Tag Archives: G Mark

Good Design Gets Better by The Year – Part 2

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Hope you enjoyed my recap on the Good Design Awards 2018 here. Now it’s time to do a special countdown for you. Under the Chairmanship of Fumie Shibata and Vice Chair Seiichi Saito, the 2018 Good Design Awards saw about 4,789 entries and a total of 1,353 works were awarded. In this feature, YD picks its favorite 15 from the Good Design Best 100 list. It was a tough competition, and picked our 15 best!

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Gogoro is a transportation network system where the Gogoro scooter uses rechargeable batteries. The city is dotted with the charging station hubs, and you simply have to go to them and replace your used batteries with a fully charged pair.

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Hotel Hanare is in Yanaka, Tokyo and should not be mistaken for a regular hotel. The reception is located on the upper floor of the café, but the lodgings is in a separate part of the town. In many ways, the whole town serves as your hotel.

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Bamboo Bicycle uses bamboo as the main frame of the cycle. The thought-process behind using this material, is to take advantage of its abundance in the local area.

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TouchFocus e-focus instantaneously adjustable eyewear uses a touch sensor installed in the temple to automatically adjust your glasses from reading vision to long-distance vision.

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Sony Aibo is a robotic AI-powered dog that hopes to revolutionize the adoption of AI technology at home. It hopes to influence the lifestyle of how people engage with AI at home.

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Swans E-NOX Neuron eyewear is specialized in track and field usage, to help improve the performance of athletes.

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Kamado-san Denki is an electric rice cooker with an earthenware pot made by Nagatani-en, and an electric shell for managing the cooking.

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Bowls by Kai Corporation are designed to help you ‘beat’, ‘dress’ and ‘mix’ ingredients more efficiently. The rims of the bowl offer you a good grip, when you hold them.

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With a very quirky tail, the Qoobo is a robotic pillow that has been designed to give a sense of comfort to its users. When you caress it, the tail waves gently, but when you rub the pillow, the tail swings playfully. Once-in-way, the tail wags randomly, just to say hello.

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Convertible 2 in 1 Notebook PC – The HP Spectre is valued as premium in the PC market. Sporting a completely revolutionized design, and using innovative natural materials, this device is very easy to use.

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Cooking Dishes by KaB DESIGN are versatile and can be put straight into the microwave, from the refrigerator. The dishes are your perfect companion for baking, storing and freezing food.

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JIMNY / JIMNY SIERRA by Suzuki was launched in 1970 and has the reputation of offering high off-road stability. After two decades and an overhaul in design, this automobile is still at its peak performance.

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The Red Ladybug is an off-road fire truck that has been designed as a multi-purpose first responder vehicle for disasters like earthquake, hurricane, thunderstorms, landslide, snowstorm, and volcanic eruptions.

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The Rig Dog Xtreme Impact Glove protects professionals from hand injuries in heavy industries like oil & gas, construction & mining. The ergonomic, flexible glove features TPR (Thermo-plastic rubber) impact resist parts across hand & fingers.

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City Service-car or The Gifted City is the social design project where designers and differently-abled people work together. Using art therapy as a medium, the designers create useful products with the differently-abled folks and retailing them.

Look for the 2019 Good Design Awards announcement, right here on Yanko Design.

Good Design Gets Better by The Year

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It’s that time of the year, when I look back on the year gone by, and reflect on the many travels that I undertook, and what is the best that I got from to learn from them. The one that stands out the most, is my annual pilgrimage to Japan and the Good Design Awards, or G Mark. Founded in 1957, and in its 61st year, the sole purpose of the awards is to be an advocate of “good design”, and to enrich ‘life, industry and society as a whole.’ What I appreciate the most about the awards is that takes into account not only product design, industrial design and architecture, but also approaches and concepts towards better living and communities. While Product Design is also about solving a human need and making life better, some of the entries that are shortlisted for the 2018 G Mark, reflect community building by providing food boxes for the poor, better hospitality services by involving a whole village and many such examples.

Good Design Grand Award, Good Design Gold Award and Good Focus Award

Most people visit the Special Exhibition of the “Good Design Best 100″ and the pop-up shop showcasing award-winning products. However, my favorite part is the awarding ceremony, where in a very democratic way that the top prize is awarded. Tokens are distributed amongst the attendees and all get a chance to vote from the Top Six entries, the one Grand Prize.

