About the City of Shenzhen
Being the first special economic zone in China, Shenzhen grows from a small fishermen village of 300,000 people ashore South China Sea to a metropolis of over 15 million with nation’s fastest growing economy in just 36 years.
Recognized as the birth place of China’s modern design, Shenzhen has been attracting design talents around the country and her flourishing design industries cocer various categories, including graphic, industrial and product, fashion, architectural, interior, etc.
In 2008, Shenzhen was designated the City of Design by UNESCO and joined the Creative Cities Network which currently consists of 116 members.
In recent years, the Municipal Government of Shenzhen has been strongly supporting the design communities and boosting the design industries with large investments, aiming to transform the manufacturing hub of the world into a premium design hub.
About The SHENZHEN GLOBAL DESIGN AWARD (SDA)
The Shenzhen Global Design Award is organized to recognize and reward outstanding designers with creativity, vision, foresight, and influence. It also aims to enhance the exchanges and cooperation among all designers from different countries and inspire the industrialization of designs as well as the promotion of design thinking.
The inaugural SDA will target industrial and product design only.
While its most eye-catching feature is the top prize of 200,000 USD, SDA strives to brand and promote the winning designs and their authors through various activities, such as tour of exhibitions, constant media coverage, etc. Thus SDA will become one important and effective window through which foreign designers and design institutions could enter the huge Chinese market.
Awards
- 1 Grand Award – USD 200,000
- 2 Gold Awards – USD 100,000 each
- 4 Silver Awards – USD 50,000 each
- 10 Bronze Awards – USD 20,000 each
Eligibilities and Prerequisites
The competition is open to individual designers and teams.
Entries must be works that are complete, (in the case of commercial product) in the market, being mass-produced, or functional prototypes that can be displayed before preliminary evaluation. Entries must be completed between Jan 1 2015 and March 1 2018.
Models, renderings, conceptual works, show flats, prototypes, artists’ impressions of designs, designs that are still under development are not eligible as entries.
The entry must be submitted by the design’s owner or client, the brand’s owner, its designer or its design consultancy.
Registration and Application
Entrants must register on the official website of the Award and upload supporting documents (all materials must be written in English) before 18:00, March 1 2018 (Beijing Time) by following the steps below:
- Create username and password before logging in;
- Read and agree to terms and conditions;
- Complete personal/team information;
- Complete designs description from (one entry one form);
- Upload photo of individual or teams;
- Pack and ship real objects and maker they arrive at the secretariat before March 1 2018 (Beijing Time).
Judging Criteria
Winners should be
- original, experimental, exploratory and forward-looking; proposing creative ideas for future development;
- public-oriented, practical, eco-friendly and recyclable; proposing new urban living concepts;
- pioneering, dynamic, facilitative and transformative; improving the efficiency of industrial development;
- influential, attracting world-wide attention.
Judging Panel
The judging panel comprises nine world-leading designers from different countries. The members of the judging panel will be announced on the official website of the Award one month before the judging dates. Members of the judging panel should not enter the competition.
Fees
Online registration and entry submission are free of charge. Any costs arising from shipping and insurance are at the expenses of the entrants.
Schedule
Call for entries: July 1 2017 – March 1 2018
Online registration deadline: March 1 2018
Objects submission deadline (Arrival date at the secretariat): March 1 2018
Judging: March 2018
Awarding ceremony: April 2018
For the first edition in 2017, we welcome industrial and product designs in the following categories.
- Information & Communications Technology Product – Camera & camcorder, audio & visual products, computers and information technolgy, computer accessories, communication devices, smart devices, etc.
- Leisure & Entertainment Products – Product designs for outdoor, leisure & sports, games & hobby, entertainment technology devices, gifts & crafts, etc.
- Household Appliances – Products designs for living room, bedroom, kitchen, dining, bathrooms, spas, etc.
- Homeware – Tableware & decoration, lighting, furniture, home textiles, etc.
- Professional & Commercial Products – Product designs for medicine & healthcare, special vehicles and devices for construction & agriculture, vehicles (land, water, aerospace), etc.
Contacts
SDA Secretariat
Room 102, 4th Building, E-Hub,
Qianhai Shenzhen, China, 518054
Phone: +86 755 6661 9308
Email: info@s-d-a.org
Log on the website
for more info.