Shenzhen Design Awards for Young Talents – 2015 Edition

The competition aims, among other things, to encourage exchanges among young designers from various countries, co-operation among the various UNESCO Creative Cities, and the sharing of experiences and ideas in the development of creative and cultural industries.

Under the theme Transformation: The Mission of Design, the Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talents (“the Award”) will reward the efforts of young designers who, through their creativity, have contributed to improving environmental quality as well as social and economic development—more specifically, making cities more liveable. The Award also seeks to promote the value of design thinking as contributor to the transformation of economies and society.

As a UNESCO City of Design, Montréal, through its Bureau du design, collaborate in the Award selection process.

The judging process will take place in two stages:

• In the First Stage, a local jury will select six projects by Montréal designers (2 students and 4 professionals) for nomination.
• In the Second Stage, which is anonymous, an international jury will choose the winners from among the candidate designers nominated by each city.

The projects were assessed using the following criteria:

• Contribution to transformation of local economies as well as to social and territorial development.
• Use of design contributing to an increase in sales (if applicable), lowering of costs, improvements in quality, productivity and profitability.
• Improvements in sustainable development of cities, in socio-economic development, and in citizens’ quality of life.
• Innovation, singularity, creativity, esthetics, sustainability, and user-friendliness.
• International recognition, critical success and commercial success.

The Montréal jury tasked with nominating eight candidates for the Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talents consists of the following members:

• Stéphanie Cardinal, designer, President, Huma Design + Architecture
• Mathieu Drapeau, Section Head, Service des grands parcs, du verdissement et du Mont-Royal, Ville de Montréal
• Kurt Hibchen, industrial designer and Partner, Toboggan Design
• Louise Pelletier, Director, École de design, UQAM
• Christian Thiffault, architect and Partner, Atelier Christian Thiffault

The international jury that will select the Award winners will consist of seven members from different countries and having complementary design expertise. The names and biographies of the jury members will be posted on the website www.szday.org.