DFA Awards celebrate 17 young Hong Kong design talents at DesignInspire

The DFA Awards 2025 on Thursday featured designs from 17 winners of the Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award (HKYDTA) this year, at an annual creative showcase, DesignInspire, presented among the design excellence of over 200 award winners.

Launched in 2003 by the Hong Kong Design Centre, the award comprises seven programmes celebrating design leadership and outstanding projects with demonstrated impact in Asia.

The DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award specifically recognises the emerging force of local young design talent. This year, 17 winners were selected by a professional panel of judges.

Among them, 13 winners will receive financial sponsorships to pursue study or work opportunities outside Hong Kong, broadening their horizons and bringing fresh perspectives to the local creative industry.

Projects by fashion and accessory designers embody not only aesthetic excellence but also a dedication to promoting sustainable fashion through innovative techniques such as advanced knitting methods and the creation of entirely new fabrics.

The award-winning designers span the fields of communication, service and experience, product and industrial, and spatial design, while some embrace and integrate multiple media forms to craft immersive experiences and inspire innovative dialogues.

Au Choi-shan, a  Hong Kong Polytechnic University graduate, won the award for kinetic design and explores how movement can transform architectural spaces into dynamic, meaningful experiences that resonate with users.

Au expects the government to provide more practical opportunities to design students, which would shape their hands-on experience, while stressing the importance of practical experience for them to thrive.

She also cited how the university-provided support for her projects required technical energy knowledge, expressing the wish for authorities to facilitate access to more resources and information from interdisciplinary subjects.

Another awardee, Louis Hung Wai-yin, believes design is a means to reconnect people, places, and memories – enriching the urban fabric by weaving together the old and the new.

“I think these opportunities to create design discussions are a way we can really open up dialogue,” he said. He believes the awards and workshops can bridge design dialogue between different stakeholders, going beyond simply displaying projects in a designer’s office.