What is “Good Design Award”?

Since the Good Design Award was created in 1957, it has always been a leading design evaluation and recommendation system in Japan. The original intention of the establishment of this award was to strengthen Japan's industrial and trade competitiveness; however, after more than half a century, the Good Design Award is still deeply rooted in society mainly because this is not only a design contest, but also a movement of eternally unremitting observations of the role of design in society, as well as asking questions and inspiring reflections.

Good Design Awards initially honored winners in the areas of daily necessities and electronic products, and have been extended to industrial machinery, construction, environment, information and communication as well. Its award items respond to the industrial structure and pace of change in Japan, and actively identify areas of new design demand, gradually widening the scope of design field. This also means the Good Design Award brings a circular structure to society. It uses the awards to explore a "good design" and gets support of consumers, thereby further inducing a "good design." In recent years, we have seen some participating entries highly related to social activities such as trying to create a community, etc. It is also becoming increasingly obvious that the Good Design Award is playing a role of the platform and infrastructure of social construction through design.

GOOD DESIGN AWARD's outline

_{G-Mark LOGO}

The idea and methodology upheld by the Good Design Award have also received great attention from fast growing Asian countries. A balanced development of the economy and industry absolutely cannot be without the power of design. With this recognition gradually enhanced, the Good Design Award is also actively promoting past accumulated "discovering, nurturing, developing good designs" and other relevant experiences through cooperation with each country.

After unfortunately experiencing disaster in 2011, Japan has to re-establish the image of an ideal new society; therefore, highlighting the contribution of design has become a major mission of the Good Design Award. The Good Design Award also plays an exciting role in the future process of building a sustainable and secure life for society and encouraging people to create a prosperous society.

The Good Design Award has approximately 1000-1200 winning entries every year, with the cumulative total number of award-winning pieces reaching about 42,000 during the past 58 years. In 2014, a total of 3601 pieces of work from 801 companies from all over the world were evaluated, resulting in 1258 winning works. According to the categories, it could be observed that Product Design accounted for 60%, Architecture and Environment for 20%, Communication for 10%, and Other Design Areas such as Service and Social Activity for 10%. The following describes the mechanism and operation of the actual award selection process.

_{Industrial robot [VS-050S2] DENSO CORPORATION, DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED}

_{notebook [Asus Zenbook UX305] Asustek Computer Inc.}

Screening of the Good Design Award

The Good Design Award evaluates entries of designers or enterprises from all over the world. When screening, in order to allow the basic purpose "of making the lives of people more affluent" clearer, we propose the following five core concepts to define “Good Design:” 1. HUMANITY: creative and innovative abilities for things, 2. HONESTY: the insight into modern society, 3. INNOVATION: ideas for future development. 4. ESTHETICS: the imagination of rich cultural life, and 5. ETHICS: the ability of social and environmental thinking. Our goal is, based on the above concepts, to judge and evaluate the entries’ social influence, sustainability, innovation, and esthetics, etc. However, in order to really understand the various designs from a wide variety of fields, it also sets up three points of view, as a common policy in screening: 1. Human View, 2. Industrial View, and 3. Social View.

The professional judges, at the above points of view, examine the design features and specific contents of all the entries, and select the excellent design works that will be awarded. In addition, some special prizes such as the "Good Design Gold Award" will be awarded to the highly evaluated design works that can lead the future. The special "Good Design Grand Award" will be awarded to the design work that sufficiently symbolizes social phenomena and changes of each year. Finally, the Good Design Award also contains the "Long Life Design Award" which is awarded to products with a long duration of production or sale, and support of the public; this award not only praises the design works’ past achievements, but also highlights their benchmark value in the future society. This is a rare unique award among all the design awards currently in the world.

_{4K Ultra Short Throw Projector[LSPX-W1] Sony Corporation}

_{Digital camera[dp Quattro] SIGMA CORPORATION}

The Competition Process of the Good Design Award

Registration of the Good Design Award starts from April of each year, and enters the stages of the First Screening and the Second Screening, the award-winning exhibition and the award ceremony held in late October, and finally publishing of the award-winning yearbook in March of the following year. The whole activity lasts about one year. The process can be divided mainly into three parts: "Registration," "Judgment," and "Presentation."

(1) Registration: the annual registration rules and the members of the Judging Committee are announced on the official website in April of each year. Interested businesses, organizations, or designers can apply on the Internet before early June.

(2) Judgment: the Judging Committee is made up of about 70 people, and begins to operate after identifying the philosophy and screening policy of the Good Design Award. At the First Screening, the judges determine whether an entry is qualified according to the idea and significance of its design, and this is based on the registration information of each entry. The Second Screening evaluates the actual entry, observing it from a variety of perspectives. The design's "excellent bright spots" are especially important and would be actively determined. Winners of the "Good Design Award" will be picked out after several discussions.

