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For the fiscal 2000 Good Design Award (G-Mark system), 2,212 products were screened over a four-month period. 895 of these products were selected to receive the Good Design Award, of which 35 were singled out for Gold Prizes, Theme Prizes and other special prizes.
As we move into the 21st century, fiscal 2000 marked a milestone in the G-Mark system, which was introduced in 1957. Since the system was privatized in 1998, the Japan Institute of Design Promotion has consistently improved the G-Mark system to ensure that it conforms to the continual changes taking place. An overview of the direction in which the Organization is moving, as well as a report on the main improvements introduced this fiscal year and the screening process and results, follows.






Although the G-Mark system was initially established to address the integration of design in industry, the system has continuously expanded into various industrial sectors since its inception. The result was integrated design not only in the consumer goods, but also in nearly all industrial product sectors, including industrial and public goods, by the beginning of the 1990s. Although Japanese companies and design were thought to have grown into a leading global position with regard to manufacturing design, we have reached the stage in which the limits of Japanese design are becoming evident. The major factor behind this is the economic recession, which has impeded new types of development from taking hold in the manner in which they should. In addition, Japan has begun to confront new obstacles posed by the global standards promoted by the West, as well as an emerging tendency toward a powerful awareness of their lifestyle on the part of consumers who are no longer satisfied with "marketing-oriented design."
In light of these new trends, the Organization has assigned itself the role of creating a structure that grows and develops Japanese design. This new role initially took hold in response to the promotion of global standards. In order to encourage lifestyle- and human-oriented product manufacturing, the Organization established Theme Prizes in three categories interaction, ecology and universality. In addition, priority was shifted to the point of contact in the link between design and society, and the system looked to the active development of activities directly linking awarded products with users and sales at the time privatization was taking place. The slogan "Good Design is Good Business." was introduced since last year not only for product design evaluation, but also to express the Organization?s emphasis on applying evaluation results in order to establish direct communication with users.
These changes have, since the 1990s, directed the G-Mark focus to new design issues and helped the Organization achieve its goal of developing new channels through which products can communicate with users.

 

 


System improvements in two areas were made this year to further put the activities described above into practice.

1) Theme Design Category

Our expectations of design are no longer limited to products responding to ecology and similar issues; design is now also expected to be applied to the system and service sectors and derive from the specific characteristics of a particular region. With this in mind, the thematic categories established last year were further expanded to include the New Territory Design Category to expose design expectations and user needs.

2) Online Application, Screening and Information Provision

The new Internet media opens up a variety of possibilities. The Organization has established a g-mark.org homepage as a way to cover all aspects of the G-Mark system online from the submission of applications to information gathering. More than 80% of all applications were submitted online this year. In addition to entering all of the information submitted in applications into our database and increasing the effectiveness of the screening process, the homepage has also allowed the Organization to lay the groundwork for its efforts to put the "Good Design is Good Business." slogan into practice by using the Internet as a forum for providing users with information on product evaluations.
 

 


In addition to the improvements described above, the following procedures were used to screen products in fiscal 2000.

1) Application Submission

Online applications (April 10 through June 14) and traditional application forms (May 15 through May 26) were submitted simultaneously, with a total of 2,016 applications submitted.

2) Primary Screening

The first step in screening involves the primary screening of submitted documents to ensure that selected products are appropriately designed. Documents in each category were screened over the approximately two-week period between July 5 and July 21. This year Judges were also able to screen online applications from their homes, effectively increasing the amount of time devoted to product screening.

3) Judge Recommendations

The recommendation process aims to discover additional products suited to Good Design Awards through Judge research and to nominate these products for award consideration. This year Judges recommended 196 products in all categories, which laid the groundwork for the 55 products ultimately nominated.
Due to the decrease in the number of Interior Category applications this year, Judges expanded their normal activities to visit stores themselves in order to uncover additional suitable products.

