The Japanese GOOD DESIGN AWARD, which is organized by the public interest incorporated foundation, Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO), has fifty years of history. It is one of the four major design awards in the world, and one of the most authoritative design awards in Asia. This award originated in the "Good Design Selection System" in 1957. This system, known as G-Mark, was created by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) of Japan, but had been administratively reformed to privatization after 1998, and continuously operated by JIDPO until now. Through rigorous annual multi-layered selections of the organizer, selected G-Mark Good Design Winning Products will be awarded the G-Mark Good Design logo, which was designed by the famous Japanese designer Yusaku Kamekura, and will be recommended to Japanese general consumers.

The head judge of the 2014 G-Mark Good Design jury was the design director of MUJI, Naoto Fukasawa, and the vice head judge was the visual designer Taku Satoh. The jury consisted of more than sixty design experts from all over the world, and evaluation lasted about three months; this is known to be one of the most strict and rigorous evaluation processes in global design competitions. The 2014 G-Mark Good Design Competition attracted 801 companies or groups, and award-winners included well-known companies such as Sony, Panasonic, MUJI, Motorola, ASUS, and Toyota. Many well-known Taiwanese firms had previously won this prestigious design award, but this year was the first time that Taiwanese students won the award because of the high threshold of G-Mark rules which requires that participating works must be sold to the public or are about to be sold. This time, I had the honor of leading five Taiwanese students from Asia University entering the competition and winning the 2014 G-Mark Good Design Award, and receiving the award together with other teachers and students from our university. Here I briefly share what I had experienced for the reference of other teachers and students interested in the entire process.

_{G-Mark LOGO}

_{Winning Awards and Trophies}

Introduction to the G-Mark Competition

The G-Mark Good Design Award is not simply a design competition, as stated by the Policy and Method of Screening mentioned in their official website: "The G-Mark Good Design Award does not consider the word “Design” to be a noun but to be a verb. Therefore, the screening for the G-Mark Good Design Award is conducted with an idea of “Design” different from that commonly used in public." The design idea of this award focuses on “Endless and continuous creative thinking activity" to make the lives of people more affluent. Judges interview about the background and process of each entry and observe its status at this moment. In other words, the screening for the G-Mark Good Design Award is focusing on "What meaning and value may the participating object have?" in the time axis, past, present, and future, and then initiates discussions and evaluations.

The registration of this award starts from April each year, and enter the stage of evaluation in June after the First Screening of online documents and the Second Screening of physical item(s). The award-winning exhibition and the award ceremony are held after October, and the award-winning yearbook is published the following March. The entire activity lasts about one year (Fig. 1). Starting in 2012, G-Mark divided the work collection area into four categories: "life," "industry," "public issue," and "innovation," as well as the three hierarchies of "Item object," "communication," and "organizational structure." Entry fees are charged in phases. The entry fees for screening a small entry without electricity include the First Screening Fee of 10,800 Japanese Yen (JPY) and the Second Screening Fee of 59,400 JPY. The Basic Exhibition Fee of award-winners is 124,200 JPY, and the Yearbook Publication Fee is 32,400 JPY. From entry to yearbook publication, winning the G-Mark Good Design Award requires a budget of 226,800 JPY (approximately NT$59,000). In addition, the entry process requires filling out a detailed registration form with strict specifications, but the G-Mark organizers have detailed descriptions and illustrated steps on the G-Mark website in Japanese, Chinese, and English. Interested teachers and students are recommended to view the G-Mark website beforehand. (http://www.g-mark.org/)

_{Design of Yearbook and Trophy in Recent Years}

_{The Award Ceremony Stage}

The Screening Process

    The experience of participating in the G-Mark Good Design competition has been very different compared with other international design competitions. Most other design competitions usually ask contestants to upload files of design works, and/or to deliver the physical item to the organizer for evaluation. G-Mark is different in that in addition to representative photos of design works, contestants are required to provide the following information for reference of the jury in the evaluating process: development background, design idea, significance of planning and development, creative ingenuity, designer reflections, performance and other characteristics, personal messages to the judges, and the specification of intellectual property rights. All the required information can be filled out in English, but each information field has a strict letter limit; any extra letters are not allowed. One very special part of the G-Mark competition is the narration of works. It emphasizes "what the design can give to people or society," for example, signifying the planning and development of the design process. The G-mark jury hopes to understand "through the entry’s design idea, what suggestion can be given to people or to society, and the hopefully provided value and expected effect." The jury wants to know "in the process of developing the design works, what reflections and thoughts from the designer(s) do the designer(s) hope to convey to users or to society?" The questions and contents repeatedly echo the purpose of this contest: "focus on endless and continuous creative thinking activity to make the lives of people more affluent." It is a competition attaching considerable importance to the metaphysical concept.

