Holiday Greetings from Design Trust

Sharon de Lyster “The Textile Atlas” 2017. Photo courtesy of Design Trust Seed Grant Recipient Sharon de Lyster.

2017 marks our 10th year milestone of the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design. The Design Trust team reflects on this year’s incredible journey including our new flagship programme Design Trust Futures Studio, and inaugural partnership with the RCA in London. We are also looking forward to another exciting year ahead with new initiatives that will look at critical making and heritage. Design Trust is dedicated to stimulating the positive process of design in the PRD and internationally.

2017 October Design Trust Grant Recipients

Next grant application deadline is 20th January, 2018.

Congratulations to Design Trust Grant Recipients of the recent October 2017 cycle: Lo Koon Man, Studio Florian + Christine’s Florian Wegenast and Christine Lew, and the team of An Xiao Mina and Jan Chipchase. The awarded grants span a diverse range of projects from a multi-functional Tuk Tuk as a revolutionary cultural hub; the re-imagination of local and unused waste materials; and an investigation of the fidget spinner. Our next grant application deadline is 20th January 2018.

Inaugural Design Trust/ RCA Fellowship Announcement

Living Soundscape - Tuen Mun, at Lung Yat Community Hall as part of ARTivating Public Buildings. Photo courtesy of artist Li Tin-lun.

The Design Trust and the Royal College of Art are delighted to announce Mina Song as the inaugural Design Trust/ RCA Fellow in Design Curation. As the inaugural Design Trust/ RCA Fellow in Design Curation, Mina will join the RCA for twelve months, where she will focus on acquiring curatorial strategies that bring designers and design methods into public art frameworks in Hong Kong, as part of a toolkit for cultural commissioning in the public realm.

Upcoming: Design Trust Grant Recipient Hetero-HK’s exhibition opens for UABB Hong Kong 2017

Hetero-HK Cross-disciplinary Exhibition. Photo courtesy of Design Trust Grant Recipient Hetero-HK.

Design Trust Grant Recipient Hetero-HK launches their cross-disciplinary experiment on 29 December 2017. An architecture X literature X theatre collaboration for the HK-SZ Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB 2017). A series of events are set in neglected edges and gaps of North Point generated out of research and reuse of urban voids to reinterpret Hong Kong’s contemporary conditions - heterogeneity, disappearance and permanent transition.

Design Trust Grant Recipients at Design Society

Sky Yutaka “Borrowed Nature” 2017 at Design Society. Photo courtesy of Design Trust Seed Grant Recipient Sky Yutaka.

The grand opening of Design Society marks the unveiling of new works created by Design Trust Grant Recipients Sky Yutaka and Stickyline. Also housed in Fumihiko Maki’s brand-new architecture is V&A Museum’s first gallery in China at the Design Society, where Design Trust Grant Recipients Brendan Cormier and Luisa E. Mengoni, as well as Design Trust Futures Studio Mentor Sam Jacob celebrated their exhibition “Values of Design”.

The Ambassadors’ Ball 2017

Ambassadors’ Ball 2017.

The Ambassadors’ Ball 2017 in benefit of Design Trust was held on Saturday, 14 October 2017 at Kerry Hotel. Themed as “科水” (fo seoi), architect André Fu and typographer Adonian Chan reinterpreted typography aesthetics and Chinese calligraphic culture with contemporary design. This annual benefit brought together design industry influencers, stakeholders, art connoisseurs, creative talents, collectors and society icons, to celebrate and promote Hong Kong’s rich community of creativity and design.

Design Trust Futures Studio Highlights

Design Trust Futures Studio. MobilePark by Wendy Wu, Ricky Lai and Xavier Tsang with Mentor Sam Jacob.

The Design Trust Futures Studio Exhibition concluded the ten-month journey of our first DTFS programme where our designer-mentees worked alongside world-renowned mentors and advisors on the theme “SMALL IS MEANINGFUL”, creating a series of intriguing research output and innovative concepts on micro-parks for Hong Kong.

Design Trust x BODW Panel “Provocations: Writing, Reviewing and Communicating Design”

Design Trust x BODW 2017 special panel “Provocations: Writing, Reviewing and Communicating Design”.

Design Trust co-presented a special panel “Provocations: Writing, Reviewing and Communicating Design” at Business of Design Week (BODW) 2017’s forum “Culture and The City”. With the advance of digital technologies, a new renaissance in cultural production emerged. The discussion highlights the ubiquitous and elusiveness of design, and the importance of communication and provocation.