This national college student design competition begins the transformation of design innovation, and the entries will be commercialized.
Recently, after 5 months of preparation and investment, the finals of the first Hypak™Design National College Student Theme Design Competition were held at the Shanghai Innovation and Creative Design Institute. Participants came from Tongji University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai University of Science and Technology, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, etc. After intense discussions, expert judges from the universities and co-sponsors selected the top three.
Since its launch in December 2023, the Hypak™Design theme design competition has received enthusiastic registrations from more than 400 college students from more than 20 universities around the world. More than 50 valid works entered the preliminary round, ranging from industrial design, product design to fashion design, etc. Multiple areas. After a rigorous preliminary review and expert review, 10 works successfully advanced to the finals.
The theme of this design competition is "Gift", requiring contestants to design and make different types of gifts using Kunlun™ materials, aiming to explore the meaning and value of gifts in different situations, while at the same time combining the special performance and texture of Kunlun™ materials. Combine and give new meaning to gifts. Kunlun™ material has contradictory properties such as waterproof, breathable, light weight and high strength. At the same time, it has a unique touch and special texture, which brings different inspirations to these new designers.
It is worth mentioning that this competition emphasizes not only design innovation, but also the ability to transform ideas into real products. As one of the few design competitions that can directly transform student works into real products, the Hypak™ Design Design Competition requires contestants to not only consider the artistry and practicality of the design, but also to deeply explore the commercial feasibility of the work and create prototypes. It is hoped that through this form, it will provide a stage for young designers to show their talents and realize their dreams, while also injecting more youthful and active elements into the new material Kunlun™. Different from traditional competitions, the final review of this finals is not the end, but the starting point for the transformation and implementation of innovative designs. After the competition, Qingyun New Materials will finally commercialize some of the contestants’ works based on the opinions of the jury.
At the finals, many works showed the rich imagination and deep creativity of the contestants, such as cultural and creative gift boxes with integrated packaging content, personalized lamps that can be transformed into containers, and educational paper boxes specially designed for children. , rewritable and reusable children's books, etc.
After evaluation by the jury from multiple dimensions such as innovative design, solving practical problems, commercial feasibility, and sustainable concepts, the top three solutions stood out, followed in order by the gifts designed for plants by Li Xinyu from Shanghai Normal University - folded through waterproof and breathable materials The "blooming" flower planter made from Tongji University, the portable pneumatic U-shaped pillow based on the principle of inflatable deformation developed by Yu Sinan of Tongji University, and the "Keep the plan at hand instead of hanging on the wall" proposed by Dong Runlin, Zhou Zihan and Wu Yuting from Shanghai University of Science and Technology "Wall" reminder gift box.
The organizer, Qingyun New Materials, is building the world's most creative materials technology company. The relevant person in charge of Qingyun New Materials said that Kunlun™ material is a material with rich functions and wide applications. He looks forward to communicating and learning with more designers, so that material technology and creative design can be deeply combined to make design works more powerful. vitality.
This competition is also the first large-scale open innovation project of the DIISx Qingyun Kunlun™ New Materials Laboratory located in the Shanghai Innovation and Creative Design Institute since its establishment in 2023. Professor Srini Srinivasan, chief operating officer of the co-founder Shanghai Innovation and Creative Design Institute and former chairman of the World Design Organization, served as a review expert and witnessed the entire process of the contestants' works from concepts to physical prototypes. He said that every review surprised him. In terms of originality and value, the performance of the contestants in the finals was remarkable. Zhang Jie, director of strategic development and head of ecological incubation of the institute, also expressed appreciation for the multiple design iterations of the contestants during the competition and hopes to promote the implementation and transformation of innovation through more cross-border exchanges in the future.
