The Taiwan Lantern Festival held in Kaohsiung in February won “Designer of the Year” in the category of lighting design from France’s Novum Design Award (NDA), according to Kaohsiung City Government in a press release Tuesday.

Six of the lantern projects displayed at the festival also received gold and silver awards from the NDA 2022, the city government said in the press release.

The four gold awards in the lighting design category went to the “Taiwan Lantern Festival in Kaohsiung,” “Light Up the Love River Bay,” the “Maritime Glow,” and the “Spotlight on Taiwan — Best of Luck in the Year of Tiger.”

One silver award in the same category went to the “Thousand-Armed Lightsaber,” the city government said, while the “Weiwuying Lights Up: The Island of Memories” project displayed at the festival also won silver in the digital art and graphic design category.

The NDA was first organized in France in 2019 as a platform to recognize outstanding design projects from around the world, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (???) was quoted as saying in the press release.

Winning the “Designer of the Year” award for the lantern festival was a rare achievement, and the team behind the planning of the event was excited about the honor, Chen said.

Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Shih Che (??), who was responsible for leading festival planning, said the event in February broke with convention to offer spectators an unforgettable light show experience.

There were nine awardees in the lighting design category this year, six from the Taiwan Lantern Festival, Shih said, adding that the city government was especially proud to win the “Designer of the Year” award.

Kaohsiung City Government said the lantern festival it hosted this year has so far received a total of 16 international awards, including the seven recently announced by the NDA.

According to the NDA website, there were 10 award categories, including architectural design; interior design; urban planning and landscape design; furniture design; lighting design; digital art and graphic design; packing design; product design; fashion and textile design; and photography and photo manipulation design.

“Designer of the Year” is the top honor awarded in each category, the website indicates, and submissions to the NDA 2022 opened in January and ended in June this year.

However, the website did not indicate how many entries were submitted to the NDA this year.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel