Taoyuan Library's Lunar New Year red envelope wins London Design Award silver

Taiwanese cultural and creative design has once again shone on the international stage, with the Taoyuan Public Library's special Lunar New Year cultural product, "Bingwu Year Immediately Sends Red Envelopes," securing a silver award at the 2026 London Design Awards. To share the excitement of this win with the public, the library is giving away 20 of the award-winning red envelope bags through a social media contest, offering blessings of "reading immediately, happiness immediately, and success immediately" to the winners.

Library Director Shi Zhaohui explained that this seemingly simple red envelope is filled with "reading codes." The award-winning design, led by graphic designer Xiao Yanxuan with assistance from Zhang Yaosheng and Liao Weitang, began with the question: "Should a library's red envelope necessarily feature images of books?" The team transformed the reader's journey, from entering the library, selecting, borrowing, reading, understanding, to internalizing and reconstructing knowledge, into a creative design with visual impact and interactive fun.

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Should a library's red envelope necessarily feature images of books?

The front of the red envelope features two sets of 8-grid character matrices, totaling 16 grids. The "88" cleverly echoes the auspicious homophone for "fortune" or "prosperity" (發發, fāfā). Combined with various special gold foils, it presents a visual image of brilliance, abundance, and wealth. The design not only carries the traditional New Year wish for financial luck and blessings but also extends the concept of "richness" to knowledge, reading, and learning, imbuing the red envelope with deeper cultural meaning.

Within the matrix, characters can be read in different directions, allowing for personal interpretations such as "read immediately," "have money immediately," "happiness immediately," "reading brings wealth," and "happy reading." Readers familiar with seal script can also find "success immediately" (馬到成功, mǎ dào chénggōng), a common idiom. The design also hides the abbreviation "TYPL" for Taoyuan Public Library, making each identification, arrangement, and interpretation akin to an exploration game of selecting books, reading, and reconstructing meaning.

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The library is not just a place for borrowing books, but can also become a place where urban aesthetics, cultural creativity, and lifestyle design happen.

The design team also added Braille characters representing "Happy New Year" below the character matrix, responding to universal design and accessible tactile reading principles. From seal script, English abbreviations, to Braille, these layered reading clues allow different readers to participate through sight and touch, conveying the joy of learning that "the more you know, the more you can understand."

Shi Zhaohui emphasized that libraries are not just places for borrowing books but can also be hubs for urban aesthetics, cultural creativity, and lifestyle design. The London Design Award silver for "Bingwu Year Immediately Sends Red Envelopes" is an international affirmation of Taoyuan's deep cultivation of local culture and promotion of innovative reading. Through a single red envelope, citizens can experience the fun of reading amidst New Year blessings, allowing traditional Taiwanese culture to debut on the international stage with a fresh look.

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The London Design Award silver for "Bingwu Year Immediately Sends Red Envelopes" is an international affirmation of Taoyuan's deep cultivation of local culture and promotion of innovative reading.