World Design Capital Taipei 2016

Summary

JL DESIGN was in charge of the key visual of the World Design Capital (WDC) 2016: Taipei. Centring around the idea of an “Adaptive City”, we aimed to convey the insightful design plans of a forward-looking city as well as the urban spirit of Taipei. Moreover, we proposed “Taipei in the Making: To Perfection, As We Are Not Perfect Yet”, integrating design concepts into daily life through three different perspectives: “Participation of People”, “Connecting by Technology”, and “Urban Renewal”.

Mission

Taipei was the second Asian city chosen to host the WDC, which spoke of its potentials and iconic role in the design sector. The organiser aimed to fuel the amazing power of design the city possesses by hosting the event in Taipei. Therefore, conveying the insightful design plans of a forward-looking city as well as the urban spirit of Taipei, we centred around the idea of an “Adaptive City” and showcased different brick-and-mortar venues as well as their cultural roles in Taipei while conveying the ethos of WDC, which is to deepen the exploration of all kinds of possibilities created through designs.

Solution

JL DESIGN proposed “Design in Taipei, Taipei is Designing” to illustrate the ethos of the year’s event: “Taipei in the Making: To Perfection, As We Are Not Perfect Yet”. Using the transition from imperfect polyhedrons to a perfect circle, we wanted to showcase the different functions of a city at different hours. Looking at Taipei’s past, present, and future, we examined the issues found in the city and used visual language to convey that the city continued to advance under three different perspectives: “Participation of People”, “Connecting by Technology”, and “Urban Renewal”.

Impact

Connecting dots, lines, and shapes together in the key visuals, we aimed to show that every person and organisation in the city were doing their parts to design the city. Every resident is a designer of their city, as well as a contributor to solve the problems of their city. We also delivered the objective of the event – To change things that are not perfect to become perfect – while using highly applicable key visual to help enhance the visibility of the related events and communicate more effectively with the public.