Design finds a new language

According to Yu, at that time the organizers received 1,250 entries from 16 countries and regions.

The gold award in that contest went to a series of clock designs called Zhuanxin (turning one's mind). The 30 themed characters featured in the contest were listed around the round dial without their component xin. The two clock hands were designed to represent the two shapes of the component xin.

One hand of the clock points to 10 components on the outer dial of the clock face, while the other points to 20 components on the inner dial. Depending on the position of the respective clock hands, a different character is formed by each one.

"Every moment had a unique meaning." says Lyu You, the designer, who wanted to combine all the 30 characters into a single product design.

Another award-winning design was by South Korean designer Kim Su-jin.

Kim, 32, has been learning Chinese for 16 years. And her design focused on the word huainian (missing someone).

For her, if the component xin of the first character huai (inclusive) was removed, the word became bunian (not missing someone at all).

This led to her designing a card with temperature-sensitive printing ink.

When the card is opened, the word bunian can be seen. However, later the component xin also appears.