The Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talents (SDAY) is an international professional competition for young designers under the age of 35 who are from the 180 UNESCO Creative Cities worldwide. The SDAY is administered by the Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Office, organized by the Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Association (SDPA), and co-organized by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
Theme for 2019: Inclusive Design
In this era flooded with commodities and over-consumption, new ethical standards ask for inclusive design. Respecting individual differences, satisfying the needs of the masses, and attaching equal importance to the functions and emotional values of objects are the new aesthetic standards that the era has asked of design. The rise of sciences and technologies, the diversity of culture, the emergence of new forces, and the turbulence in international politics and economies form the context that requires designers to have broad visions and open minds. With the integration of disciplines and the sharing of skills, designers shoulder the important mission of providing new perspectives for the public and providing new ideas for solving problems and contradictions. Only when design becomes inclusive can it create a better future for human beings.
Professional designers or teams and design students from the member cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) can submit projects to the following categories:
- Communication: brand & identity, packaging design, publications, typography, posters, illustrations, information visualization
- Interactive media: interactive design, website UI design, PC and mobile UX design, animation design, game & software design, motion picture and television design
- Industrial design: automobile, furniture, product design
- Spatial design: architectural design, landscape design, interior design, urban and public guiding system design
- Fashion design: apparel, accessories, texture design, dyeing & knitting
- Public service design and design thinking in public policy
- Others
The city of Shenzhen cordially invites designers from around the world to enter the 2019 SDAY and looks forward to seeing excellent project from you!
Contact Details
Email: info@sday.design
Tel: +86 755 8325 8290
Read on about the call in detail.
Eligibility
Professional designers or teams and design students from the member cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) who make outstanding contributions through their creativity can be registered as candidates for the SDAY.
Entrant can be individuals or teams. For a nominated individual, he or she shall be aged 35 or below by December 31, 2019. For a nominated team, all of its members shall be aged 35 or below by December 31, 2019.
Entrants from architectural design shall be aged 40 or below by December 31, 2019.
For the student group, entrants shall remain registered students in colleges or other educational institutions by January 1, 2019.
Categories
- Communication: brand & identity, packaging design, publications, typography, posters, illustrations, information visualization
- Interactive media: interactive design, website UI design, PC and mobile UX design, animation design, game & software design, motion picture and television design
- Industrial design: automobile, furniture, product design
- Spatial design: architectural design, landscape design, interior design, urban and public guiding system design
- Fashion design: apparel, accessories, texture design, dyeing & knitting
- Public service design and design thinking in public policy
- Others
Prizes
Professionals:
Grand Award (1 winner): 100,000 RMB per winner
Merit Award (10 winners): 30,000 RMB per winner
Students:
New Star Award (10 winners): 20,000 RMB per winner
Best Nominator (1 to 3 winners): Honorary prize
This award recognizes the nominator who provides the best supports and cooperation for the Jury and the Secretariat or who nominates the most winners. SDPA would select the winner(s) with assistance from the Jury.
Requisites
The entries submitted by professionals shall be works that are complete and have been implemented, or have become available on the market. The entries shall be completed between January 1, 2017 and October 31, 2019.
Conceptual designs or designs that are still under development and/or have not yet been commercially launched, as well as works for displaying, prototypes, renderings and artist’s impressions are eligible as entries only for the student group.
Entries submitted for the previous SDAY are NOT accepted for the 2019 award.
All entrants shall be natives of or have been living for at least two years in one of the UNESCO Creative Cities or Hong Kong.
Entries shall be submitted only by the nominator, or by the designer or the team’s representative with the authorization by the nominator. Each entrant can submit no more than 10 pieces of works. Flight ticket and three nights’ local accommodation for each winner (one member if the winner is a team or an administrative department) will be provided by the organizer, i.e. SDPA.
Awarding Ceremony
Awarding ceremony is scheduled to take place in Shenzhen in April 2020 during Shenzhen Design Week. All winners including the best nominator prize winners (one representative per nominator) will be invited to the awarding ceremony, and relevant forums, exhibitions and theme speeches.
Judging Criteria
- Achievement in utilizing designs to increase sales, lower costs, and improve product qualities, productivity and profitability.
- Achievement in utilizing designs to enhance sustainability in urban environment, social and economic development, and to improve quality of lives in cities.
- Achievement in utilizing designs to contribute to the transformation of local economies, of social development, and of cities’ development.
- Achievement in developing cultural diversity based on traditional cultures.
- International recognition, commercial and societal success in designs.
- Achievement in uniqueness, creativity, originality, innovation, aesthetics, sustainability, use of technology, user-friendliness in designs.
Judging Process
The judging process will consist of two stages of detailed assessments, based on the actual products, images and additional supporting materials submitted by the entrants.
First Stage
First Stage Judging will be carried out by the nominators according to the judging criteria listed above. Each nominator will decide how many entrants it will recommend.
Second Stage
An International Jury would convene in Shenzhen. Actual design works and supporting materials will be displayed side by side for the jurors to evaluate. All award winners will be selected at the end of the second stage.
