The 2022 “Mayor’s Cup” China (Wenzhou) Industrial Design Competition, which is held on a yearly basis, has kicked off, marking the upcoming feast of the science and aesthetics.

As the highest-standard industrial design event in Wenzhou, the “Mayor’s Cup” has been held for 5 consecutive years, and a total of 24,000 works were collected, bringing significant vigor to the local industrial design community. It is reported that among the 140 award-winning works in the past five competitions, 64 were utilized. Led by 2 national-level industrial design centers and 41 provincial-level centers established in Wenzhou, the industrial design and its utilization here have seen huge momentum. Wenzhou University has participated in the “Mayor’s Cup” China (Wenzhou) Industrial Design Competition for many times, giving full play to its advantages of art and design disciplines. In doing so, the University actively responds to the needs of the industrial design industry and witnesses the development of intelligent manufacturing in this city.

As the organizer of past five competitions and the coming one, Wenzhou University enjoys the benefits brought by the events. At present, three related programs, namely, clothing and apparel design, industrial engineering, and materials science and engineering have been selected as national first-class programs. The discipline of design obtains the qualification of granting the master’s degree. The other three disciplines of engineering, computer science, and materials science have entered top 1% of ESI ranking globally.

Hu Wenchao, the deputy dean of the College of Fine Arts and Design, said, “Although the collection of overseas works has been hindered and cooperation in specific sessions has been reduced due to the pandemic in recent years, the number and quality of manuscripts submitted have been significantly improved, which shows that the industry influence and popularity of the competition are constantly improving.”

This year, Wenzhou launched specific policies to further support designers to settle in Wenzhou and enhance intellectual property application services. For example, the contestants who win the product award and the creative gold award would be rated as E-type talents and enjoy relevant benefits. Designers and their teams who win the gold award and silver award before settling in Wenzhou will be rewarded with 100,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan respectively. The world’s top designers who establish their own brands in Wenzhou can be included in the “Ouyue Leading Innovation Program”, according to which they can be given exemption of store rent for up to three years and renovation fees up to 2 million yuan. 

The person in charge of the Municipal Economic and Information Bureau said that the competition this year would focus on the overall goal of accelerating the construction of a more dynamic and prosperous city proposed by the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government. Guided by the service-oriented transformation, digital reform, agglomerative development, and environmentally friendly upgrade, this competition will fully consider the international trend, the local demand and industry need, striving to achieve new breakthroughs in the application of the design and talent recruitment. 

(Source: https://www.eol.cn/zhejiang/zhejiang_news/202204/t20220412_2219947.shtml)