Press Release
Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation by Hikoko Ito Wins the Bronze A' Design Award in Fine Arts and Art Installation Design
Hikoko Ito acknowledged for fine arts and art installation design by the international grand jury of the 2023 - 2024 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 21, 2024 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation by Hikoko Ito, designed for Hong Kong Museum of Art, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Fine Arts and Art Installation Design category. The result belongs to the 2023 - 2024 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Bronze A' Design Award Explained
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
About Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation
Happy Birthday Likeboxes is an art installation formed by 366 illuminated mailboxes, one for each day of the year. Each mailbox door carries a pattern that hides a Chinese character, and visitors decipher the pattern to open the matching box. Inside, a hand-drawn birthday card left by an earlier visitor can be found. Each visitor then draws a new card for a future visitor and places the card in a postbox. The mailboxes are made of plastic, acrylic plates and LED lights. The installation encourages personal expression and kindness.
Award Record
With this recognition, Hikoko Ito is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Fine Arts and Art Installation Design Award
The A' Fine-Art Design Award is an international fine-art design competition recognizing best fine-art works by leading fine-art artists and creators worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to artists, painters, sculptors and ceramicists from all countries. Typical entries include sculptures, paintings, installations, photographs, drawings and mixed media works. The awarded art designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/fine-art
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/156417
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/156417
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!156417
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/119370
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://bit.ly/hblbhkmoa
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation
- Function
- Art Installation
- Category
- Fine Arts and Art Installation Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Arts
- Colors
- Peru, Brown, Sienna, Light Blue and Dark Salmon
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Hong Kong Museum of Art
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Hikoko Ito
- Country
- Hong Kong (China)
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2023 - 2024
- Design ID
- #156417
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The 366 illuminated mailboxes, each representing a day of the year, enable you to receive a hand-drawn birthday card from a previous visitor and create one for a future visitor, perpetuating a continuous chain of kindness. Adorned with intricate patterns that form visual puzzles, these mailboxes invite participants to uncover the hidden Chinese characters, unlocking the magic within. The joyous ritual of decoding patterns and exchanging birthday cards transforms each visit into a journey of discoveries and moments of special connection.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by my family tradition of exchanging hand-drawn birthday cards, my art installation aims to recreate that joy for visitors, at the same time fostering a pay it forward spirit in the community. The Likeboxes resembling social media posts, encourage visitors to reflect on the often-impersonal nature of digital interactions and to instead create and share a hand-drawn birthday card infused with sincere, heartfelt wishes.
- Research
- Rooted in my humble family tradition of drawing birthday cards for my parents, Happy Birthday Likeboxes is a journey through joy and human connection. The adventure begins with the quest for one's unique Birthday Mailbox. This search and the exchange of hand drawn birthday cards transform every visit into an exploration and moments of special connection. Many visitors claimed to have been motivated to start creating birthday cards for their loved ones, extending the warmth & kindness experienced from the installation to their own family circles.
- Challenge
- There was skepticism regarding whether visitors would invest time in creating birthday cards for a stranger and if the quality of the contributions would be satisfactory. Serving dually as a social experiment, the installation's launch tested the altruism and community spirit of Hong Kong's residents. The resounding success and the positive reception of the installation and its subsequent variations in various Chinese cities and Paris have since affirmed the project's appeal across diverse age groups and cultures.
- Realization and Technology
- Materials: Plastic for Likeboxes, acrylic plates for patterns on doors of Likeboxes, LED lights, polyester wallcovering, brisl coated texture paper, ORACAL 651 adhesive patterns on glass walls, wood and steel for Postbox, wooden desks and chairs.
- Operation and Interaction
- 1.Find Your Birthday Likebox that corresponds to your birth date. 2.Decipher the Pattern on its door and uncover the hidden Chinese character to unlock the magic of your Birthday Likebox. 3.Open Your Birthday Likebox. 4.Receive a Unique Birthday Card lovingly gifted by a previous visitor. 5.Select a Drawing Card with printed depiction of an artwork from the Hong Kong Museum of Art collection. 6.Create a New Birthday Card for another future visitor. 7.Send your card at the Post box. Selected works, over 2,500 up to Dec 20th, 2023) are photographed and featured on social media hblbhkmoa.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project commenced in April 2023 and the inaugural exhibition of the art installation Happy Birthday Likeboxes debuted in July 2023 at the Chih Lo Lou Gallery on the 4th floor of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Originally scheduled to end in October 2023, the exhibition's popularity warranted an extension through January 2024. Capitalizing on this success, the museum inaugurated a second exhibition titled Happy Birthday Likeboxes in Sunlight on the 5th floor, commencing January 18th, 2024, which is anticipated to conclude on June 26th, 2024.
- Specifications
- Main installation comprises of 366 Birthday Likeboxes 8445mm x 500mm x 1890mm; Postbox 500mm x 500mm x 1300mm
- Keywords
- Art Installation, Community Engagement, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, Happy Art, Connecting people
