Ask yourself. Is a design good if it won an award? Or is it good if it positively impacted people? The latter sounds like the most obvious option, right? Well, that’s the objective of China’s premier awards program, the Design Intelligence Award. Established in 2015 by the China Academy of Art, the DIA Award doesn’t just discover good design… It develops it. Working in part as an award program and in part as a product accelerator, the DIA Award celebrates innovation and entrepreneurial imagination. The free-to-enter award program has a two-round judging and evaluation process, with the aim to help develop products that uniquely benefit humanity. In doing so, the DIA Award also aims at creating a platform to accelerate international trade, increase connectivity, and open up commercial opportunities. After all, good design is only impactful when it reaches and benefits more people, right? To that end, the award program has even set up a prize fund worth ¥5 million RMB, or $750,000 USD to help incubate great ideas into great designs.

The Design Intelligence Award’s judging process occurs in two stages – a preliminary, and a more hands-on final one. During this time, an elite panel of 550 multidisciplinary design experts evaluates the entries based on three criteria/layers – 1) The fundamental layer emphasizes the “Principles of Design”, covering functionality, aesthetics, technicality, user experience, and sustainability. 2) The advanced layer emphasizes the “Direction of Design”, spanning contribution to humanity, industry, and the future. 3) The top layer emphasizes the “Impact of Design” in regard to social influence and industrial development.

Based on these criteria, the DIA Jury Panel selects 30 outstanding projects that are innovative and positively impactful. Winners get access to the DIA’s prize fund of ¥5 million RMB ($750,000 USD) with the winner alone getting ¥1 million RMB. Although that isn’t the end of it. All winners are invited to the DIA Award Ceremony to engage face-to-face with global representatives from various industries such as design, academic circles, media, etc. The award also organizes a set of expert lectures known as the D-WILL, sponsored by Zhejiang Modern Intelligent Manufacturing Promotion Center and Design Innovation Center of China Academy of Art, with the intent to spearhead innovation and connectivity. With “Meet design, Meet future” as its initial intention, the Lecture invites education experts, industry elites, and pioneers to share their achievements and insights in their personal research and careers with younger generations. Finally, winners get featured in the media as a part of a coordinated PR push to help get their work noticed by everybody. In fact, you can scroll down to see a few winners and honorable mentions from last year’s Design Intelligence Awards.

Have an innovative idea for a product or service? Want to win up to ¥1 million RMB ($147,000 USD) to help develop it into a tangible life-changing design? Click here to enroll for the 2022 Design Intelligence Awards FOR FREE!

Movable “Huo-Yan” product series by BGI Genomics Co., Ltd. (GOLD WINNER)

Designed as a response to the pandemic and an emerging need to rapidly turn vacant plots of land into testing labs and isolation wards, the Movable “Huo-Yan” features a series of negative-pressure inflatable tents that can be transported to a site and quickly deployed on the spot. These tents are designed to then serve as nucleic acid testing laboratories or isolation wards, allowing scientists and the medical community to rapidly respond to any outbreaks that need intervention.

New Urban Rail Train Without Catenary Power Supply by CRRC TANGSHAN Co., Ltd. (SILVER WINNER)

Any astute observer will immediately notice what’s different about the train in that picture above. No, it’s not its edgy aesthetic, but rather, the absence of a catenary power supply, or that wire that connects the train’s engine to the power line on top. Developed by CRRC TANGSHAN, this new train concept runs on wireless power instead, relying on an inductive power supply network that charges the train without any cables or wires.

WAVE by d’strict holdings, Inc. (SILVER WINNER)

If you’ve spent any amount of time on social media, chances are you’ve seen videos of this building somewhere on the internet. Located in Gangnam in the heart of Seoul, the ‘WAVE’ is a public media artwork realistically expressing consistently crashing waves through an anamorphic illusion technique on a giant L-shaped LED display. Sure, you could use the display to show advertisements, as they do in Times Square, but go ahead and tell me that you’d rather stare at billboards than a VR anamorphic piece of artwork!

T-dot Smart Bluetooth Braille Keyboard by KunYoong IBC (SILVER WINNER)

Designed to be perhaps the first portable keyboard for Braille users, the T-dot is small enough to be carried around your neck. It opens up almost like a reverse tripod, folding open in a T-shape on a desk. Once connected wirelessly to a device, keys running along the T-shape allow the visually impaired to type out in Braille and have the text automatically transcripted in any language you choose. This accessible tool effectively allows the visually impaired to type without having to navigate around a traditional QWERTY keyboard. A tiny thumb-stick at the center of the T-dot also makes it easy for users to navigate around pages and on machines.

X-Craft AR Headset by Rokid (BRONZE WINNER)

Designed by the makers of some of the earliest available AR headsets, the Rokid X-Craft is the world’s first explosion-proof AR headband equipped with a 5G module. Designed to readily attach to various safety helmets and hard hats, the X-Craft is specially designed for complex and high-risk environments such as oil & gas, electric power, aviation, rail transport, and other industries that could benefit from augmented reality. The glasses come equipped with an AI algorithm and AR technology which enables frontline workers to update information automatically and increase overall efficiency.

Have an innovative idea for a product or service? Want to win up to ¥1 million RMB ($147,000 USD) to help develop it into a tangible life-changing design? Click here to enroll for the 2022 Design Intelligence Awards FOR FREE!