Jury
The Jury will be assembled in accordance with the SDAY statute, including one judge recommended by UNESCO, three judges recommended by Shenzhen, and three recommended by other cities. In the absence of the recommendation from UNESCO, one more representative will be recommended by Shenzhen. The chairperson of the Jury shall be elected by the Jury members.
Nomination
Generally, the nominators are the focal points of creative cities for UNESCO. The nominators are entrusted with the tasks of making call for and collecting entries, organizing first screening, and eventually nominating candidates.
All nominators have the liberty in deciding the methods, processes and schedules for their own nominations.
In the event that focal points do NOT possess adequate resources, expertise, experiences, etc. to perform nominations, they are allowed to commission or entrust the nominations to local professional design institutions, who they believe possess relevant and adequate capabilities and capacities.
However, such shift of nominating parties should NOT be deemed as establishment of relationships of any kind between SDPA and the commissioned or entrusted third parties. Focal points should exercise discretion when selecting nominators.
Each Creative City can have more then one or multiple nominator organizations. Nominators can only nominate entrants who are natives of or have been living for at least 2 years in the nominators’ cities.
Nominators will be authorized (specific technical instruction will be given later) to register on behalf of nominees or instruct nominees to register online before 30 November 2019.
Shipping of designs and supporting materials must be arranged so as to arrive at the Secretariat before 30 November 2019.
Timetable
September 9 – November 30, 2019: Call for entries worldwide
November 30, 2019: Deadline for online registration and tangible works submission (time for arrival at the Secretariat’s warehouse)
December 2019: Final judging and results announcement
April 2020: Awarding Ceremony and SDAY Exhibition
February 2020 to April 2020: Exhibition tour of the 4th SDAY in UNESCO Creative Cities
Registration
All nominees must register and submit documents online at the official website of the SDAY before 18:00 Beijing Time (10:00 GMT), November 30, 2019 by finishing following steps (all materials must be in English):
- Read and agree to the Terms and Conditions;
- Log in using the User Name and Password provided to nominators;
- Fill out the registration form;
- Fill out the description form, one for each entry;
- Upload a photo of the nominee;
- Send the tangible works, if any, to the Secretariat and ensure that they arrive before November 30, 2019.
Fees
Registration, nominations and entries submissions are free. However, entrants are responsible for all logistic and insurance costs.
Terms and Conditions
Please read the Terms and Conditions of SDAY 2019 below carefully. By entering this competition, entrants declare that they agree to all these articles.
- All entries must meet moral and ethical standard accepted world-wide, and be in accordance with the theme, purposes, and regulations of this Award. The Secretariat reserves the right to refuse to accept entries which it considers do not meet these standards.
- The Entrant hereby acknowledges and warrants that the Entrant is the sole owner of the Design and owns all rights including but not limited to copyright, design rights and all other proprietary and intellectual property rights in or pertaining to the Design. Any infringement would result in immediate disqualification of the entrant and total withdrawal of his or her entries. [1] SDPA should be indemnified against all actions, claims, loss, damages, costs and expense which it may incur or has incurred as a result of any infringement.
- The Entrant hereby represents and warrants that the Design is original and independently created and does not infringe, breach, prejudice or violate the property, interests or rights (including but not limited to contractual rights, user rights, copyright, design rights, patents and all other proprietary and intellectual property rights whether registered or otherwise) of any third party. The Entrant agrees to fully indemnify SDPA against all actions, claims, loss, damages, costs and expenses which it may incur or has incurred as a result of any breach of this representation or warranty. Should it prove in retrospect that a registered or even awarded entrant breaches third-party rights, SDPA reserves the right to disqualify the entrant and revoke the relevant award. The above liability provisions apply accordingly to all items supplied by SDPA in connection with the Entrant’s participation in the Award.
- The Entrant hereby grants, on a gratuitous basis free of any fee, royalty or remuneration, to SDPA, the organizer of SDAY, the right or license to use, edit, amend, copy, reproduce or publish in any size the Design (which includes but is not limited to drawings, artworks, photographs, images, sketches, transparencies, sculptures, models, prototypes, and printed or digital materials) submitted for the Award or any part thereof in the promotional/exhibition materials or any publications in any media or medium related to the Award.[2]
- The Jury will have the right to determine the number of winners; and the right not to name a winner for any of the awards. The Entrant agrees that the decisions of the Jury will be final. No appeal will be entertained.
- SDPA reserves the right to cancel, in part or in whole, postpone or bring forward the Award for any reason and is not obliged to reimburse entrants for any expenses related to such cancellation. While actual works can be returned upon requests with entrants covering all relevant costs, all submitted material(s) relating to the Award will not be returned.
- The Winner of the Award agrees that his/her winning design will be displayed in such exhibitions at the decision of SDPA for a period of minimum one year subsequent to the competition, and agrees to provide information as requested by SDPA about the winning design for future activities, including but not limited to reports, publicity, marketing and exhibitions.
