PRESS RELEASE

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
 
April 27, 2012

Japan Institute of Design Promotion

Good Design Award 2012
Call for Entries from April 27
Applications for the Good Design Award 2012 will be available from April 27 to June 1 online
at the Good Design Award website. Japan's leading design evaluation and commendation
program, the Good Design Award is managed by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion,
dedicated to comprehensive design promotion.

Since its inception in 1957, this award program has helped to inspire design excellence inmore than 38,000 winning entries, which has contributed to Japanese industrial development
and improved everyday life. The G Mark logo distinguishing award winners is now widely
recognized in Japan as assurance of good design.

After the April 27–June 1 application period this year, entry documents will be reviewed at thefirst screening and actual entries and supporting documents at the second, followed by anannouncement of winners on October 1.
A wide range of design work can be submitted for award consideration, from hardware (suchas products and architecture) to software (including websites and applications) to carefully
designed initiatives or projects, as long as the entry will be ready for purchase or public use
before March 31, 2013. Applicants must allow winning entries to be made public when Good
Design Award winners are announced on October 1, 2012 and displayed at the Good DesignAward Exhibition beginning on November 23.

Moving on from previous years' program themes of how design can define enrichment of
everyday life (2010) and what represents rightness of design (2011), product designer Naoto
Fukasawa has identified beauty and ease of use as key concepts this year. Now serving histhird year as chairman, Fukasawa suggested that what defines design is how, throughfunctionality, designers pursue a certain feeling in use or a kind of beauty. This definition will
endure despite a shift from the tangible to the intangible in design. We might also define
design by considering how essential relationships—formed by our ties with things, otherpeople, or the environment—feel to us, or how beautiful they seem. Recent minimalist
smartphones or flat-panel televisions demonstrate how, as things gradually lose the shapes
we usually associate them with, they gain functionality. Under the circumstances, the role andpositioning of design should be to devise better ways of using things, or better frameworks
linking functions, people, and the environment. These assertions by the chairman have set
the tone for judging at this year's Good Design Award.

Good Design Award 2012 Highlights
 Award Exhibition Held in November at Tokyo Big Sight
In place of the regular August unveiling of Good Design Award entries, the ultimate winners
will be announced at an exhibition in November at Tokyo Big Sight, where Good DesignAward winners and other impressive design work will be on display. During this event, Good
Design Gold and Grand Award winners and other recipients of special awards will beannounced and an award ceremony will be held.

 Outstanding Design Honored in "Top 100" Events
Pioneering winners of Good Design Award in various fields will be selected for a collection of
the top 100, from which notable winners (such as Good Design Gold Award winners) will behonored. Contributing designers will give presentations, and other events will round out the
publicity in support of design.

 Inaugural Screenings in Taiwan and South Korea
Asian submissions of Good Design Award entries have surged in recent years. Local
screenings of this kind serve two goals: sharing the program's perspective on good design
with a broader audience and raising local awareness and understanding about the Good
Design Award.

 Application Fee Waived for Entries from Disaster Areas
To support recovery of regional industries affected by the March 11, 2011 Tohoku disaster,businesses based in Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, and Ibaraki will
generally not be required to pay the application fee.