A TOTAL of 33 design institutes and 800 designers from 20 countries and regions joined millions of netizens online for an unrivaled creative frenzy during the 2020 Shenzhen Design Week that concluded Sunday.

With the theme of “Virtual Design│Infinite Creativity,” this year’s design week featured 10 key sections, nearly 20 sub-venue activities and more than 40 special events. For the first time, the design week was held online, which attracted attention from all over the world — with the number of participants hitting a record high. The cross-country, cross-boundary and cross-cultural design carnival has once again demonstrated the unique charm of Shenzhen’s design collective to the world, the event’s organizers said.

The annual Shenzhen Design Week, offering the best of trends and design innovations, aims to establish an international platform integrating communication, promotion, display and education and create a series of brand activities, with the hope of driving the overall development of the design industry in Shenzhen and enhance the city’s international influence.

Shenzhen is China’s first and the world’s sixth city winning the title of UNESCO City of Design.

This year’s design week coincided with the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ), and is also a key year for the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as well as building Shenzhen into a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics. “Shenzhen Design” has played an important role in the process that saw the city emerging from a world factory, to the upgrading of the manufacturing industry and the city of design. This year’s design week was held as a tribute to the 40th anniversary of the SEZ, according to the organizers.

An exhibition was held during the design week to review Shenzhen’s remarkable achievements in the field of design over the past decades. Fifty designers also gave in-depth interviews, expounding on their views on how empowering “Shenzhen Design” is. The interviewees included designers in their 70s who are among the first batch of pioneers in Shenzhen, as well as designers born after 1990. The interviews were compiled into a video for the purpose of recording the evolution of “Shenzhen Design.”

Song Boyuan, chairman of the Shenzhen Graphic Design Association and the design week’s chief curator, said they will continue collecting and upgrading exhibits and relevant information, hoping the exhibition will become an online museum.

The Netherlands was this year’s guest country of honor. Besides Shenzhen’s practices and showing the world the outstanding achievements of the Shenzhen SEZ over the past 40 years, the online event also showcased the guest country of honor in a favorable light, promoted Shenzhen as a city of design and introduced Shenzhen’s water treatment methods.

Other key sections, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Design Exhibition, Design Expo, Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Digital Creative Design Exhibition, and some sub-venue events also showcased the unique charm of “Shenzhen Design” from different perspectives.

This year’s Shenzhen Design Week was moved online in a bid to break the limitations related to time and venue and present the online audience with multiple surprises, the organizers said.

The 2020 Shenzhen Global Design Awards Organizing Committee has set up a special edition for 2020 — Anti-Coronavirus Product Design Award — with a total prize purse of 2 million yuan (US$291,600). The organizing committee is soliciting entries from designers and design companies around the world, attempting to find more and better solutions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

With strong technical support, this year’s design week has developed a new website and miniprogram, and launched functions such as online virtual exhibitions, VR exhibitions, and live-streaming online forum.

The exhibitions in some key sections used advanced technical means to allow the audience to realize virtual interactions through various digital means such as 3-D modeling and programming.

“This year’s online exhibition is indeed very interesting,” an audience surnamed Jiang said.

(SD News)