Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition is one of the top five poster exhibitions in the world. It is known for its unique feature of inviting world-renowned designers to participate in the competition. Every two years, its committee nominates one designer to be the most prestigious “Honor Laureate,” who also serves as the sole assessor for the whole competition. Professor Pang Soong Lin from the Department of Visual Communication Design won the honor laureate prize at CIIPE 2022, and he is the first Taiwanese to receive this honor. At the end of the September, he was invited to the Art Center of Colorado State University as the sole assessor of the competition. In his keynote speech, “My Hometown – Taiwan,” he shared his experience as a designer and our national flag of the Republic of China was hung center stage. It was a moving moment to see the national flag on the global stage.

    One of the most prominent features of CIIPE since its establishment 43 years ago is that unlike other international design competitions adopting an open solicitation method, the CIIPE group committee instead chooses to issue individual invitations to world-renowned designers and ask them to provide their recent works to participate in the exhibition. It is a great honor to be invited to participate in the competition since all the participants are internationally renowned artists. CIIPE's unique invitation-to-exhibition strategy has also fashioned the Colorado State University Library to become an essential global poster design center, which has collected more than 3,000 original works of well-known exhibitors so far.

    The traditional system of evaluating a good poster is based on the joint decision of multiple reviewers. The CIIPE chooses a different path by selecting a well-known global designer and awarding him or her the title of "Honorary Laureate," to serve as the sole assessor of this Biennale event. The "Honorary Laureate" will introduce the winning works and present his/her judging criteria for selecting winners for the exhibition.

    Professor Lin won the title of the 22nd CIIPE “Honorary Laureate,” and he selected works for 3 Merit Awards and 3 Honorable Mentions. Explaining his evaluation criteria in the opening ceremony, he said “A good poster must contain three elements, that is, social engagement, multicultural sensitivity, and future-oriented thinking." He also introduced his experiences of personal growth and his philosophy of cultural creativity in his speech, “My Hometown – Taiwan.” He was invited to hold a solo exhibition at Colorado State University Art Center Gallery from September 21st to October 18th.