Shortlisted for 2018 were: Sony Aibo, Gogoro Energy and Transportation Platform and Gogoro Scooter, Portable X-Ray by Fuji Film, Hotel Hanare, The landscape of Tokyo Marunouchi station square and Gyoko street area and Temple activities for solving poverty problems [Otera oyatsu club].

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There was a tie between Gogoro Scooter and Temple activities for solving poverty problems, but the clear winner emerged at the second round of counting – Temple activities for solving poverty problems.

This award-winning program revolves around a group of Temple Priests, who collect the food items offered to the temple deity, and distribute it among the poor children of the community. It solves two things – distribution of the temple surplus and elimination of hunger.

When I spoke with Jury Member Gen Suzuki, I asked him this…

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RS: Good Design focuses on public good, so Aibo may not stand a chance, what is your opinion on that?

GS: Aibo can be used to help old people and people with disabilities, so public good can be seen in projects like this. I don’t think high-tech products and public good are contradictory to each other, for example Sony Aibo robots can be used in elderly nursing homes. Maintaining a real pet can be an issue for the older generation, but Aibo is maintenance-free in that sense and can still provide similar aspects as real pets can.

RS: Your reaction to crowdfunding projects that win the Good Design, because Life Long Design Award is an important aspect for the Good Design Awards and hence, you will expect products to last for a longer time.

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GS: We do see failures in design, but crowdfunding projects encourage young designers. And with G Mark, we can help identify the good products with our jury process and validate them. But we can’t be sure if they will be around thirty years from now. It is a chance we can take, and young designers who fail, can look at it as an opportunity to reflect on why they failed, and look for an alternative route to progress.

RS: What was your favorite product from this year?

GS: “Kamado-san Denki” an electric rice cooker that features an earthenware pot made by Nagatani-en. It is one of the most famous potteries in Japan. Kitchen appliances seem to be diversifying and this rice cooker is the perfect example of traditional earthenware married to high-tech – old fashion and high tech fusion.

My Favorites from the 2018 Good Design Awards Best 100 were Gogoro Scooter, Sony Aibo and Bamboo Bicycle

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The Sony Aibo Team said that they are developing an intelligent product and hope to create a new lifestyle of living with a robot. The one issue they hope to solve, is teaching humans to communicate with AI and robotics with more compassion and love.

The current generation of Aibo is driven by an actuator (motor), and they would like to build a model that moves just like how the human muscles moves. This will give Aibo more mobility and the intelligence to move its arms and legs with artificial muscles. This make the Aibo more realistic and more humanized.

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Bamboo Bicycle by Indonesian Singgih S Kartono hopes to solve the daily commute challenge with a bike that uses resources close to home – the bamboo. Collaborating with a bicycle manufacturer is a clever move as he is aware that he can’t match the competition alone. The next steps in evolution is a folding cycle and cycle for women.

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As a designer or manufacturer, I see how you benefit by the recognition this prestigious award brings to you. But what I truly respect is the diversity of topics and initiatives that you can participate with.

Stay in touch for Part 2 of this series, where I showcase YD’s top 15 of the Best 100 Designs, and look for the 2019 Good Design Awards announcement, right here on Yanko Design.

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The “Good” in Good Design Award

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The short of it is that The Good Design Award registrations are open and the deadline for entries is June 3, 2015 – So hurry and Apply Now! In case you need convincing … read the long of it … my trip to Japan and first hand experience of the Awards, the Jury and the Exhibition at Tokyo Midtown. The journey of the awards kicked off as a benchmark for the industrialized Japan, however, over the last decade or so, the focus has shifted to include consumer goods and everyday items. This opens doors for young companies and designers from the world over to participate.

Dates to remember:

  • June 3 – Deadline of the entry
  • September 29 – Announcement of the award recipients
  • October 30 – Announcement of the Special Award winners
  • October 30 to November 4 – Good Design Exhibition in Tokyo
  • November 4 – Grand Award selection and Award Ceremony

The Good Design Award is hosted by the Japan Institute for Design Promotion and roughly 1200 designs are recognized every year. “BEST 100” items and 9 Grand Award were presented last year and the winner – Denso Wave’s robot, “VS050 SII” was spectacularly displayed in an enclosed box, doing its swag and how!

YD was a part of a special tour that got a chance to take in the sights and sounds of the exhibition. Besides feasting my eyes on the amazingly designed products, I got a chance to ask a few questions to the Chairman of the Jury, Naoto Fukasawa along with Fumie Shibata and Gen Suzuki.

