Malaysian companies to benefit from Taiwanese visual design experts

Last month, Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) was honoured to play host to the Taiwan x Malaysia Business Matching Session – a continued effort by TDRI to bridge the communication gap between businesses and design. Held online this time around, the business matching gathered applications from all across the country, reaching a wider audience through social media despite the pandemic setbacks.

TDRI is the only design-based organisation in Taiwan promoting and exporting Taiwanese design services to other countries, and has already worked with several companies from Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Through a business matching platform, TDRI helps business owners and manufacturers to expedite the design and development phase of their project and make it a reality by the yearend. 

This year also marks the second time TDRI has initiated the Taiwan x Malaysia Business Cooperation in collaboration with Malaysia’s homegrown and award-winning design agency, Tsubaki Studio. Along with major influencers of visual design and branding from the Taiwan design circle, the Taiwan x Malaysia Business Matching Session brought together some of the best design companies: Dot Design, Kimu Design, team CIRCORE, Ideoso Design, Bilateral Design, Summer Design, Holycow Design, IPRINT Design, and IS Design Brand Consultancy.

Prior to the business matching session, a webinar series with fellow design companies was streamed live on Facebook on July 22 and 23, 2020 and boasted a positive reception of close to 5,800 views, with Facebook users comprising graphic designers, brand consultants, digital artists, design students, and those from business communities. All 3 episodes were well-received by the enthusiastic audience. 

First to grace the webinar was TDRI’s President Chang Chi-Yi, who in his opening speech mentioned that design plays an important role in increasing value for businesses. As he noted, the business cooperation between Taiwan and Malaysia with a focus on design is a plausible idea that can contribute to the local economy as well as cultural growth.

“This year, Covid-19 seems like a threat to the world but for us, we see it as an opportunity. With design, we hope we can grow our economy and compete better,” he noted during the first episode of the webinar. “We hope our collaboration with Malaysia can bring more opportunities to everyone.”

The big line-up of speakers included Lance Han, director of Dot Design; Link Lin, founder of team CIRCORE; Ryan Han, director of Holycow Design; Lin Ken-Yu, executive director of IS Design Brand Consultancy; Kelly Lin, founder of Kimu Design; Joy Chu Hsiang-Yi creative director of Ideoso Design; Eric Wang, industrial designer of Summer Design; KF Lim, founder of  Bilateral Design; and IPRINT Design’s creative director Jone Chen Yu-Chung and market strategy manager Daniel Chen Yu-Hung.

Each speaker also gave a brief presention about their portfolio and shared examples of successful local Taiwanese brands in the market and why branding plays an important role in any business. It was in hopes that by sharing their honest views on the application of brand localisation in businesses, those looking to brand or rebrand their businesses in a new environment post-Covid-19 would see the Taiwan x Malaysia Business Matching Session as an opportunity whereby a subsidy of 60% is being offered by TDRI to successfully-matched projects. 

A total of 16 candidates were selected from the application process. It attracted people from various industries including food and beverage, fast-moving consumer goods, furniture manufacturing, quantum acoustics, printing, retail, wholesale, and services. 

To be eligible for the subsidy, one needed to submit an online application form and have an initial 30-minute meeting with the design companies that had been handpicked for them based on their budget needs and project requirements, after which the business proposals would be reviewed by TDRI. The services on offer include branding, corporate identity design, product design, packaging design, visual design, and web design.