The first person

The Graduation Exhibition of 96th NUUID in 2011

The location of the first Person was in the Taipei world trade center. We were given a space of 18m by 12m . We got $ 200,000 NTD funding for all the decorations , which was not a big budget , so we had to minimize the cost where possible. The good thing was , we were part of the product design department so the decoration was made simple using few colours to avoid taking concentration away from our works.

The main idea of the display was showing off all our specialties: shoe design, metal design and product design , and let visitors gain a unique experience from our show - that’s why we named this exhibition “The first person”. We set up a triangular center as our headquarters ; every single surface had a different purpose.

Exhibition Area

The Year book recorded all the works of the 96th NUUID (National United University of Industrial Design) graduates, including the awards we’d got before, and also introduced the history of our department. The year book was divided into one work per page; they could be sold separately and also could be purchased together, as visitors wished. Visitors could choose what they wanted and create a unique year book for themselves. This design made our Year book sell much better than previous years.

The Year Book

As president if the 96th NUUID I was in charge of the entire graduation exhibition. I was responsible for its overall success or failure. I had to coordinate negotiate with subcontractors, professors, group leaders and classmates for more than a year. Over that time plans had to be revisited and revised on several occasions.

I couldn’t control what other people think, particularly when there are so many people involved in such a big project. As a result I had to be very patient and careful in my dealings with people. There were endless details that needed to be attended to from displays to catwalks. No effort was spared by the people involved and as a result we achieved a great outcome.

The live workshop combined leather and metal craft in order to let visitors make their own souvenirs and these elements were our specialties which we wanted the visitors to remember. We provided different types and styles of leather, and then visitors could weave and paint it. The last step was choosing their favorite metal accessories and putting them together. The workshop kept many visitors in our showroom, making us a popular spot.

D.I.Y Workshop

In order to make the metal works more dynamic, we decided to hire models and hold a catwalk during the showcase. Naturally, our models couldn’t stand and continue walking on the stage all day, so twice a day there was a change from the static display to the dynamic catwalk. In case there were too many spectators and the crowd caused damage to other items, the showcase had been set facing outside. As a result, the audience damaged a wall of the neighbouring show. During the catwalk, I was on the microphone, introducing each design and its background.

Catwalk & Metal works

While everything was being organised, we film a documentary as a memento. It was a long journey; difficult at times but funny at times, working hard at times and being rewarded. It was a part of our lives, and I am still proud of what we achieved.