April 4, 2018
Japan Institute of Design Promotion

Good Design Award 2018 Calls for Entries
with New Chairman and Vice Chairman
Japan Institute of Design Promotion (Chairman: Motomi Kawakami,Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo), the organizer of Good Design Award 2018,
starts accepting entries for Good Design Award on April 4, 2018.
Good Design Award, founded in 1957, is Japan’s leading commendation
system with entries from around the world. Its purpose is to discover andpromote good designs which drive industrial growth and enrich lives.

What’s New About GDA 2018？
●New chairman and vice chairman appointed
Newly appointed are chairman Fumie Shibata (product designer, representative director of DesignStudio S), and vice chairman Seiichi Saito, (creative/technical director, CEO of Rhizomatiks Co., Ltd.).
Shibata is the first female chairman in the history of Good Design Award.

●Good Focus Award establishedThe new award focuses on essential social themes, “business,” “community” and “technologydevelopment and tradition.” Pioneering designs fitting each theme will be honored.
Good Design Gold Award will now be awarded to designs with excellence in all areas, and among theawardees, the candidates for Good Design Grand Award will be selected. Those candidates, called
finalists, will be promoted as designs with strong power to become the models for future designs.
Screening Process
The recipients of Good Design Award and Good Design Best 100, selected during the first and second screening,
will be announced early in October. Following the presentations of the Best 100, Good Design Gold Award andGood Focus Award will be chosen from the 100 designs. Exhibitions to introduce all winning entries is scheduled
for late October during which the design of the year, Good Design Grand Award, will be announced.
Key dates-Application period: April 4 (Wed.) ― May 23 (Wed.)-Announcement of the awardees: October 3 (Wed.) [Good Design Award, Good Design Best 100]
-Best 100 designers’ presentations: October 10 (Wed.)-Exhibitions: October 31 (Wed.) ― November 4 (Sun.)-Award reception, selection and announcement of Good Design Grand Award recipient: October 31 (Wed.)
Application-Prerequisite: Products, architecture, application, software, projects, services and systems that are available forpublic announcement on October 3, 2018 and for purchase or usage by March 31, 2019.
-Qualification: Principal implementing businesses and design business operators of the subject entries. Corporations
and individuals with headquarters in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are exempt from application fees.
-How to apply: Register on Good Design Award Website (www.g-mark.org) by May 23.
For media inquiries regarding this matter: OZMA Inc. (contact: Tsukita, Arai or Suzuki)
Tel：03-4531-0214 E-mail：jdp@ozma.co.jp

Types of awards
Good Design Award: superb design
Good Design Grand Award: design of the year
Good Design Gold Award: design with excellent balance, expected to serve
as a model for the future
Good Focus Award: design with proposals on the following social issue-New Business / create new business models or industries and promote innovation-Technology and Tradition / product design based on sophisticated technology and skill-Community / develop and revitalize local communities

2017	   Good	   Design	   Grand	   Award	  Casual	   Wind	   Instrument [Venova]
Yamaha	   Corporation	   (Shizuoka,	   Japan)-Reconstruction / recovery from large-scale natural disasters such as earthquakes

Promotion
All awarded entries will be introduced at Good Design Exhibition 2018 at Tokyo Midtown from October 31 andother exhibitions, expos and sales events in Japan and abroad.
Focused Issues, the proposals from Good Design Award
Focused Issues are the significant social issues that Japan faces ahead of the world, and the themes people areconcerned about that are likely to affect the future society. The screening committee of the award will study howeach design tackles those issues and promote the awarded designs as proposals for the society.
Organizer and supporters
Organizer：Japan Institute of Design Promotion
Supporters： Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry／Small and Medium Enterprise Agency／Tokyo
Metropolitan Government／Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry／Japan External Trade Organization（JETRO）／ASEAN-Japan Centre／Nikkei Inc. （planned）【Recommendations for Good Design Long Life Design Award also begins April 4 】
Good Design Long Life Design Award is to find designs that have enjoyed consumer support and havebecome essential in our lives, and are expected to be so for years to come. Recommendations for the award
starts on April 4.
-Prerequisite: Design of products and services that are on continuous production and sales for morethan 10 years, gaining wide support from the users and are expected to be available in the future-Qualification: Users, designers, corporations etc. of the products and services-How to apply: Register on Good Design Award Website (www.g-mark.org).
-Application period: April 4 (Wed.) ― May 23 (Wed.)-Announcement of the recipients: October 3 (Wed.)

Reference / About Good Design Award
Established in 1957, Good Design Award is Japan’s leading commendation system. Eligible for application
are products, architecture, application and software, projects and initiatives that utilize design and more.
Through this system, many people come in contact with “good design” and appreciate their value. The
recognition rate of the award is 85%*, with its familiar symbol, G Mark.
The number of entries for Good Design Award 2017 marked the largest since its privatization in 1998.
Out of 4,495 entries, 1,403 received the award. The cumulative total number of award-winning pieces
reached over 46,000. Application from overseas has increased by more than 500 over the past five years,
making it account for about 26% of the total.
*According to the Internet survey by Japan Institute of Design Promotion in 2017.

Schedules and names in this press release are subject to change.

Reference:Profiles of new Chairman and Vice Chairman of Good Design AwardChairman: Fumie Shibata

Product designer
Representative Director, Design Studio S /Professor, Musashino Art University
After graduating from Musashino Art University and working atToshiba, Shibata established her own company, Design Studio S. Witha strong focus on industrial design, she is active in a wide range ofareas, from designing electronics, everyday sundries and medical
equipment to acting as creative director for hotels. She has won
numerous awards, including Mainichi Design Award and Good Design
Gold Award.

Vice Chairman: Seiichi Saito

Creative/ Technical Director
CEO, Rhizomatiks Co., Ltd.
Graduating from Columbia University with a Master of Science degree
in Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD), Saito began his career in
New York in 2000. He has worked as a freelance creator before
establishing Rhizomatiks Co., Ltd. in 2006. In commercial art field, heproduces three-dimensional and interactive works based on the
logical thought that he cultivated through studying architecture. He
has won numerous awards in Japan and abroad.

Message from Chairman and Vice Chairman : Make it happen with design
Welcome to Good Design Award 2018.
Design plays an integral part of our life and introduces to us new lifestyles of the future. In allages, every person needs design - tangible or intangible - for the richness of the mind.
More and more people are trying their hands at design these days. Some want to improve whatalready exists, others wish to resolve the challenges of the world and still others try to open up
possibilities of completely new design. From different standpoints, they see hopes in design, andan increasing number of people are tackling “things that can be transformed by design.”
In designs brought about in such ways are consideration and ideals for us “people,” and avariety of richness that can only be brought about by design.
Good Design Award looks at how those consideration for people are transformed into beautiful
designs with high aspirations. We strive to find designs that enrich our daily life, portray with
distinctive power the unknown and bring about new stories to us, and to convey their values
through the framework of Good Design Award.