The first ever medal for Hong Kong’s construction frontline supervisors

One of the most major events took place in Construction Workers Carnival 2025 (CWC25) this November at CIC (Construction Industry Council) Zero Carbon Park, The Inaugural CIC Outstanding Frontline Supervisor Award recognizes the top-notch construction management who are not only play the leading role but also the forerunners among the industry.

After we have completed the key visual design of CWC25 The Council approached us again to create a medal that will be an identity envisioning their vision for the future of Hong Kong’s construction industry, in addition to acknowledge its senior practitioners and their companies. At the heart of the award lies the message that our society values their indifference contribution and unwavering dedication.

The lead concept was inspired by master Luban who was a pioneer and inventor of ancient China carpentry and construction. However, the most inspiring parts were his creativity and the ability of problem solving, for instance, Luban Lock, which is a wooden interlocking structure design, also a fundamental and archetype of nowadays’ wood jointing technique particularly for traditional wooden buildings.

All those were especially challenging, not to mention the time was back in the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC). Luban’s conviction somehow telling the quality of today frontline supervisors, and besides, the attitude towards work, and the way to manage, to lead. In that light, this is the quintessence of the award.

Although it is said that the first wooden kite was created by Luban, which based on the figure of a flying magpie, to a certain extent, it reflecting his ingenious craftsmanship and an incomparable keen eye for invention. The notion of this interpretation helped us to compose a new story for the award, and it eventually became a principle idea for entire design direction and development.

When a magpie was soaring in the air, solar flares and beams of light were refracted from the sun coincidentally, we captured this vivid moment and put on a pair of designer’s glasses to transform such fleeting yet poetic picture into the designs of the medal along with a series of certificates.

Also, the outer form of a Luban Lock has the same hexagon shape as a solar flare, it reinforces the design idea of the medal and the lead concept of the award.

Working closely with the team at CIC, we designed a certificate of outstanding award that has an alloy made medal embedded in it and framed in a wooden shadowbox, in addition, a consistent certificate design for excellence award and appreciation, both are a light version of the outstanding one and mounted on thick textured cardboard with the neat folder cover.

Nevertheless, the most challenging stage was to turn all those designs into the artefacts, the actual products, in particular, the medal, which has to be made of metal to reveal its significant value.

We have endeavored to find a most decent yet proper material and method to produce the medal, but approximately only 35 are needed, each of these has a name of the awardee on it. After several prototyping processes, we have ultimately identified an alloy with gold plating was a best solution for the medal.

All the design details like lines and types have certainly well appeared during the production, even though this was a bespoke production, and the rate of failure was very high. Both engraving and etching were impeccable techniques of surface processing for the medal, but the later one was eventually be adopted, it allowed the detailed designs manifested perfectly.

This made-to-measure wooden shadowbox serve a purpose of holding the medal appropriately yet well presentable on the award ceremony. On the one hand it lets the medal embedded closely and securely, but on the other hand it allows the medal can easily be taken out and put back, but still very firm.

In fact, we have designed and tested some different approaches to put in and grip the medal properly but retaining the whole structure simple and easy to reproduce due to the rather limited production time.

In spite of those constraints we finally found a most feasible way to make all those happen, including the custom designed certificates that to a great degree consistent with the design of the shadowbox.

The carnival was held on Sunday, 16 November 2025, this full day activity encompassed various events that widely connected with the construction industry especially the workers and their family.

The award was the highlight undoubtedly, to say nothing of its connotation and fruitful outcome were way beyond CIC’s expectation. We witnessed the success of this momentous event, congratulations to all awardees, and we are so proud can be part of it.