin moving for the Asia Design Prize 2020 competition, we thought it would be fitting to showcase some winning concepts from the last year. Cycle through to see some of our absolute favorites, but more importantly, use them as a barometer to measure the worth of your own design concepts, because come 2020, your work could win a prestigious award too!

Head to the Asia Design Prize website to know more! They’ve just announced their 2018-19 winners. You can find our favorites below!

Last Date to Register Early Bird Submission: September 30, 2019

01. TAC Air Purifier by Junku Jung

Air quality varies from place to place as much as allergies vary from person to person… so, it makes very little sense that we all have the same purification systems available to us! Designed with this in mind, the TAC air purifier provides custom air cleaning to suit you and where you live. Unlike other purifiers, it features unique filters, each dedicated to a specific type of allergen or pollutant. Live in a big city? Throw on the smog filter. Allergic to pollen? There’s a filter for that too. Simply layer the brightly colored filters to get just the right balance for you and your unique space!

02. Paprika Stool by Yoshioishikawa

The Paprika Stool has a pretty neat idea behind it. Stools, or furniture in general, occupy space even when they’re in retail, or being transported from factory to the shop. What if you could design a stool that’s deflated when transported, and inflated to be a stool only when purchased? The stool is, in principal, like a balloon with 3 legs. Made out of fabric, it remains soft and comfortable on the outside, and is filled with PU foam on the inside just minutes after it’s been purchased, so a customer can take home a soft, solid stool back home that they can sit on. The stool saves money by making logistics simpler and more efficient, and can easily be manufactured in different sizes by filling PU foam into a larger stool cover, much like filling cotton into a cushion cover or a mattress, or polystyrene balls into a beanbag!

03. Pencil Sharpener by Di Lu

If you’ve ever sharpened a pencil (and if you haven’t, what planet are you living on?), then you know how easy it is for the shavings to fly all around your desk or workspace. Unless you’re hovering over a waste bin, that discarded lead and wood can mess up your work. Designed with this in mind, this pencil sharpener by Di Lu serves as an extra collecting-vessel to gather shavings so they can be easily discarded. Simple, right?

04. Molt Chair by Taylor Cheng

Inspired by the Ming Dynasty, the Molt Chair combines western furniture design with ancient Chinese cultural values. The angular floating armrests and the chair’s front take inspiration from the thrones of Chinese emperors, while the side view looks more like the stylings of a modern rocking chair.

05. Slim Smart Washer 3 by American Standard

Designed to retrofit onto existing toilets, the SSW3 aims at easing the transition from toilet paper to a water-based cleaning system. A simple lever on the side lets you work the SSW3’s controls, pulling up for a bidet-style front-wash, or pushing down to trigger the rear shower. The system neatly integrates into existing toilets, and requires no electricity to function!

06. Veark CK01 by Daniel Ronge

Designed as a unibody tool, with a knife handle that borrows from tool design, the Veark CK01 gives knives the reverence they deserve. The knife is by far a chef’s most favored and most important tool, which is why the CK01 has such an industrial-tool-aesthetic. The CK01 blades are all manufactured in Solingen, Germany, the holy grail of knife-manufacturing and bladesmithing in all of Europe. The drop-forging technique results in each knife handle having its own individual texture, each one unique like a fingerprint, and a hardness of 58 on the Rockwell scale. And the unibody design has more to offer then just great looks: The open handle design invites your thumb to rest on the blade and pinch grip the knife like a pro. The metal blade also provides a counterbalance that allows you to maneuver the knife with ease. A singular body also means the knife is easier to maintain, with no place for food, dirt, and dust to get wedged into. A simple rinse makes the CK01 as good as new!

07. Leaf Hair Dryer by Yejin Choi, Jinah Kim & Juhyuk Yun

With an aesthetic that definitely seems new for its category, the Leaf folding hair dryer explores a completely organic, novel design direction. The standing hair-dryer occupies little to no space on your desk, docking on its contact-charging plate when not in use. The dryer’s air-barrel folds inwards, integrating with the handle to become almost monolithic, but when you fold it out, it assumes a leafy aesthetic, thanks to its white outer shell. Just lift it off its charging dock, unfold it, and begin using it for the silkiest, smoothest hair ever!

08. Hougyoku by Kenichi Ken Mizuno

Combining aspects of pottery and jewelry making, Hougyoku resembles a bird nurturing its egg. It’s a result of traditional and modern pottery techniques developed in the Japanese pottery-town of Seto. Integrating the two into a single form, the bird and egg are represented as positive and negative forms, denoted by the color schemes. The Hougyoku can be used as a sculptural element but also as a place to store small keepsakes.

09. Coat+ by Baoliyuan, Wangaihong, Maqianqian

This regular jacket has an inner expansion mechanism for pregnant women! Realizing that fashion should be more accommodating for women in their maternity period, the designers decided to reinvent the coat so that it fits women who are as well as who aren’t pregnant. It doesn’t make sense having to buy separate clothes just because you’re expecting a child, only to throw those clothes away after the child is born, right? Coat+ is a coat that women can wear all through their lives! An extra fabric attachment zips to the coat allowing you to expand it… when you don’t need the expandable attachment, you can wear it as a scarf!