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.
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
Economic rationality, public benefit, eco-friendliness, all-in-one business model──Kuradashi: Kohei Kawamura x Aki Hayashi
Aki Hayashi, a researcher for the 2023 Focused Issues, picked GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD winner Social Good Market Kuradashi as an interesting example of good design that benefits society, the company, and individuals all at once. How did their business model come up? Hayashi interviewed Kohei Kawamura, the CEO of KURADASHI, about the background of Kuradashi’s almighty business model, which simultaneously achieves economic rationality, public benefit, and eco-friendliness.
Listening to non-human voices to reconstruct the communities along the river – Mattauw Earth Triennial “Gong Jow-Jiun x Yutaka Nakamura”
Yutaka Nakamura, a researcher for the 2023 Focused Issues, mentioned “One Thousand Names of Zeng-wen River, 2022 Mattauw Earth Triennial,” which won a GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD, as an intriguing work from the perspectives of design as well as anthropology. How did they produce the art festival, which reconstructed the communities of humans and non-humans in the basins? Nakamura asked Gong Jow-Jiun, the general curator of this festival, about the production process of the art festival.
Why design is expected to be “brave” and “organic” now—Background of the theme of 2023 FOCUSED ISSUES
“Brave Attitude, Organic Design”—This year, GOOD DESIGN AWARD FOCUSED ISSUES has started afresh, with a renewed purpose and process. With a vision of being a “think tank of design,” Focused Issues will capture the “wave” of design behind award-winning works and determine a theme every year. The 2023 theme “Brave Attitude, Organic Design” was determined through a series of screening processes. This article will explore the intention of these words in detail.
Brave Attitude, Organic Design: FOCUSED ISSUES theme decided
This year, GOOD DESIGN AWARD FOCUSED ISSUES has started afresh, with a renewed purpose and process. With a vision of being a “think tank of design,” FOCUSED ISSUES will capture the “wave” of design behind award-winning works and determine a theme every year. The 2023 theme “Brave Attitude, Organic Design” was determined through a series of screening processes. What is the intention of this theme?
2022 - Re-examining the ever-changing “present day”
FOCUSED ISSUES are activities to consider and recommend new possibilities for design through the GOOD DESIGN AWARD screening process. In the FOCUSED ISSUES, we set “issues” as themes that we believe should be explored through the judging process. While observing the subject entries, the directors, selected by the jury, 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.