Our judging panel will be marking submissions on creativity, originality, practicality, cultural awareness and the incorporation of Mandarin within each design.
News & Updates10th Anniversary Gift Design Competition
The Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS) will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2022. To celebrate this milestone CISS launched an interdisciplinary competition for secondary students across the nation to showcase their business, design and language skills.
We set two categories for students to choose from and encouraged school departments - be that business, design technology or languages - to support and encourage interested students as they developed their pitch.
Target recipients
Confucius Institute Hub network, events/activities participants, small prize winners
Required features
- Incorporates both Scottish and Chinese elements
- Includes the CISS logo
- Includes the number '10'
- Is a unique and original design or concept
- Gift is practical, light-weight
Key Info
- Production budget per item: under £10
Quantity: 300
Additional Guidance
- Items in this category are often gifted to Confucius Hubs across Scotland or presented in person at events.
- Consider practicalities such as storage, how easy it might be to send over distance, and what you personally might like to receive as a gift.
- Have a good look through our website to learn more about us.
Target recipients
Senior officials from China or Chinese organisations in the UK
Required features
- Incorporates both Scottish and Chinese elements
- Includes the CISS logo
- Includes the number '10'
- Is a unique and original design or concept
Key Info
Production budget per item: under £50
Quantity: 20
Additional Guidance
- Gifts in this category are often used for display; however, you could also consider gifts with a more practical use.
- Have a good look through our website to learn more about us.
Please submit your design and associated documents by Friday, 27 May 2022.
- Open to all state schools in Scotland
- Submission can be on a small group or individual basis
- Individuals and groups can submit designs for a single gift category or for both
- 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners will be selected for each gift category
- Winners will be announced on Thursday, 23 June 2022
Should you have any questions, you can contact the team directly at ciss-info@strath.ac.uk
- 1st Prize: £100 gift voucher + certificate(s)
- 2nd prize: £70 gift voucher + certificate(s)
- 3rd prize: £50 gift voucher + certificate(s)
*Please note: Prizes are awarded on a submission basis, with groups sharing any prize awarded.
Suggested Areas of Research:
- Popular corporate gifts and market prices
- Design elements that can represent Scotland and China
- Chinese characters/script
- Chinese/Scottish superstitions, e.g. lucky/unlucky colours, cultural meanings of specific gifts, etc.
Previous CISS Gifts
Example of a small gift item CISS used for its 5th anniversary.
Each bag has a fabric design at the bottom which has tartan (Scottish) on one side and 蜡染, pronounced là rǎn, (a specific tie-dye technique used in southwest China) on the reverse.
An Example of a Corporate Gift
An example of a bespoke gift presented by the City of Edinburgh Council for a partnership with Shenzhen - a city key to China's economic transformation. Skylines of both cities are captured and preserved in parallel as traditional Chinese paper cuts. A clever use of colour, local landmarks and a lovely item to display.