Shunsuke Imai

Masaki Koike

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?

A Small Step, Design Leaps: Focused Issues theme decided

Yutaka Nakamura

Anthropologist | Tama Art University Professor / Atelier Anthropology LLC CEO / KESIKI Inc. Design Anthropologist

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.

We MUST NOT solve those social issues──Yutaka Nakamura

Aki Hayashi

Editor, writer, director | President of Brand Journalism, Inc.

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.

Why every new business should aim for the GOOD DESIGN AWARD──Aki Hayashi

Sakura Nomiyama

Design historian, design researcher | Curator of Igarashi Takenobu Archive at Kanazawa Institute of Technology

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.

The GOOD DESIGN AWARD, a fixed point observation──Sakura Nomiyama

Kazuyuki Koyama

The “wave” of design seen through the 2023 GOOD DESIGN AWARD
Nine Perspectives and 23 Proposals for Creating “Brave Attitude, Organic Design” opened

Unraveling Brave Attitude, Organic Design: 2023 GOOD DESIGN AWARD Focused Issues Report Published

Rika Namiki

Tetsuhiro Ishida

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.

Economic rationality, public benefit, eco-friendliness, all-in-one business model──Kuradashi: Kohei Kawamura x Aki Hayashi

Mayu Sasaki

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.

Listening to non-human voices to reconstruct the communities along the river – Mattauw Earth Triennial “Gong Jow-Jiun x Yutaka Nakamura”

“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.

Why design is expected to be “brave” and “organic” now—Background of the theme of 2023 FOCUSED ISSUES

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?

Brave Attitude, Organic Design: FOCUSED ISSUES theme decided

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.

2022 - Re-examining the ever-changing “present day”

Seiichi Saito

Creative Director | Panoramatiks Principal

FOCUSED ISSUES is an activity that considers and recommends new possibilities for design through the GOOD DESIGN AWARD screening process. The GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2023 will see a major change in its structure. Seiichi Saito, this year’s newly appointed chairperson, talks about the updates to FOCUSED ISSUES and the thoughts that went into it.

New Chairperson Talks about Outlook for 2023  Be a “think tank” of design: Why the GOOD DESIGN AWARD FOCUSED ISSUES was renewed—Seiichi Saito, New Chairperson

Ai Iishi

Urban Designer | Coordinator, Real Public Estate / Director, nest.inc

The world is now experiencing a series of unintended events, such as economic upheaval, pandemics, and wars. In a world where the future is uncertain and social values are rapidly changing, what kind of design will be flexible enough to suit changing situations? How can we nurture something important for several decades ahead?

Director’s Message 2023：Ai Iishi

Gen Suzuki

Product Designer｜Director, GEN SUZUKI STUDIO

Leave space, and leave it to someone else in the end. Trust in users results in the creation of products that people can live with for a long time

Dominique Chen

Information Studies Researcher｜Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University

Director’s Message 2023：Dominique Chen

Respect for “me” and collaboration between “us”:designing for compatibility between these two

Erika Nakagawa

Architect｜CEO, Erika Nakagawa Office

Director’s Message 2023：Erika Nakagawa

Everyone becomes a maker and keeps updating “the provisional first place.” Design to solve complicated problems

Laila Cassim

Art Director/Designer｜General Incorporated Association SHIBUYA FONT

A friendly society starts within 10 feet of you.
Design that creates a stir through questioning common practices

Masahiro Ino

Masayuki Koike

This time Nakagawa visited the developers of UNI-ONE. One is Satoshi Kanamori, The other is Shinichiro Kobashi.Nakagawa's interview with them seeks a clue to the design that cannot be described in a nutshell.

Interpretable design includes diverse people — Erika Nakagawa x Honda UNI-ONE

Misa Shinshi

Iishi visited the site to find hints of “Continuous design.” She talked with Tatsuro Baba, Representative Director of Kamiyama TSUNAGU Corporation, who was in charge of direction.

"Bothersomeness" fosters continuous design across generations — Tatsuro Baba x Ai Iishi

What kind of clue does this initiative of Yamakoshi, which was selected as one of the 100 best designs in the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2022, give him to realize “Designing Our Well-being”?

How is a sense of "we" expanded?—Yamakoshi Public Meeting Haruka Takeuchi × Dominique Chen

Sachiyo Oya

Yukiya Sonoda

Masashi Sasaki

What emerges from their dialogue is the importance of moving beyond the concept of “people who support and people who are supported” and building relationships between people. We will look back on the past of Magical Dagashiya Tyrol-Do to find out what design can do.

Design starts with immediate relationships beyond just support -- Takashi Yoshidada x Laila Cassim

Yuta Hagiwara

Suzuki has hypothesized that altruism may provide a new perspective in the search for “just the right design.” Their talk began with Suzuki’s hypothesis, and evolved into the possibility of “a margin” outside rationality and economy.

Just the right design in terms of altruism -- Asa Ito × Gen Suzuki

Ryotaro Washio

Highlighted by the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2022 and the FOCUSED ISSUES, what is the “interaction” required of design today? We interviewed the Chair and Vice Chair.

What design should achieve today is interaction and creating a compass – Thinking from the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2022 [Takashi Ashitomi and Seiichi Saito]

Amid the changing times, we introduce the history and current position of FOCUSED ISSUES, which reflects the transformation of the public mission borne by design.

What challenges should designers face now, as found at the GOOD DESIGN AWARDs.

2022 Articles

2022 - Re-examining the ever-changing “present day”