SZ Design Week 2020 to kick off tomorrow

The main poster of this year’s Shenzhen Design Week, which will kick off tomorrow. Courtesy of the organizer

The long-awaited Shenzhen Design Week 2020 is back. From tomorrow to Aug. 30, Shenzhen will experience an unrivaled creative frenzy.

Thirty-three design institutions and 800 designers from 20 countries and regions at home and abroad will attend this annul meeting of the design world, offering the best of trends and design innovations.

Themed “Fusion of Design,” the 2020 edition is divided into 10 key sections, which will be mainly presented online. More than 40 activities in various forms, both online and offline, will be staged in nearly 20 sub-venues across the city.

Citizens can watch online exhibitions via the WeChat mini program or the official website (sz.design) of Shenzhen Design Week, and can also log onto bilibili to search the official account of “Shenzhen Design Week” (深圳设计周) and watch the live-streaming events.

The year 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, and 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.

As China’s 1st and the world’s 6th city winning the title of UNESCO City of Design, Shenzhen has specially set up an exhibition named “Shenzhen Design for 40 Years” in this year’s design week. 

The poster of "Shenzhen Design for 40 years" exhibition.

The exhibition aims to review the remarkable achievements of Shenzhen in the field of design in the past 40 years and ponder upon the future design scene in Shenzhen.

As the guest country of honor of Shenzhen Design Week 2020, the Netherlands has a large area of land below sea level. Due to this special geographical environment, the Netherlands has accumulated rich experience in using design to solve multiple challenges in the water sector.

During Shenzhen Design Week, the Netherlands will present its practices in the field of “water,” sharing creative energy with the general public with an exhibition themed “Water as Leverage for Sustainable Development.”

The poster of the online exhibition of "Water as Leverage for Sustainable Development" presented by the Netherlands during this year Shenzhen Design Week.

A series of online forums under the same theme of the exhibition will be held from Aug. 25 to 28, where 16 Chinese and Dutch water experts will share their vision of human’s relationship with water.

The thematic exhibition of Shenzhen Design Week 2020, titled “Crossing Innovation - Leonardo da Vinci,” will lead the audience to a journey transcending time and space, starting from the town where Leonardo was born.

The audience can not only enjoy the world-famous masterpieces such as “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper,” but also full-size replicas of da Vinci’s precious manuscripts of scientific inventions.

Another highlight of this year’s design week comes to two exhibitions related to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, namely, “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Design Exhibition” and “Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Digital Creative Design Exhibition.”

Another exhibition that can’t be missed in the design week is “Design in the Epidemic,” which utilizes visual language to tell the touching stories during the global battle against COVID-19, and especially, the virus fight in Wuhan, Hubei Province. 

"Design in the Epidemic" exhibits on anti-epidemic posters from Wuhan and across the world.

The Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talents is a key event of the “City Culture Menu” in Shenzhen. During the design week, a series of events related to the award will also be staged to welcome the creative effervescence of emerging designers.

An offline excellent works exhibition of the award will be held in Jupiter Museum of Art from tomorrow to Aug. 30, while the award ceremony will be staged online at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Shenzhen Design Week, first held in 2017, is an annual design event sponsored by the Shenzhen Municipal Government, directed by the Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Office and organized by the Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Association.