Message from Organizer
To all Good Design Award 2019 winners, I extend my sincere congratulations.
Once again this year we received quite a few entries from Japan and overseas, and after a rigorous screening process, we have announced many winners. I wish to thank the jury members and a host of other participants for their dedication throughout this process.
In this, our first selection of Good Design Award winners in Japan's Reiwa era, some 1,420 entries were awarded in a wide range of fields – the most winners ever, reflecting a trend in recent years toward broader application of sound design principles. Much award-winning design came not only from Japan but also overseas, centered in Asia.
A look at this winning design reveals consideration of needs in societies, industries, and lifestyles in transition, in the form of solution-oriented design that is increasing on a global scale. Often, the power of design has also been employed to find new value in existing things or arrangements and offer us unprecedented insight or benefits.
I trust that the award results will give a sense that good design is geographically widespread and practiced by a variety of people who are greatly expanding its potential.
From the Good Design Best 100, which are especially polished and promising winners, Good Focus Award winners and Good Design Gold and Grand Award winners for the year are decided.
Please join us for other program activities through the year.
October 2, 2019
President, Japan Institute of Design Promotion
Atsushi Oi
Message from Chair
Congratulations to all 2019 Good Design Award winners. Once again in this year's program, the key theme in evaluation was beauty. To create things that are aesthetically compelling, entrants in the program inevitably rely on sound design principles. For jury members, it has been essential to consider the extent and quality of this effort. Rather than defining absolute notions of beauty before evaluation, however, we remain aware of the importance of full interpretations of beauty in line with the times and society. Award results this year should be understood as being the outcome of serious discussion by jury members with a variety of perspectives and professional insight, looking for beauty of all kinds.
Evaluation was also a process of distilling how well-designed entries may resonate with people. As instances of design that exist now, in the world around us, how did entries show an awareness of our times and the issues faced today? And looking ahead, could we recognize their potential as exemplary design that may shape future lifestyles, industry, or society for the better? These matters were foremost in the mind of all jury members as we looked for and tried to understand the latent potential of the design entries. Accordingly, the award winners may be eclectic and varied in their purpose or the form they take, but each makes us reasonably optimistic about their potential to make waves in society and inspire further enriching creativity.
We hope that this inherent potential of each award winner resonates with people and elicits their support as a reliable, constructive force toward a more prosperous society in years to come.
October 2, 2019
Chair of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2019
Fumie Shibata
Vice Chair of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2019
Seiichi Saito