To bring the knowledge of cultural assets in the museums to the students of design majors in the colleges and universities, the Ministry of Education hosted the “Calling for New Ideas- Merchandise Design for Social Education Institutions Competition”. This event aims to encourage students to integrate wisdom, aesthetics, and craft techniques into their designs to create merchandise for museums.

The projects created in this competition are scheduled for public exhibition from January 30th to February 4th at the fourth floor corridor and a total of 31 product designs will be showcased in this exhibition, including projects entitled "Chewing the Words", "Gear Tree", "Shaving and Planning", and "Whale Tissue Dispenser". Fun and sweet "Chewing the Words" is designed by Hu Li-Zhun from Chang Geng University. His design is a box of signature seals made from chocolate; you will be eating your own words when you put these chocolate seals into your mouth.

The “Gear Tree” is designed by Huang Zong-Di from Shude University of Technology. He uses gears of different sizes to build a tree that has branches extending freely outward. The gears simulate trees growth rings and the timber core represents the life of the tree. The small gears made from acrylic, metal, and screws represent the fun of technology and offer fun activities for the busy office workers. "Shaving and Planning" is a geometric form of a ice shaving machine. It looks like an ice shaving machine but indeed it is a pen sharpener. This ice shaving machine does not give you refreshing ice dessert but pencil shaves; nonetheless, the process of rolling the handle is fun.

Other designs include "Snake Tape", "Wavy Shelf", "Blowfish Toothpick Bottle", "Magnifying Glass", "Double-Sided Pins". They are not only fun to collect but also fully presented the essence of the museums they are designed for. This exhibition will only be open for one week in Kaohsiung from January 30th to February 4th at the National Science and Technology Museum (Kaohsiung), so don't miss this interesting carnival of fun designs.
To sign up online, please visit http://www.dmd.yuntech.edu.tw/event/2006ni/purpose.html