Chongqing - The award ceremony of the Dazu Forging Tool Creative Design Professional Competition was held at the Dazu District on February 22. The organizers announced the competition results, and many cooperation agreements were successfully signed.
Scene of the award ceremony. (Photo/ Dazu District)
Enriching the heritage of "Hometown of Metals"
With the millennium heritage of rock carvings, Dazu has also been known as the "hometown of metals" for thousands of years.
Focusing on the traditional hardware industry with local characteristics, the Dazu Forging Tool Creative Design Professional Competition has been held for three consecutive years by the Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau and the People's Government of Dazu District. So far, a total of six works have been commercialized and put on the market. These works are well received by consumers, with the sales increasing exponentially, enriching the heritage and connotation of Dazu's traditional hardware industry.
The prize-winning work "labor-saving kitchen knife" from the last competition （Photo/ Dazu District）
Like the previous ones, this competition emphasizes the design creativity of metal cutting tools in terms of idea, direction, materials, and process, and aims to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of Dazu's hardware industry and to facilitate the interaction between design resources and the hardware industry.
In addition, there are three professional directions of this competition, including cutting tools for daily use, cutting tools for creative travel gifts, and decorative boxes for cutting tools, requiring forward-thinking and creativity, and response to future development trends of metal cutting tools. This competition has also placed a high premium on market prospects, ergonomics, commercialization feasibility of the entries, and the actual demands of cutting tool enterprises.
Connecting design with industry
This competition adopted the online evaluation method has received great attention from all walks of life and attracted many renowned hardware enterprises and industry insiders. After fierce competition, the evaluation expert group selected 18 ranking prizes and 42 outstanding prizes.
Among them, the first prize winners are: "Qingfeng Yueying, Muniu Buyou" from Chongqing Normal University in the series of cutting tools for daily use; "Flying to Sky" from Artop Chengdu in the series of cutting tools for creative travel gifts; "A Journey of Landscape" from Chongqing Normal University in the series of decorative boxes for cutting tools.
"A Journey of Landscape" from Chongqing Normal University won the first prize in the series of decorative boxes for cutting tools.（Photo/ Dazu District）
"Flying to Sky" from Artop Chengdu won the first prize in the series of cutting tools for creative travel gifts.（Photo/ Dazu District）
In particular, most of the shortlisted works extracted the traditional cultural symbols of Dazu. Among them, the cutting tools of the prize-winning work are based on the picture of cattle herding in Baoding Mountain, which integrates the process of cattle taming into knives design, and integrates Zen into daily life. The design elements of the cutting tools "Flying to Sky" are extracted from the 'Flying Rock Carvings' in the Dazu Rock Carvings, retaining the graceful and floating posture of the figures. The "A Journey of Landscape" cutting tool packaging box integrates the scenery of Dazu into the design, expressing the concept of a good knife accompanying a journey of mountains and rivers.
Du Ren, the Head of the Science and Technology Bureau of Dazu District, Chongqing (Photo/ Dazu District)
Du Ren, the Head of the Science and Technology Bureau of Dazu District, Chongqing, said that the award-winning works have strong functionality and cultural attributes, making them good examples of China-Chic products. From appearance to connotation, from scientific nature to practicality, these works are deemed remarkable.
To flawlessly connect design with industry and enhance the innovation and entrepreneurship vitality and core competitiveness of the hardware industry clusters, a number of cooperation agreements were signed on the spot so that the design will bring vitality to production, and production will enable the successful commercialization of design.
Implement more hardware projects in Dazu
By virtue of a wealth of experience in holding hardware competitions, Dazu has developed a "five-link chain" system of technical services focused on achievements application, intellectual property protection, investment, financing cooperation, fin-tech, and policy incentives.
Local enterprises will cooperate with the winners on a selective basis to develop new products. By integrating design resources and characteristic industry, they will enhance the core competitiveness, innovation, and entrepreneurship of the hardware industry, and realize the extension and appreciation of Dazu's hardware industrial chain, according to the person in charge of Dazu District.
This year, ten works are being commercialized.
"Driven by the Competition, Dazu has focused on the industrial demand, deployed an innovation chain around the characteristic hardware industrial chain, strengthened the dominant role of enterprises in technological innovation, established a sound platform for gathering innovation factors with enterprises as the main players, the market as the guide, and the in-depth industry-university-research integration." A representative in charge said that Dazu has preserved and developed its unique hardware culture and rock carving culture, established a unique brand of Dazu forging tools, promoted the deep integration of industrial design and industrial development, and catalyzed the high-quality development of Dazu's cutting tool industry, to launch more hardware projects.