4) Secondary Screening

Those products that are cleared during the primary screening process, as well as those products submitted for consideration in the recommendation process described above, were subject to a secondary screening at Tokyo Big Sight on August 30 and 31. As a result, 895 products were awarded Good Design Awards.
Products such as industrialized houses and passenger cars, as well as those in the Architecture/Facility Category and the Theme Design Category, were screened during hearings and on-site screenings held as necessary. Approximately 4,800 people got a behind-the-scenes view of the screening process when the screening site was opened to the public on the night of August 31 and the day of September 1.

5) Gold and Theme Prize Screening

On September 1, Gold Prizes were awarded to 14 products selected at publicly held screenings for each category. Theme Prize screenings were also held at the same time. As a result of these screenings, three Ecology Design Prizes, one Universal Design Prize and two Interaction Design Prizes were conferred. In addition to the two products awarded the Urban Design Prize, a category newly established last year, two Design Management Prizes and two Annual Theme Prizes were given out.
The Design Management Prize is given in recognition of particularly effective strategic design application for the strategic development of projects from the perspective of design. The Annual Theme Prize, which recognizes products that accurately incorporate that year's social demands into product design, was awarded to child seats, which have been mandatory since April of this year.

6) Grand Prize

One product will be singled out for the Good Design Grand Prize at the public Grand Prize screening to be held immediately before the Awards Ceremony on October 13.
 

 


 
To supplement the overview provided above, the following introduces a few of the trends emerging this fiscal year that were discussed during the screening process.

1) Good Design Achieved

The great percentage of products that passed the primary screening process this year illustrates the extremely high standards of design that are now established. Primary G-Mark screening focuses on ensuring that products meet the general standards demanded of product design, while secondary screening emphasizes the ways in which selected products are superior. The results of this year's screening process as outlined above, however, speak to the fact that increasingly high standards are becoming the norm in Japanese manufacturing and product design.
The overall finely detailed designs of the Honda passenger car and Mitsutoyo gauge, both awarded the Gold Prize, as well as other products receiving special prizes this year gave a particularly strong impression that the Good Design Award has fulfilled its mission. During the confusion brought on by the recession, Japanese manufacturing had been the object of concern, but the fact that manufacturing is seemingly growing soundly brought relief and praise from Judges.

2) New Design Roots

As indicated by the name, the Theme Design Category serves to uncover new areas in design. In addition to ecology and other design issues, the screening for this category looks at new territories in design, including designs that link cutting-edge technology and society, the design of projects and services, and designs that serve to revitalize regional areas.
Products receiving prizes in this category include the application of strategic, comprehensive designs through total development of projects focusing on ecology and those embodying unique corporate and regional characteristics, as well as the design of foundations (formats) for developing designs unique to a variety of products. These trends have also led to dynamic designs that set up projects that go beyond product manufacturing in the narrow sense of the word and give rise to new sets of values in a variety of areas.

3) Designer Initiative

The Gold Prize stool (Okamura Corp.) was recognized for the abilities of a single designer, while the Ecology Prize pipe system (Ihara Science) was commended for its design-based systematic innovation of an area that has traditionally been overlooked. It is the ability of the designer to breakthrough the present design barriers by hypothetically proposing the way they believe things should be and giving tangible expression to their vision that is evaluated highly by Judges.
Theme Design Category Prizes are conferred on projects in which designers use the Internet to propose their innovations and move forward once users express their consent. This process represents an attempt by capable designers to create business opportunities on their own, and various channels that similarly link design with society at large should perhaps be developed in the future.


At this stage, there is no systematic integration of the finely detailed designs for which Japan is known, the new designs in project services and other sectors and the creation of business opportunities by designers who are capable of proposing their own solutions. As the trends described above play out, however, a vague sense of how 21st century design will unfold seems to be emerging.
It is precisely the issue of moving into a period in which designers take the initiative and lead users and industry forward that the G-Mark must next address. As such, the last Good Design Award screening of the 20th century provided the perfect opportunity to set forth the G-Mark issues that the Organization must address and the role it should play in the coming century.