Message from Organizer
I extend my sincere congratulations to all the Good Design Award 2020 winners.
Despite the challenges imposed by the global spread of the novel coronavirus, this year’s Good Design Award has received a large number of entries. The award has been given to 1,395 designs, which is almost the same number as last year. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the judges and all those involved for their long-term cooperation.
We are living in turbulent times that the world has never seen before. There is no going back to the way things were, and the way out is yet to be found. Still, we cannot afford to stay where we are now, we need to look for clues by ourselves in order to move forward to a new normal and a new world that we should aim for.
It seems that expectations are increasing for design to serve as a guidepost in pursuing this new normal and new world.
The Good Design Award has always been responsive to changes in the times and the signs of a new era, and has identified designs for the next generation through rigorous and fair screenings over its long history. It has boosted the potential of design, and has led to building new models of society through design.
In a time of turmoil and change, I see design as something that provides us with tools for creating a richer world where we can all live with hope and humanity. We hope that the latest award-winning designs show the potential of design to many.
The 2020 Good Design Grand Award, Gold Award, and Good Focus Award will be selected from among the Good Design Best 100—100 designs that are recognized for their high degree of completeness and expectations from among all award winning objects announced today.
We look forward to your continued support, and invite you to stay tuned for updates.
October 1, 2020
President, Japan Institute of Design Promotion
Atsushi Oi
Message from Chair
Despite the fact that society has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus crisis this year, we received more than 4,000 entries, which is almost as many as last year. In order to meet the expectations of applicants, all of the judges participated in the second screening panel at one location. However, please accept my apologies for the fact that not everything went as usual this year. For example, we had to conduct the hearing screening remotely. Nevertheless, I believe that this year’s Good Design Award winning objects have revealed many ambitious innovations in a variety of fields.
This year, the theme for the Good Design Award is “sympathy for each other.”
When designing, it is very important to consider and explore such themes as others, society, and the environment. Furthermore, rather than taking a one-sided approach, I feel it is necessary to exchange sensations, sensibilities, insights and wisdom with each other. With that in mind, we made a point of interpreting the information and using our imagination in the process of screening. The information contained in the actual subject entries and the panels is multifaceted and dense. I think the outstanding designs perfectly conveyed messages that capture our attention.
For example, I saw great potential in designs that set a benchmark in building a circular society, as seen in "Loop" and "House for Marebito," to serve as solutions to the global issues that humanity has been facing since before the coronavirus crisis. What they both have in common is that they are trying to create a system for building a circular society, which is possible to operate globally, in the local environment and expand it. The same concept can be seen in the product design of "EOS C500 Mark II/EOS C300 Mark III." Featuring a cube-shaped body that can be adapted to various shooting techniques, its approach is the same as creating a local system that can be implemented globally.
The winning objects of the Good Design Award are not only “good” individually, but at the same time also form the totality of “good” that we now unanimously consider desirable. The Good Design Best 100 is positioned as the essence of the award to clarify and convey the message transmitted by the “totality of good.” We hope that communication among all the Good Design Award winning objects and their awareness of the mutually beneficial connection between them will create a driving force to open up the future.
October 1, 2020
Chair of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2020
Takashi Ashitomi
Message from Vice Chair
To everyone involved in the award-winning designs recognized in this year's Good Design Award, I extend my sincere congratulations.
In spite of the coronavirus crisis, we received many applications. Precisely because of the current uncertainty, appreciation for the power of design and the significance of its potential roles were shared in the minds of all the judges throughout the screening. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the companies and organizations that participated in the screening, those involved in the setup of the screening panel, the award office, and all involved in the Good Design Award, for supporting us in implementing the Good Design Award this year.
Under the theme of "sympathy for each other," the kinds of products and services required in society were clearly highlighted through this year’s screening. For example, we have recently been seeing an increasing number of proposals of products and services related to the environment. This year, we evaluated them from multifaceted perspectives and through interpretation and discussions in greater depth, examining the background, materials, processes, and business models of the initiatives and development, to determine if the Good Design Award should promote a spill over into the world, and if they are clearly showing "sympathy" that goes beyond individual frameworks of corporations, organizations, or industries. As a result, we found designs that we can confidently send out into the world.
Although I believe that design, attitude of mind, and the industry structure should change with the times, it seemed to me that change has hardly been implemented. On the other hand, through this year’s award winning objects, I can see a new trend of capturing, exploring, and implementing design in a broader sense, where innovation is implemented by small teams, decisions are made and directions are changed immediately in response to social changes, and new ideas are born from crossing industry boundaries. Japan is about to enter an age of accelerated demographic aging, while global uncertainty means anything can happen any time, like this year’s pandemic, to bring significant changes to our lives. Even under such circumstances, I trust that this year's Good Design Award will inspire us involved in design to face forward, look a little ahead, and keep working with our hands in order to make the world beautiful.
October 1, 2020
Vice Chair of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2020
Seiichi Saito