2021 East Asia Design Challenge | Sakura Air Services - さくら航空

Welcome to the 2021 East Asia Design Challenge!

Hi all, I hope that you’ve been staying safe and well this past year! Based off the success from last year’s competition, I’m pleased to host the second-annual East Asia Design Challenge for the next three weeks! Just like last year, along with the other cultural design contests that have been assembled, the goal of this event is to encourage designers to better examine East Asian design features so that individuals can move past common archetypes and, ultimately, show off their creativity and research. As a nod to the excellent designs that have been produced from this competition, this year’s challenge is proudly sponsored by edge’s Sakura Air Services, a small carrier based at Kobe Airport on the island of Honshū in Japan, and the winning design in 2020.

As we all continue to find some sense of understanding during these times, the theme of this year’s competition is focused on the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi (侘寂), which loosely translates to the philosophy of impermanence. Beauty, according to the wabi-sabi, fundamentally differs from typical associations and is generally accepted as an evolving form that is achieved by an item’s authenticity. It is a concept that ascribes worth to the aesthetic modesty and natural aging of an object, and, hence, valuing these imperfections acknowledges that “nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect” (Richard Powell).

Likewise, this ideology is embedded into the design of this year’s iconography, which was inspired by the glare seen when light is shone onto and reflects off a calm body of water. Glistening and ever-shifting, at the same time, this ordinary, aquatic acrobatics pays homage to Kobe’s history as an vibrant Japanese port city during the 19th century.

This year's challenge will be hosted between July 19 - August 9, 2021.
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