When asked what was more important … design or technology, Naoto Fukasawa said that earlier it was all about design, but now we have transitioned to a phase where technology is more important. “The change has happened naturally. The aim of design is to expose the technology.”

The way Good Design Award works is this, they have a theme each year and for 2014 it was ‘Kokochi’ or ‘Quality of Comfort’, and while screening the submissions, this aspect is most applied in the final leg and is critical for you to get into the “Top 100” bracket. Aligned with this mindset, Fukasawa said that successful Kokochi simply means, “The design builds a harmonious interaction between the users and technology.” The Good Design Best 100 Special Exhibition conveys this message effectively and is visited by both Japanese and International Design enthusiasts from across the globe.

For 2015, Good Design Award has introduced “Topical Issue” as a new system in order to enhance their role. If you are participating, then please get a better understanding of this here.

Topical Issue refers to “an area where design is considered to be especially required in a coming society”. In the screening, a special team (Topical Issue Directors) to deepen discussion on these issues is organized, and observes subject entries across screening units and discusses the “possibilities in the future society” and the “roles and meaning of design”.

Moving on, it was a visual treat to see how involved Japan is in the Awards, for example I walked into the Muji Store and they had a whole counter dedicated to their award-winning products from over the decades. Almost every retail store was showcasing the G-Mark products in a special nook and according to Gen Suzuki; about 90% of the Japanese people are aware of the Good Design Award and respect its value when it comes to making buying decisions.

The Great East Japan Earthquake has left a mark in the world of design, and while Gen remarked how some of his designer friends have actually gone back to agricultural roots, the other end of the spectrum saw us walk through a special curation of Japanese Furniture Selection that hoped to “convey values through designs that have a fundamental purpose through meaning beyond direction.” Many of the designs showcased traditional craftsmanship such as Japanese woodworking as well as new technologies.

Catch them young and watch them grow – this adage is true in Japan, where the Award exhibition engaged children aged between 7 and 12, in activities that married design and technology. I got a peek at a workshop where children were asked to draw a picture over an area of a map and then they had to walk the area on the map with GPS attached to them. The idea was to see how many of them would manage to walk as close to the initial picture drawn on the map. Pretty clever!

It was a treat to visit Jury Member Fumie Shibata’s Studio, where she showed me her creations and gifted me her signature Japanese knife. I asked her what changes in the judging process has she seen over the last decade as a jury member?

Shibata: “The selection process or screening process has not changed; the environment and the focus of choosing winners is different each year, so our perspective is to match the brief of the theme for the year and judge the entry based on that. I have been a jury for the last decade and we are no longer looking at the submitted entries as stand-alone objects. We factor in the entire context and impact of the object for its intended environment. Our entire outlook is based on the whole and not the singular.”

Shibata on trends: “As for the trends in design, earlier big manufacturing companies would submit their products and these dictated the tone of the entries. Over the last five years, smaller retailers and design companies are participating and their projects have added a new dimension to the trends in design, which is more refreshing and radical. Each year there is a theme for the competition and that dictates the entry selection only at the last stage of judging. The pre-screening takes into account the overall quality and then may lead to a G-Mark Award, but for it to make the cut for special categories or the Top 100, and then the design should conform to the theme of the year.”

Shibata on advice to young designer: “Designers need to network both vertical and horizontal – meet not only mentors but also their contemporaries. When designers are creating, they should focus on staying true to their origins and at the same time blend in an international approach towards their design. This holds true to both Japanese and International Designers.”

Wrapping up my visit, I spoke with Gen Suzuki and asked him elaborate more on modern Japanese Design, “The main characteristic of Japanese Design is craftsmanship, and blending that with modern mindset is what the modern Japanese product design is. The downside of craftsmanship is that the focus is too much on the process and the product that the bigger picture is sometimes lost.” Well Said!

To sum it up, seeing is believing … and the 2014 Exhibition was Top Notch! I have come back with a profound understanding of why people praise Japanese Design so much. It’s all about the character and the mindset; using basic skills like craftsmanship and marring it with the modern implements. I can lay a bet that 2015 will be a step better, because you’re inspired by the exhibition and will be participating and winning … and I will see you in Japan in November!

Deadline: June 3, 2015

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(The “Good” in Good Design Award was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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