(3) Presentation: recipients of the "Good Design Award" will be announced through the website and a press conference in early October. Then the awards ceremony and exhibition of all award winning works will be held. In addition, the yearbook of the Good Design Award which includes all the winning works will be published in March of the following year.

Second Screening meeting in Japan

_{The Venue of GOOD DESIGN EXHIBITION 2014}

This Yearbook records the latest Good Design Award winning works. It is not only an official record, but also a data book that archives Japanese designs and passes on tradition. This is a book that can be handed down, a precious design Yearbook possessing high value.

_{Yearbook「GOOD DESIGN AWARD」}

Results of the Good Design Award

The symbol of the Good Design Award, "G MARK," has been adopted by many winners for years and often reported by the media; now 90% Japanese recognize this symbol represents "the mark of good design." This means that the sign of design with good quality and attraction has been trusted by the general public and has permeated society.

Award Winners can use "G MARK" to promote themselves and resonate with living people. "G MARK" can be used in packaging, websites, catalogs, advertising, TV commercials, and other uses, and can be the bridge of communication connecting people to "good design."

Overseas Promotion of the Good Design Award

With great economic growth in recent years, the potential of the Asian design circle has begun to be realized. The Good Design Award, under the cumulative basis of operation in Japan for many years, cooperates actively with design-related institutions and peoples of every country, and hopes to promote design policy and advocacy in Asia. At present, it has started organizing exhibitions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, India, Singapore, and Thailand, to promote international communication through design.

• Cooperation with Other International Design Awards

The purpose of the Good Design Award now is to revitalize Asia design. It is cooperating with design awards of other countries such as Thailand, India, and Singapore, providing the knowledge of executing the Good Design Award and assisting with promotions.

(1) Cooperation with Thailand’s "Design Excellence Award"

In March 2008, the Thailand Government had created a system to revitalize design, the "Design Excellence Award", which signed a cooperation agreement with the "Good Design Award." Since then, the Good Design Award began to send its screening judges to the “Design Excellence Award,” and its award-winning works were allowed to be participating entries of the “Good Design Award.” Both parties had a wide range of cooperation, and exhibitions of the winning works of both awards were also held in both countries, thus actively promoting design activities.

(2) Cooperation with India’s "I Mark"

The Good Design Award signed a cooperation agreement with the “India Design Council” (IDC) to help India set up national design awards as well as their operational activities. The "India Design Mark” (I Mark) was established in 2012. Japanese experts are involved in the screening process every year, and this is progressing smoothly.

(3) Cooperation with Singapore’s "SG Mark"

The Good Design Award signed a cooperation agreement with the Design Business Chamber of Singapore (DBCS). The "Singapore Good Design Mark” (SG Mark)" was established in 2014.

• Overseas Screening Meetings

Screening Meetings of the Good Design Award have been held in Taiwan and Korea since 2012, and in Hong Kong since 2013. In overseas screening meetings, the Good Design Award cooperates closely with each country’s revitalized organization of design, and invites each country’s members of the judging committee to evaluate local application entries together.

• The Sale of Award-Winning Products

The Good Design Award has set up a permanent location, the "GOOD DESIGN STORE," to sell award winning products and spread information in PMQ, a combined facility in Hong Kong, from May 2014. In April 2015, the Good Design Award has also set up its first official site of display and works for sale in the "DESIGN PIN" of the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei, Taiwan. About 20 products chosen from previous award-winning works will be sold to the general public.

Taiwan and the Good Design Award

From 2006 onwards, the number of entries from Taiwan has been increasing every year. In order to further build closer relations, starting in 2012, the Good Design Award began to officially cooperate with Taiwan’s design revitalization agency, the "Taiwan Design Center." From seminars and conference boards in the application stage, to screening meetings, presentations, exhibitions, as well as media exposure, etc. held locally in Taiwan, the Good Design Award has expanded cooperative projects throughout the year with Taiwan.

_{The Exhibition held in Taipei, during Apr-May, 2015}

_{The Exhibition held in Taipei, during Apr-May, 2015}

As a result of these cooperative activities, you can see Taiwan's large numbers of award-winning works in the Good Design Award: 64 pieces in 2012, 41 pieces in 2013, and 58 pieces in 2014. In addition, in the "Good Design Best 100" in 2014, five Taiwanese entries were selected. The "Good Design Best 100" include works selected by the Judging Committee according to the views of "design for the foreseeable future." This demonstrates that the high level of Taiwanese design has already emerged on the world stage, and may even exceed it. From now on, Taiwan designese must take its place in the global market; we also have great expectations for the new generation of designers who are shouldering the design prospects of Taiwan.

_{The Venue of GOOD DESIGN EXHIBITION 2014}

_{The Venue of GOOD DESIGN EXHIBITION 2014}