SDA 2020 (Special Edition) Call for Entries

The Organizing Committee of the Shenzhen Design Week cordially invites designers from around the world to enter the Shenzhen Global Design Award 2020(Special Edition): Anti-Coronavirus Product Design Award.

The unexpected coronavirus pandemic brought immeasurable losses to our life and society. As the pandemic is currently still raging in many countries and regions, how we cope with it is a common task for all of us, and it raised new topics for the global design communities.

Shenzhen Global Design Award has always been focusing on sustainable development, hence the organizing committee sets up a special edition for 2020 – Anti-Coronavirus Product Design Award. We invite designers and design companies around the world to enter to find more and better solutions to combat this disease. This attempt echoes with the permanent theme of SDA: Design for Sustainability.

The special edition of SDA is supported by the Organizing Committee of the Shenzhen Design Week and organized by the Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Association (SDPA).

I. Name

Shenzhen Global Design Award (Special Edition)：Anti-Coronavirus Product Design Award

II. Eligibilities & Prerequisites

The award is open to individual designers, teams and companies in the field of industrial and product design. Each entrant can submit unlimited number of entries which must fulfill the following criteria:

1. Entries can be projects that are fully constructed, completed, on the market or being mass-produced. Projects that are conceptual, including models, displays renderings, etc., are also eligible as entries.

2. Entries must comply with relevant scientific and technological standards.

3. In response to the pandemic, judging will take place online and hence entrants do NOT need to ship tangible products.

4. Entries must be submitted by the project’s owner/client/brandowner/designer/design consultancy, and the same project can be submitted by one entrant ONLY. If one entry involves more than one party, it is necessary to submit a contract or an agreement between relevant parties to confirm the entrant and state clearly the settlement of possible prize money. Otherwise such entrant will be disqualified.

III. Categories

The special edition of SDA is open to industrial and product design ONLY: Sub-categories include but are not limited to:

Telecommunication

Including 3C products & accessories (computer, communication & consumer electronics), gaming devices & accessories, VR devices & accessories, etc.

Automobiles & Vehicles

Including cars, ships / boats / yachts, trains, airplanes, accessories & devices, entertainment systems, etc. 

Sports & Leisure

Including sports equipment, fitness and activity trackers, outdoor products, hiking gear, bicycles & accessories, musical instruments, pet products, etc.

Babies & Kids

Including all products for babies and kids, lifestyle accessories for children and babies, playground equipment, kitchen aids, toys, school essentials, teaching supplies, etc. 

Office

Including lounge furnishings, office accessories, office equipment, stationary, etc.

Lighting

Including lamps, built-in lighting, ceiling lighting, decorative lighting, mobile lighting, outdoor lamps, construction lighting, solar-powered lamps, guidance systems, etc.

Household

Including kitchen appliances, household appliances, cookware and tableware, home furniture, bath and sanitary wares, gardening tools, etc. 

Medicine & Health

Including assisted living products & technology, clinical and laboratory equipment, medical / healthcare devices & equipment, skincare devices, etc.

Robotics

Including autonomous mobile robots, exploration robots, humanoid robots, industrial robots, medical robots, service robots, toy robots, robotic components, etc.

Service Design

Including projects that optimize a service for customers/users regarding their needs in life, service and consumption. The project can be an improvement of an existing service or development of a new service. Design challenges, processes and outcomes must be included in the presentation of the entry, including specific measures and service design methods to solve the problem.

IV. Awards & Prizes

One Grand Award, CNY 500,000

Ten Merit Awards, CNY 100,000 each

Ten Concept Awards, CNY 50,000 each

Note:

(I)   Given that this virus came into being not long ago while the realization of product design could take long, the Concept Award category is set up to encourage more designers to find solutions in response to the pandemic.

(II) All prizes are pre-tax and subject to income tax in accordance with local law. SDA Secretariat. i.e. SDPA will pay the prize after paying tax on winners’ behalves.

(III) The payment of the prize will be made in accordance with fiscal regulations and tax procedures of the People's Republic of China. Taxes of up to 20% may be levied on winnings.

(IV) The payment of the prize could take up to 6 months to complete (starting from the second day of results announcement). Winners are required to provide all the documents needed to the SDA secretariat before deadline. If submission of documents is delayed, the recipient of the prize changed or any other situation happens on the winner’s account, the SDA Secretariat has the right to postpone the payment and Secretariat’s decision shall be final.

V. Judging Criteria

Winners should be

(I) original, experimental, exploratory and forward-looking; proposing effective ideas in response to the pandemic;

(II) public-oriented, practical, eco-friendly and recyclable; proposing new concepts for post-pandemic urban living;

(III) pioneering, dynamic, facilitative and transformative; improving the efficiency of post-pandemic industrial development;

(IV) influential, academic and comprehensive; attracting wide international attention.

VI. Judging Panel

The judging panel consists of 5 world-leading designers and managers of design organizations in the field of industrial and product design from different countries. Jury members (including 2 shortlisted jurors) are nominated by the SDA Academic Committee and invited by the SDA Organizing Committee. Biographies of jury members will be published on the official website at least one month before the judging dates.

Due to the pandemic, judging will take place online. Jury members will select online 20 finalists for the Grand Award and Merit Award, and 20 finalists for the Concept Award, then select the winners via real-time online meeting.

The Chairman is elected by jury members at the first meeting. The Chairman will be responsible for convening the meetings, monitoring the progress and announcing the final results.

Members of the judging panel should not enter the competition. If an entry is a project designed by a juror or involving a juror, or a project by an entrant who has previously cooperated with a juror or is currently cooperating with a juror, the involved juror shall NOT participate in the review of this entry.

VII．Judging Procedure

The judging is mainly based on images and supporting materials, and is divided into two phases:

Phase One: first screening

The panels will conduct the first evaluation online and select 20 finalists after examination of the images, videos and other supporting materials for entries according to the judging criteria.

Phase Two: final judging

The panel will meet online and select all winners in this phase.

VIII. Timetable

Call for entries: 20 July 2020 – 14 October 2020

Online registration deadline: 14 October 2020

Preliminary evaluation: 15-16 October 2020

Final Judging: 17 October 2020

IX. Fees

Online registration and submission are free of charge.

X. Registration and Application    

Entrants must register on the official website of the Award (se.s-d-a.org) and submit supporting documents (all materials must be written in English) before 18:00, 14 October 2020 (GMT+8:00) by following the steps below:

1  Register and create your account, read and agree to the terms & conditions;

2 Log in your account, fill in information of designer and projects, upload profile photos and project documents;

3  If the documents submitted are rejected by the Secretariat, please complete or revise your information as instructed.

Here to visit the official website： se.s-d-a.org