Design awards showcase heritage and innovation across art disciplines

The 2024-25 "Heart of Beijing" Perfect World Campus Art Design Award competition concluded on Monday with an award ceremony held at the historical Zhihua Temple in Beijing's Dongcheng district.

The event celebrated outstanding achievements across multiple categories, including the product design track, international short film competition, and digital art. Ten winning works were also showcased at the ceremony, reflecting the competition's theme of blending traditional aesthetics with contemporary creativity.

Among the highlights was the Splendid Hidden Treasures products set by Zhang Qiao'er of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, featuring silk scarves, postcards and folding screens inspired by the Palace Museum. The set infuses imperial charm into everyday designs, illustrating the rebirth of classical beauty through modern craftsmanship.

Since its launch in 2020, the competition has attracted over 20,000 students from nearly 800 universities worldwide, including almost 100 overseas institutions, and has generated more than 11,000 entries.

This year, several award-winning works were also featured at the Beijing London Short Film Festival, organized by the British Department of Commerce and Trade and the Oriental Odyssey digital art exhibition in London, marking the event's first step onto the global stage.

The competition has created a full-chain ecosystem, from cultural inheritance and creative transformation to business incubation and talent development, says Wang Tiefeng, director of the Dongcheng district culture and tourism bureau.

It has continuously provided new energy for Dongcheng's cultural innovation, Wang notes.

Technological innovation has become a defining feature of the event. Since its third edition, the competition has opened digital intelligence tracks covering AI-generated painting, music and film.

"Technology-driven creativity lies at the core of this competition," says Yi Di, senior vice-president of the gaming and movie conglomerate Perfect World.

As one of China's first campus competitions featuring AIGC art design, it has nurtured a generation of cross-disciplinary talents and become an important talent incubator for the industry, Yi says.