Creative Expo Taiwan City Tour App Connects Travelers to Innovative Design During World Design Capital Taipei 2016

Bilingual app guides visiting culture mavens to more than 250 off-the-beaten-track stores, cafes, restaurants, and cultural centers during World Design Capital® Taipei 2016

TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Operating under the banner "Adaptive City - Design in Motion" -- the core concept behind World Design Capital Taipei 2016 -- Taipei City is set to launch the 2016 edition of the annual Creative Expo Taiwan (CET). Both events are tied directly to the city of Taipei, aiming to bring people to design and take design to the people through themes that re-invent city neighborhoods as spaces for creative products and projects.

Life-sized logo of Creative Expo Taiwan 2015 outside Huashan 1914 Creative Park.

Taipei City invites travelers and businesses alike to become their own tour guides with a bilingual, user-friendly app launched in April 2016 to celebrate the opening of the Creative Expo Taiwan, the island's largest lifestyle design trade show.

Part of an inaugural CET Fringe Shops program, the travel app interprets city neighborhoods as experiential spaces for creativity, and highlights exceptional design and innovation around the city. With 250 stores, cafes, restaurants, and cultural centers at their fingertips, visitors will discover first-hand why Taipei has been named World Design Capital 2016.

The app guides people through the neighborhoods that surround the three major exhibition sites of the 2016 edition of Creative Expo Taiwan, which officially opens on Wednesday, April 20. These neighborhoods include Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Huashan 1914 Creative Park, and the Expo Dome. The app features several useful functions to help travelers design their own tours, including news, maps, visitor information, events, and a list of hand-picked Fringe Shops.

Pioneering Design at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park

Renowned for promoting pioneering Taiwanese design, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is a fitting home for the Taiwan Design Museum, which holds exhibitions of local and international design year round. Using the app's map function, travelers can quickly locate must-see homegrown design stores in the vicinity, such as minimalist furniture showroom Mountain Living, handmade shoe shop O'Ringo, eyewear brand Classico, and a host of fashion labels such as Just In Case, Groovy Store, and A Room Model.

Inspiring Craft at Huashan 1914 Creative Park

The successful urban regeneration project that transformed an abandoned wine-making warehouse into today's Huashan 1914 Creative Park has resulted in an upwelling of creative projects and workshops in and around the venue. Visitors can wander through the neighborhood and visit the iconic 24-hour Eslite Spectrum Bookstore, which holds much more than books within its cavernous interior. Others may prefer to rummage through the treasure trove of magazines, creative Taiwanese products, and vintage memorabilia at VVG Thinking, or the stylish contemporary art, fashion, and lifestyle brands on display at Mano Select Shop.

Creative License at Expo Dome

The Expo Dome, situated among some of Taipei's most important art galleries and museums, will play host to the Images of Art display, exhibiting culturally significant art pieces from such institutions as the National Palace Museum and the National Museum of History. Visitors can enjoy a visit to the nearby Taipei Fine Arts Museum, a shining example of contemporary museum architecture. Next door to the Expo Dome, MAJI Square is a vibrant market of vintage and contemporary fashion and accessories, while farther afield, Everyday Ware flaunts beautifully designed homeware.

"This is the first time Taipei City has harnessed the power of modern technology to provide an immersive experience of the city's lifestyle design. We hope that travelers from near and far will be inspired, and leave with a deeper understanding of innovative Taipei design and Taiwanese culture," says Commissioner Pei-ni Beatrice Hsieh of the Department of Cultural Affairs (Taipei City).

Visitors to Taipei can download the app here: https://goo.gl/MQGz62 (iOS) and https://goo.gl/4YkVjc (Android). For more information on CET Fringe Shops, go to: http://cetmap.tw/. Visitors to Taipei can also pick up a printed city guide at museums, theaters, and visitor information centers. Produced by the Taipei City Government, the guide will soon be available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

To view more images of the Creative Expo Taiwan 2016, a video demonstration of the app in use, and a print version of the CET Fringe Shops map, please follow this download link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bz9o_vxqYG27TFQzcHNXZUJ5cnc&usp=sharing.

Taipei City Government's Department of Cultural Affairs has also launched two urban design projects that visitors to the city might notice during their travels.

• In collaboration with City Yeast, a local social enterprise organization, the New Color for Transformer Boxes project (part of the wider Urban Landscape Planning project) will make Taipei's electrical transformer boxes, cycling paths, and public squares more aesthetically and environmentally appealing. With the support of Taipei Power Company, to date 62 pairs of transformer boxes along five major roads have been earmarked for a revamp. The public is encouraged to help select final color schemes via the official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/taipeiworlddesigncapital/.
  
• The Small Shop Signboard Manufacturer–organized in collaboration with Taipei-based culture promotion brand Archicake–is another project that connects small, family run businesses with designers. Designers consult with business owners to create signboards that highlight their shops' unique character. Running since 2013, the project will this year focus on the creation of signboards for traditional market stalls in Taipei; by the end of 2016, the project hopes to celebrate the creation of the 100th signboard.

For images of these projects, please follow this download link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bz9o_vxqYG27TFQzcHNXZUJ5cnc&usp=sharing.

The Creative Expo Taiwan (CET) has been organized by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan and run by the Taiwan Design Center since 2010. CET 2016 operates under the theme "Savoring the Rich Eastern Culture" and the 2015-2017 core concept "The City is the Exhibition; the Exhibition Displays Life," values that feed into the World Design Capital Taipei 2016's focus on "Adaptive City–Design in Motion." For more information, including dates, locations, and special events, go to: https://creativexpo.tw/en/.

About WDC Taipei 2016

"Adaptive City -- Design in Motion" was Taipei City's core concept in its 2015 application to host World Design Capital 2016. How can we apply innovative design thinking practices to overcome the constraints placed on our city's development by limited resources, pursue continuing change in our urban governance, create happiness in the lives of our citizens–providing them with a better quality of life in a more livable, forward-looking city? These are the goals for Taipei City. 2016 marks the beginning of an evolution for Taipei, whereby we will take advantage of the potential in change by "Engaging Communities," "Connecting Information," and "Revitalizing the City." For more information on WDC Taipei 2016, visit the official website (http://wdc2016.taipei/) or follow on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/taipeidesign/).

About World Design Capital 

Every two years, Icsid designates a different city World Design Capital® (WDC) in recognition of that city's innovative use of design for economic, social, and cultural development and to showcase effective design-led urban revitalization strategies from which other cities can benefit. Past holders of the WDC title include Torino (Italy) in 2008, Seoul (South Korea) in 2010, Helsinki (Finland) in 2012, and Cape Town (South Africa) 2014. Taipei (Taiwan) is this year's WDC, and Mexico City has just been named WDC 2018. For more information, please visit http://www.worlddesigncapital.com.

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