Message from Organizer
I would like to express my sincere wishes for your happiness in the year 2018.
In 2017, Good Design Award received the most applications in recent years. In autumn, a great many people visited the exhibition which introduced the awarded design, selected from a wide range fields. We are grateful for your support and contributions throughout the whole award process.
To better meet your expectations, this year’s Good Design Award will build upon the past achievements a new perspective; the futuristic perspective on the image of society and desirable design.
Also, Good Design Award exhibitions in autumn will be held not only at Tokyo Midtown but also in Kobe City --- the first opportunity to show the latest award-winning design in Kansai area.
In this increasingly complex society, design acts as a bridge between people, things and events, enriches life and helps each person in realizing his or her ideal way of living. Japan Institute of Design Promotion, as the center for design promotion in Japan, has played the role of finding and spreading the possibilities of design. All over Japan, people in various fields note the power of design while engaging in a wide range of projects. By proactively collaborating and cooperating with those people, we will promote activities that help tackle social issues while further enhancing the value of design. I think that it is of utmost importance that we keep the attitude of exploring, finding out and moving forward those activities on a global scale through domestic and international cooperation.
January 1, 2018
President, Japan Institute of Design Promotion
Atsushi Oi
Message from Chairman
The recipients of Good Design Award 2017 were announced today, and I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to everyone who worked on the 1,403 award-winning designs.
This year, we received our highest number of submissions in the past 30 years. It is therefore no surprise that the winning designs are richly varied in terms of both genre and approach. However, one common trend has emerged recently as a major characteristic of the Good Design Award. There has been a marked increase in designs that are conscious of various social issues facing Japan and the world. Three years ago, the Good Design Award itself launched initiatives to send a message to society, as epitomized by our FOCUSED ISSUES, and there has been a growing response to these efforts from various quarters.
This year's winners also reveal ambitious developments: many individuals who believe that "design has the power to address social issues" are trying to more thoroughly achieve their goals by utilizing design, and even treating the state and format of their activities themselves as design. Such an attitude is vital in unleashing the power of design within society, and it is a trend that we at Good Design Award would like to actively support in terms of discovering new possibilities for design.
In addition, "the role of form" was given great importance in this year’s Good Design Award. Here, "form" does not only mean the final shape of the design as an object that exists in space. Some kind of "expression" is also crucial, creating common ground for communication in order for activities with a certain purpose to receive a response from society, and further spread their value. Finding ways to enhance the degree to which this is achieved is the role of design.
The Good Design Award particularly draws many designs closely tied to the evolution of technology. This type of perspective is essential, because what creates affluence and comfort for both the user and society at large is not merely implementing new technology, but asking, "What purpose and whom does the technology serve?"
While these are certainly issues design creators need to be keenly aware of, they were also an area of great deliberation for the judges. How does the design unlock rich potential for future societies or a more engaging story for users? Does it have the prescriptiveness to function as a model for what comes next?
As a result of these deliberations, I think that you will find this year's winning designs to be filled with creative solutions to the issues that are becoming more and more critical to society, careful consideration for users, eye-opening insights, and more. I hope they will show you that the "good design" pursued by the Good Design Award means more than just the quality of each individual design itself. It represents the desire to create something positive for people in the situations and contexts where that design is needed.
Oct. 4 2017
Chairman of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2017
Kazufumi Nagai
Vice chair of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2017
Fumie Shibata