Press Release
Bronze A' Design Award in Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design Goes to As I Remember Them Generative Art by Bowen Shen
The international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Bowen Shen for generative, algorithmic, parametric and ai-assisted design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 17, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Bronze A' Design Award in the Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design category for As I Remember Them Generative Art by Bowen Shen. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 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 scored 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.
Regarding As I Remember Them Generative Art
This generative art series depicts everyday childhood moments through AI assisted image making. The work focuses on scenes such as school recess, quiet summer afternoons at home, and New Year celebrations, drawn from lived experience in Northern China. Created through guided prompting and manual visual editing, the series prioritizes realism while allowing subtle visual irregularities that reflect how memory preserves feeling rather than exact detail.
About Bowen Shen
Bowen Shen is a multidisciplinary designer and visual storyteller based in New York City. With roots in Northern China, Bowen's creative journey began with a deep love for drawing and painting—an early passion that continues to inform her work today.
Award Record
This recognition makes Bowen Shen a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design Award
The A' Generative Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good generative designs from leading creators and designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to generative designers, algorithmic design professionals, ai-assisted design experts and parametric designers from all countries. Typical entries include algorithmic artworks, parametric architectures, generative graphics, ai-assisted illustrations, computational sculptures and procedural patterns. The awarded generative designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/generative
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/176660
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/176660
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!176660
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/373904
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://bit.ly/4qroi5S
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
###
Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- As I Remember Them Generative Art
- Function
- Generative Art
- Category
- Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design
- Discipline
- Design Strategy
- Industry
- Innovation and Design Industry
- Colors
- Slate Gray, Dark Khaki, Dark Sea Green, Black and Cadet Blue
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Bowen Shen
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #176660
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- As I Remember Them is a generative art series that visualizes fragments of memory, emotion, and longing. It is an attempt to reconstruct the past through the lens of imagination.
- Inspiration
- Bothered by how often GenAI outputs felt soulless, the project set out to render a deeply soulful subject, the emotional landscape of childhood. I grew up in Northern China, in a hometown changed by time and distance. Through prompting, storytelling, and hands-on editing, I recreated scenes that linger in me: recess, summer solitude, New Year warmth, while embracing GenAI quirks that reflect how memory distorts and softens.
- Research
- Process documentation: https://bit.ly/49OvkvG Type of Research: Practice-based creative research. Research Objectives: To explore how AI can represent personal and culturally specific memories. Methodology: Iterative visual experimentation and technical study. Data Collection and Tools: Memory recall, curated reference images, MidJourney style parameters, prompting techniques, Photoshop. Participants or Experiments: Repeated prompt and image generation cycles. Results: Increased control over style, detail, and emotional accuracy. Insights and Impacts: Structured prompting reduces emotional flatness in AI art.
- Challenge
- The greatest challenge was translating personal, culturally specific memories into AI-generated images. MidJourney lacked context for the textures of Northern Chinese life, requiring me to break scenes into elements, source references, and iteratively refine prompts. Balancing realism with the quirks of AI output, and deciding when to embrace its distortions, was both the obstacle and the creative breakthrough.
- Realization and Technology
- This series was created with MidJourney, using iterative prompting and reference-based descriptions to shape culturally specific scenes. Outputs were then refined in Photoshop through compositing, retouching, and color adjustments, ensuring the final work aligned with my artistic vision and emotional intent.
- Operation and Interaction
- The generative art is experienced through sequential viewing. Each image presents a self-contained moment, allowing viewers to pause, observe, and form personal associations. The series encourages slow viewing rather than interaction through controls, inviting audiences to connect individual scenes to their own memories and emotional experiences.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project was created virtually over the span of one month in January 2025.
- Specifications
- 1856 x 2464px image series
- Keywords
- Generative AI art, Nostalgia, Childhood memories, Northern China, Visual storytelling, MidJourney, Photoshop, Digital art