    In the first screening, judges determine "whether this work meet the thrust of the G-Mark Good Design Award" and "whether it meets certain conditions" according to the contestant’s pictures and information on the website. All entries must pass this phase before they can enter the second screening; therefore, the content and statements entered during registration are very important. The second screening involves thorough examination of the physical work by the G-Mark jury who discuss among themselves if the work is worthy of the G-Mark Good Design Award. At the second screening, designers are required to be present, and may be asked questions by the jury to explain their work, that is, the Interactive Hearing. During the second screening as well as the final exhibition of prize-winning works, participants will be invited to layout their own works by themselves; this allows all contestants to have a full sense of participation from the submission of the works to the exhibition of the works after winning the G-Mark Award.

 

_{First Venue Identity}

_Entrance

_{Image Wall of All Winning Works}

Award Ceremony

    The venue and award ceremony of the G-Mark Good Design Exhibition (G Exhibition) are not in sites like museums or art centers which may not be visited by the general public, but at the "Tokyo Midtown," which is located in Roppongi in Tokyo. Tokyo Midtown is one of Japan’s largest mixed-use developments, which contains a variety of shops, restaurants, offices, apartments, art galleries, parking, and a luxury hotel. It functions like a larger version of Taipei 101.

    Japanese exhibitions seem very different from European ones. Visual images of the exhibition can be seen everywhere as one approaches the main venue. The main visual logo appears both inside and outside the venue. At first glance, it is just a red circle, but appears brilliantly and vividly. The entire G-Mark Exhibition, including the ceremony site, the entrance to the exhibition venues, the multiple exhibition venues, and the corridors between venues, display images that are visually impressive with penetrating power, even though the exhibition lasts only five days.

    The 2014 G-Mark Good Design Award ceremony was held on the second floor of the Ritz-Carlton, a five-star hotel located in Tokyo Midtown. Winners of the "G-Mark Good Design Award" are first selected, and then from this group, the "Good Design BEST100" winners are chosen. Furthermore, the Good Design Special Award, the Good Design Gold Award, the Good Design Award of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Good Design Award of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Design for the Future Award are selected from the Good Design BEST100. Also from the Good Design BEST100, nine items are nominated for the Grand Award. On the day of Award Ceremony, designers of the nine Grand Award candidates give a presentation of their works; afterwards, all the other G-Mark winners along with the jury vote together to decide who will win the "Good Design Grand Award," followed by the awards certification ceremony.

Polls for the Grand Award

_{Award Winner Pass}

_{Voting Tokens}

Good Design

    The head judge, Naoto Fukasawa, mentioned during the ceremony that he believes the G-Mark Good Design Award is looking for "Quality of Comfort." Any design, no matter in which field, that is useful and practical, that provides reassurance and reliability to users, is a good design. This competition considers that all winning works represent excellent design and high quality, with thoughts of human nature. The vice head judge, Taku Satoh, also mentioned that there are many products we like, but those items may lose their usefulness one year later. However, there are also some items bought by consumers without thought that may still be useful ten years later or more; is this a problem of product or design? In the G-Mark exhibition, a special area displayed Good Design products in the market that have lasted for over a decade, including our familiar Morinaga Milk Candy packaging and 3M Scotch 810 Magic Tape, and many others.

_{Exhibition of Prize-Winning Works}

_{Group photo of the teachers and students of Asia University, the firms’ representatives, the Professorial Chair,}

_{Apex LIN, Pang-Soong, and the Professor of Musashino Art University, Julia Chiu.}

    I have been fortunate to have participated in Japan’s G-Mark Good Design Award and presented at the ceremony, opening up different visions and thoughts of design. Here I remind other designers not to be confined to specific issues and design performances, but to open ourselves to a deeper thinking of long-term future sustainability. I am very grateful to policies of the Ministry of Education, as well as support from Asia University for giving me this special opportunity. I hope this simple experience will be helpful for those design enthusiasts also interested in participating.