On September 21, the opening ceremony of Beijing Design Week 2020 and the official poster solicitation ceremony for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games were held in Zhangjiawan Design Town, the permanent venue for Beijing Design Week. Present at the event were Du Feijin, member of the Standing Committee and head of the Communications Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Chair of the Beijing Design Week 2020 Organizing Committee, Jiang Xiaoyu, Vice President of Beijing Olympic City Development Association, Zhao Lei, Deputy Director-General of the Communications Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Secretary-General of the Beijing Design Week 2020 Organizing Committee, Zeng Zanrong, Executive Vice Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Party Work Committee, Executive Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee and Secretary of the CPC Tongzhou District Committee, Gao Tian, Deputy Director of Beijing 2022 Culture and Ceremonies Department, leaders of the member units of the Beijing Design Week 2020 Organizing Committee, and representatives from some embassies in China.

Themed “In the Perspective of Well-Being”, Beijing Design Week 2020 focuses on the role of design in the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and advocates in-depth integration of creative design with urban construction, cultural development, sci-tech innovation, targeted poverty alleviation and aesthetics of everyday life. It intends to guide designers to combine their creativity and innovation with people's aspirations for a better life in multiple dimensions and promote high-quality development and brand building of related industries. 

According to the requirements of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and the Beijing Municipal Government, Beijing Design Week takes a long-term perspective, make plans meticulously and endeavors to bring together resources for the city's strategic position as “four centers”. It will play a bigger role in the global design community with greater strength, enhance its gathering and leading power in the global design field, and become a key cultural innovation and development service platform that is based in Beijing, serves the whole country and is connected to the world.

Johnathon Strebly, President of the International Council of Design, Jan Vapaavuori, Mayor of Helsinki (guest of honor of Beijing Design Week 2020), and Kari Korkman, Director of Helsinki Design Week addressed the opening ceremony via video. Du Feijin delivered a keynote speech. Noting the growing role of the design industry in promoting cultural progress in the capital city, he said that Beijing has released a series of guidelines aimed at boosting the development of the design industry and encouraged cross-sectoral integration between creative design and high-end manufacturing, services, tourism and other fields. The city has also attached great importance to exchanges and mutual learning, established domestic and international communication and cooperation mechanisms, and contributed Chinese wisdom to addressing design-related issues. As a public service platform of the design industry, Beijing Design Week brings together a number of leading enterprises and designers and spurs the application of innovation and creativity. Du pointed out that building a city of design is a top priority in the building of an innovative and creative city with international competitiveness. To achieve this goal, he called for efforts to create an enabling environment to bring together design elements, promote the fusion of design and innovation with other fields, and build an effective ecosystem empowering design. Zhangjiawan Design Town will not only serve as the permanent venue of Beijing Design Week but also become a new cultural landmark in Beijing and a main platform for building a city of design. He also stressed the importance of exchanges and cooperation and effective design communications. Beijing Design Week should keep a global vision, strive to be a barometer in design in Asia and a world-class creativity event, and build itself into a recognized brand for bringing Beijing's creative design industry to the world through in-depth cooperation with international organizations, design festivals and exhibitions and design associations. Du then announced the opening of Beijing Design Week 2020.    

The candidates for the Classic Design Award were announced at the opening ceremony, including the color animation Havoc in Heaven, Murals of Beijing Capital International Airport, the Key Visual System of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Ten Architectural Ornaments in the Early Years of the PRC, Design in Poverty Alleviation Cases, Beijing Daxing International Airport and Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital. As a standing award of Beijing Design Week, the Classic Design Award intends to highlight the role of creative design in social and economic sectors and people's livelihood, advocate the “macro-design” concept, and acknowledge design projects and works that are significant for social progress, cultural advancement, industrial development, livelihood improvement, and urban-rural development, with high attention paid to their creativity, impact and Chinese wisdom.

The Classic Design Award finally went to the Key Visual System of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, which is China's first key visual system that has been devised for major events and embedded the concept and practice of core graphics in the whole process of design. A result of teamwork and institutional advantages, it demonstrates China's positive image, provides experience and inspirations for visual design for major events, and helps bring China's design to the world. Therefore, it is of great significance.

Beijing Design Week is the city's first prestigious design event after the COVID-19 outbreak. At the opening ceremony, two photo albums and two compact discs containing anti-pandemic posters were donated to the Beijing Capital Museum as modern exhibits. Those posters were selected through two highly influential solicitation campaigns launched by the organizing committee together with over 180 related organizations – the “Together We Can” global design solicitation campaign and the “Battle Against COVID-19” global CG artwork solicitation campaign.

At the opening ceremony, the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (Beijing 2022) announced the launch of the solicitation of official posters, which are an essential part of the visual culture of the Olympic Games. Beijing 2022 entrusted the Beijing Design Week Organizing Committee to solicit the official posters, in the hope of selecting excellent works that reflect the Olympic spirit and the vision and concept of the Games and demonstrate the glorious Chinese history and culture and the charm of modern China to the whole world.    

The 2020 Beijing Urban and Architecture Biennale's Pilot Exhibition opened concurrently at Beijing Future Design Park (No. 6, Guanghua Street, Zhangjiawan) on September 21. A variety of activities will be unveiled successively, including the Design Night, Beijing Design Forum, thematic exhibitions, “Pop Box” International Popular Culture Exhibition, Beijing Design Expo, Beijing Fashion Week, China Traditional Craft Revitalization Exhibition, and the Journey of Design.