Press Release
Kevin Yang Is Honored with the Golden A' Design Award for Project Xylo Midi Device in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design
Kevin Yang honored for toys, games and hobby products design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Project Xylo Midi Device by Kevin Yang, designed for Royal College of Art, has been granted the Golden A' Design Award in the Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Golden A' Design Award Explained
The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.
About Project Xylo Midi Device
Project Xylo reimagines midi interaction through a gamified, social platform for music making. Accessible to all skill levels, it simplifies beat creation with harmonic and tempo sync. Swappable cartridges and snap together devices support collaboration, while a retro, modular design enhances usability and style. Project Xylo is a series of portable midi devices designed for everyday music creation, offered in three sizes: sample, pocket, and midi.
About Kevin Yang
With backgrounds in sculpture and product design, Kevin is seeking the commercial balance among functional works of arts, fusing creativity and user-centric solutions that elevate the everyday needs and wants. By focusing on user experience, interactions and corresponding CMF designs, Kevin is keen to dismantle, rebuild, and transform the mundanes into extraordinaries with inspirational touches and design proficiency.
Award Record
With this recognition, Kevin Yang is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design Award
The A' Toy Design Award is an international toy design competition recognizing good toy designs by best toy designers, manufacturers and brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to toy designers, game studios, industrial designers and hobby product manufacturers from all countries. Entries typically include dolls, action figures, board games, puzzles, plush toys and educational toys. Awarded toy designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/toy
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/170416
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/170416
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!170416
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/366578
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Project Xylo Midi Device
- Function
- Midi Device
- Category
- Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Kids
- Colors
- Dim Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Gray, Dark Gray and Silver
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Royal College of Art
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Kevin Yang
- Country
- Austria
- Recognition
- Golden A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #170416
Credits
- Image Credits
- Photographer Yunmu Bai and Yan Qing, XYLO, 2024.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Project xylo is a series of portable midi devices designed for everyday music creation, offered in three sizes: sample, pocket, and midi. The goal is to gamify music composition, making it a social and accessible experience. Design targeted to simplify beat-making with harmonic and tempo consonance, bridging knowledge gaps. Its nostalgic trading cartridges let users share custom sounds and compositions; devices sync to create collaborative music, turning users into part of a band's performance.
- Inspiration
- Project XYLO was conceived to democratize music creation by transforming MIDI operations into an engaging, portable, and social experience. Inspired by the desire to lower barriers in music composition, XYLO aimed to gamify the process, making it accessible to enthusiasts of all skill levels. Design focused on integrating harmonic and tempo consonance to facilitate intuitive beat-making. Additionally, nostalgic trading cartridges reference classic game consoles, making it fun and easy to share.
- Research
- XYLO’s research simplified music composition by categorizing sound into SFX, beats, chords, and melodies. The goal was to create an intuitive tool that ensures harmonic and tempo consonance for easy beat-making and collaboration. Through sound collection, prototyping, and applied to cohort surveys, insights showed that structured tempo enhances harmony and rhythm accessibility, forming the foundation for XYLO.
- Challenge
- First, achieving the nostalgic semi-transparent shell required multiple CMF testing to balance resin transparency and sandblasting. Second, developing the program and structuring the BOM to fit components was difficult due to housing size. Third, balancing appearance with performance was tough—ESP32 lacked graphics power, leading to a switch to Raspberry Pi Zero. XYLO underwent rapid iterations to address these, though production remains uncertain due to design complexity.
- Realization and Technology
- Project XYLO undergoes prototyping using FDM printing to refine form, button layout, component placement, and device co-collab precision. The final SLA-printed model was sandblasted for a semi-transparent, Game Boy-like CMF, it went through multiple resin transparency tests to balance component visibility while maintaining the surface texture. Transitioning all electronics into the compact housing was challenging. The prototyping program, built via GODOT and run on Raspberry Pi Zero (ARM64), it faced limitations but was tested for basic functions and graphic capability.
- Operation and Interaction
- XYLO makes music creation fun and accessible by transforming complex MIDI operations into an intuitive, hands-on experience. Users record, mix, and shape beats using simple button and slider controls, with harmonic and tempo frameworks ensuring accessible music-making. Swappable cartridges add a nostalgic touch for easy sound sharing. Devices snap together for instant sync, turning solo play into a collaborative jam—like forming a digital band anywhere.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in March 2024 and prototyped in May 2024, it is a student project at Royal College of Art, London, UK.
- Specifications
- XYLO Midi (Large Size): 195mm W x 92mm L x 20mm H XYLO Pocket (Medium Size): 60mm W x 92mm L x 20mm H XYLO Sample (Mini Size): 30mm W x 92mm L x 20mm H
- Keywords
- Midi Device, Game, Nostalgic
