The archive · Design & Visual · Marketing decision · 2021–2022
D&AD's Taiwan exhibition slices its pencil trophy open to reveal Taiwan's famous fruit
Taiwan University of Science and Technology's design lab planned the D&AD Taiwan show and built its identity on a cut pencil revealing the fruit inside.
D&AD
What it had to solve
D&AD's exhibition in Taiwan needed design and curation, and the whole job fell to the Design Department Lab of Taiwan University of Science and Technology — introducing the awards to a local audience with a visual idea.
How it works
D&AD's exhibition in Taiwan needed both design and curation, and all of it was planned by the Design Department Lab of Taiwan University of Science and Technology. The challenge was to introduce the foreign awards show to a local audience.
The concept combined D&AD's iconic pencil-shaped award with the fruit for which Taiwan is famous: the pencil is cut open and the fruit inside is revealed, so the institution's symbol and the island's symbol meet in one image.
Because the pencil is D&AD's own trophy and fruit is what Taiwan is known for, the cut identity tells visitors what the show is and where it is before a single word is read.
The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive, which records no visitor counts; its significance is the pairing itself, an identity built on the intersection of two symbols.
Why it lands
- The pencil is D&AD's own trophy shape, so the identity is unmistakably about the awards before a word is read.
- Fruit is the thing Taiwan is famous for, so one cut connects the institution to its host island.
- Cutting a pencil to reveal fruit creates curiosity — visitors want to see what is inside.
- Putting design and curation in the hands of a local university lab made the foreign awards show feel locally made.
What it did
The cut-pencil identity was applied across the exhibition and its materials, ran from 29 December 2021 to 14 January 2022, and is preserved in the D&AD awards archive, which records no visitor counts.
What you can take
When an institution travels to a new country, find the one cut that joins both identities — here the D&AD pencil sliced open to show Taiwan's fruit — and build the whole show around it.
Since then
The exhibition opened on 29 December 2021 and ran to 14 January 2022, with the fruit-filled pencil identity applied across the show. The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive, which records no visitor counts; the lasting idea is the cut that joins an institution's symbol with a country's.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card