- The Winner of the Award agrees to cooperate with SDPA to promote the Award and play active role in relevant promotional activities in the future upon request.
- The entrant agrees to obtain approval by SDPA beforehand on using the endorsement mark in printing.
- These terms and conditions shall be governed by the laws of the People’s Republic of China and local laws of the City of Shenzhen. Any claim or dispute must be determined exclusively by the courts in the City of Shenzhen.
- These terms and conditions are prepared in both English and Chinese languages. If there is any inconsistency between the English version and the Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.
Personal Data Protection
All personal information submitted will solely be used for the Award purposes. The entrants preserve the rights regarding access to and correction of personal data provided for nomination.
Prevention of Bribery Ordinance
Entrants are reminded that it is an offense to offer any advantages (e.g. money, gift, etc.) to the organizer, an employee of the organizer, co-organizers or the Jurors as an inducement to or reward for favorable considerations.
Optional materials requirement and arrangement[3]
- Photos: All photos should be uploaded on the Award Maximum 10 photos for each item submitted. All photos should be in JPEG/PNG format, over 300dpi and no more than 1024*768 pixels each. MUST be actual photos without special effects.
- PDF files: Maximum 12 Mb for each item submitted and should be uploaded on the website.
- Video: Maximum 3 minutes, MP4 format only, must be uploaded online or recorded on U-Keys (NOT DVD and DVD) before shipping to the Secretariat. Unoriginal scores or music must come with copyright authorization.
- Animation and other program files: HD video files or large programme files can be sent to the Secretariat via email or WeTransfer. Files larger than 4G must be recorded on U-Key before shipping to the Secretariat. The device will not be returned.
- Display board: NO bigger than 700mm x 1000mm.
Tangible Projects
- The submitted entries must be completely assembled and fully functional. Electrical products must provide transformer and adapter to match Chinese electrical voltage: 220 volts AC, 50 Hz.
- Shipping of entries bigger than 1m x 1m x 1m or with weight over 50 KG can proceed ONLY after consulting the Secretariat, who reserves the right to refuse any oversize entries.
NOTES for material arrangement
- All texts must be in English.
- All items submitted must be anonymous. NO name of designer, company, organization or city should be quoted.
- Entry label should be downloaded from the Award website and fixed on the top right-hand corner of the packaging of each submitted item (including supporting materials).
- Posters, display boards, U-Keys, documents, perishables and liquids are not returnable.
- The Entrant shall have adequate insurance coverage for his or her works submitted, particularly with regards to the risk of theft, fire, breakage and damage.
- The Entrant shall be responsible for all costs (including but not limited to all packaging costs, transport costs, documentation, postal charges, courier charges, insurance costs, governmental / jurisdictional approvals and licenses, and any other costs necessary or likely) in the passing and transporting of the entries into the possession of the Secretariat or the return of the designs upon the entrant’s request.
- The Entrant agrees that SDPA shall not be liable for any loss or damage of the Design during the passing or transporting to and from SDPA or at the premises arranged by SDPA for the judging sessions.
- While reasonable care will be taken when handling the Design in the premises arranged by SDPA, SDPA shall not, in the absence of negligence on the part of SDPA, be liable for any loss or damage of the Design. For the avoidance of doubt, it is agreed that superficial rust, oxidation, discoloration, or any like condition due to moisture is not a condition of damage but is inherent to the nature of the Design and SDPA shall not be responsible for such condition.
- Entrants, except the winners of the Award, who intend to retrieve the designs, shall reply within 14 days after receiving email from the logistics. Otherwise, designs may be subject to disposal.
Contact
SDAY Secretariat
A-509, SDCIC Mansion,
6, Guanglan Road,
Futian Free Trade Zone, Futian
Shenzhen, China, 518045
Phone：+ 86 755 83258290
Email: info@szday.design
For more information, please visit official website (to be available from September 9, 2019).
About the Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Association
Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Association (SDPA) is a semi-official and nonprofit body commissioned by Shenzhen municipal government to manage and brand “the City of Design” program. It is the focal point for UNESCO Creative Cities Network program, maintaining liaison with UNESCO and other creative cities around the world.
Other missions of SDPA include planning and executing major design projects such as the Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talents (SDAY), consolidating different design forces and resources in Shenzhen for the benefit of the design community and the city as a whole, (e.g. branding Shenzhen designs and the city itself), enhancing the exchange and cooperation in the creative sectors between Shenzhen and other cities around the world, facilitating design education and student exchange programs, etc.
[1] Limited exceptions could be allowed at the discretion of the Jury to students who elaborate the cases explicitly so that such exceptions could be justified.
[2] It should be reiterated that the entrants are the only owners of all rights related to the Design they submit, including but not limited to contractual rights, user rights, copyright, design rights, patents and all other proprietary and intellectual property rights. Any use or modification of the Design by SDPA is for the purpose of promotion (including promotional exhibitions and publications) of the Award only.
[3] To upload supporting files, log on www.sday.design and register first before going to Submission and click on Submit Now.