What challenges should designers face now, as found at the GOOD DESIGN AWARDs.
One of the important roles of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD is to discover the possibilities and challenges for the next society. The Focus Issue was created to fulfill this role, and is an initiative dedicated to deepening the important issues that design should face today.
In the Focus Issue, we set “issues" as themes that we believe should be explored through the judging process. While observing the submitted entries, the judges will reflect on the possibilities for the future of society and the role and significance of design, and present their findings as final recommendations after judging.
How can designers take small steps within companies? — Shigeo Usui of Panasonic, Kazuhisa Horikiri of Fujifilm, and Seiichi Saito of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD
The exhibition “A Small Step, Design Leaps” is being held at the Tokyo Midtown Design Hub as a 2024 Focused Issues initiative. Shigeo Usui of Panasonic and Kazuhisa Horikiri of Fujifilm were invited for a talk to mark the opening of the project. What is the first “small step” within a company which thinks about various trailblazing aspects of “design combined with management”?
A Small Step, Design Leaps: 2024 Focused Issues Report Released
Six proposals and 18 awarded works are released to create the wave of design, “A Small Step, Design Leaps,” which we have been observing through the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2024.
Design as “the formalization of tacit knowledge” in order to boost innovation ー Akie Iriyama and Aki Hayashi
Aki Hayashi, a Focused Issues Researcher, made the proposal “Start by questioning identity'” as a 2024 proposal for future design. It was Akie Iriyama, a professor at Waseda Business School (Graduate School of Business and Finance) and a management scholar, that Hayashi asked to talk with her in order to deepen the proposal further. Due to space limitations, some episodes could not be included in the report. However, we are releasing the full dialogue.
Decolonization of Design in the Context of “Pluriverse” — Arturo Escobar × Yutaka Nakamura
Yutaka Nakamura, a Focused Issues Researcher, presented “Decolonizing the nature-culture-economy ecosystem with inner creativity” as his recommendations for FY2024. To further deepen the recommendations, we approached Arturo Escobar, an anthropologist and professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina, for a dialogue.
Collaboration and Co-creation in Design from the Perspective of Plurality： Audrey Tang and Naoki Ota
The Focused Issues report, summarizing the proposals for 2024, will be released soon. Naoki Ota, a researcher involved in the project, presented the proposal “Create a chain of small challenges under a flexible vision.” To explore this idea further, he reached out to Audrey Tang, Taiwan's first Digital Minister, for a dialogue. Due to space limitations, some episodes could not be included in the report. However, we are releasing the full dialogue in advance.
A Small Step, Design Leaps: Focused Issues theme decided
GOOD DESIGN AWARD Focused Issues will capture the design “wave” behind the award-winning works and set a theme every year, with the vision of being a “think tank for design.” The 2024 theme “A Small Step, Design Leaps” was determined through a series of screening processes. What is the intention behind these words?
We MUST NOT solve those social issues──Yutaka Nakamura
Focused Issues researchers looked over all the screening subjects and explored the “ground swell” from the perspective of outside experts who were not judges. We asked three of them to each write based on their own expertise and from their own angles about what they noticed and saw as they accompanied the screening process. In this essay, design anthropologist Yutaka Nakamura examines the “brave” required when faced with “social issues” that need to be resolved. This article is also included in the 2023 Focused Issues Report.
Why every new business should aim for the GOOD DESIGN AWARD──Aki Hayashi
Focused Issues researchers looked over all the screening subjects and explored the "ground swell" from the perspective of outside experts who were not judges. We asked three of them to each write based on their own expertise and from their own angles about what they noticed and saw as they accompanied the screening process. In this essay, Aki Hayashi, Focused Issuess Researchers, explains why, from a business perspective, she clearly states that all business people, not just designers, should aim for the GOOD DESIGN AWARD.
The GOOD DESIGN AWARD, a fixed point observation──Sakura Nomiyama
Focused Issues researchers looked over all the screening subjects and explored the "ground swell" from the perspective of outside experts who were not judges. We asked three of them to each write based on their own expertise and from their own angles about what they noticed and saw as they accompanied the screening process. In this essay, design historian Sakura Nomiyama discusses the significance of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD, an activity that evaluates present-day design, and its potential.
Unraveling Brave Attitude, Organic Design: 2023 GOOD DESIGN AWARD Focused Issues Report Published
The “wave” of design seen through the 2023 GOOD DESIGN AWARD Nine Perspectives and 23 Proposals for Creating “Brave Attitude, Organic Design” opened