GOOD DESIGN EXHIBITION 2011-reasonableness-

Tokyo Midtown Design Hub (Participating organizations: Japan Institute of Design Promotion [JDP], Japan Graphic Designers Association [JAGDA], and Kyushu University Faculty of Design Tokyo Lounge) will hold the 30th exhibition, GOOD DESIGN EXHIBITION 2011, from Monday October 3rd. ??Good Design Award is a comprehensive design evaluation and encouragement system established in 1957. it aims to find and promote designs that develop industries and improve quality of life.
It is globally well known design award because of its history and scale, and many major companies and designers in and outside of Japan join it.
The "GOOD DESIGN EXHIBITION 2011" displays award winning designs for this year. Please find exquisite designs from various category which enrich our daily life.

 
 

Message from the chairman of the Judging Committee

 

It is not such difficult task to select a good design for a judge in any age. It means a good design is not selected by a judge's own preference but it tends to be selected as everyone feels "Nice" or considers "Good" from his/her objective viewpoint. Even if one analyzes a quality and attempts to determine whether it is a good or bad, it could only lead to a difficult situation to determine since wide-ranging analytical factors would be complexly intertwined with the circumstance. So I believe that the judges could be led to a good direction inevitably as they don't resist "Attractive and invisible force" and approach the screening process with their natural stance.

 

Nevertheless, there would be some difficult items to be judged. Especially the items that are just born in this world and not being used in human life yet would be difficult to be judged whether they could be adapted in the future human life or not; therefore, the judges must foresee their future from the past life and carefully take the measure of the items whether their value and function would be really reasonableness or not. Or the judges should focus on things or matters that they never had any doubts for the reasonableness in the past and then need to consider a significance of their existence and function once again.

 

We presented a keyword "Design means to define enrichment" for the judges last year and asked those judges to select designs that were matched with the definition while letting them to consider what is the definition of enrichment. Then for this year, we presented a keyword "To be reasonable" in accordance with the definition of enrichment and the judges approached the screening process as they imagined those selected designs at the Good Design Award would be reasonably blended in our future life. Needless to say, it arises from a disaster by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami that all living nature not only in Japan but also possibly on this planet experienced, then the nuclear power plant accident and people's unrest by the disaster.

 

A design is just like a relationship between "Ground" and "View", value of view could be changed in accordance with ground change. In this year, we clearly attempted to review the ground and determine the virtue of the view from our perspective.

The Good Design Exhibition 2011 exhibits the selected designs that are assessed as "Reasonableness".
In this year, visitors can vote for the designs at the exhibition as they consider it is appropriate for Grand Award. We would like all visitors to consider a life as "Ground" and then carefully assess the designs as "Reasonable view" in the ground.

 

Naoto Fukasawa
Chairman Good Design Award 2011 Judging Committee