2008 Good Design Awards: Principal Guidelines

The following principal guidelines to the 2008 Good Design Awards set forth the particulars necessary for administering the programs envisioned.


1) Purpose of Good Design Awards

Design leads to the creation of superior objects and conceptual embodiments. By addressing the environments that encircle our lives, design drives our own development and leads to a stronger and sounder society.
Inheriting the Good Design Product Selection Program instituted in 1957 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Good Design Awards constitute a comprehensive, globally unmatched program of evaluating and advocating design in terms of its history and scale.
Following on the success of over a half-century, the 2008 Good Design Awards seek the attainment of richly sustainable and prosperous living, industry, and society through scrupulously fair judging - grounded in humanitarian love - from perspectives of innovating lifestyle values, social values, and cultural values.

2) Organizer, Supporters, and Cooperating Organizations

Organizer: Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization, Inc.

Supporters (tentative):
Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry
Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)
Japan Keirin Association
Japan Broadcasting Corporation
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc.
ASEAN Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment, and Tourism

Cooperating Organizations:
International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID)
International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA)
Others
*Cooperating organizations will be listed separately under Cooperating Organizations.

3) Board of Advisors

The Organizer will establish the Good Design Awards Board of Advisors, a third-party organ whose members are composed of senior managers engaged in private enterprise, veterans of academia, and associates from the world of design, in order to obtain advice regarding the role of the Good Design Awards and annual operations.
Advisors are listed under Board of Advisors.

4) Judging Committee

The Organizer will retain highly experienced design experts, who comprehend the advocacy and purpose of the Good Design Awards, as Judging Committee members, and thus establish the Good Design Awards Judging Committee. The Judging Committee is vested with decisive authority to judge the Good Design Awards and all Special Awards, except for the Good Design Grand Award.
Committee members are listed under Judging Committee.

5) Subjects Eligible for Entry

Subjects eligible for entry are products and conceptual embodiments that fall within the following three (3) domains that envelop people and society: a. Human body and life, b. Industry and society, c. mobility and networks; and the domain of new development: d. Innovation. To be a Good Design Award recipient, the entry must allow identification as such in an announcement on the Good Design Awards announcement date of October 8, 2008. If an announcement is not possible then, the announcement can be extended until December 31, 2008.
Detailed information is provided under the Application Process.

6) Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants are either the principal implementing business of the subject entry, such as the manufacturer and distributor of the product, the client of an architected facility, and lead sponsor of the business activity; or the design service business of the subject entry. Details about eligible applicants are provided under the Application Process.

7) Application Method

Applicants submit entries from the website for the Good Design Awards (http://www.g-mark.org) by transmitting the prescribed Application Form. The Organizer confirms subject entries on the basis of the Application Form received from an applicant.
Detailed information is provided under the Application Process.

8) Screening

The Good Design Awards Judging Committee conducts the screening, based on the following Good Design Awards Judging Recitals, for each subject entry. Recipients of the Good Design Award are determined from a comprehensive perspective.
A similar screening process is employed to determine recipients of special awards, such as the Good Design Gold Award, from among Good Design Award recipients

Good Design Awards Judging Recitals

HUMANITY Inspiration for products and conceptual embodiments
HONESTY Perceptiveness toward contemporary society
INNOVATION Concepts to pioneer the future
ESTHETICS Imagination for prosperous lifestyle culture
ETHICS Reflecting on society and environment
 

The screening process for the Good Design Awards takes place in four phases: the First Screening (submission document review), the Second Screening (actual entry judging), Special Awards Screening, and Grand Award Selection.

Detailed information is provided under the Judgment Process.

9) Awards

The Organizer will present subject entries recognized as Good Design with a Good Design Award. Outstanding entries among Good Design Award recipients will be presented with Special Awards, such as the Good Design Grand Award (Prime Minister's Award) and Good Design Gold Award (Economy, Trade and Industry Minister's Award).
Among the Special Awards, the Good Design & Long Life Design Award will be instituted as set forth in the Long Life Design Award Guidelines.
The list of awards is described under Types of Awards.

10) GOOD DESIGN EXPO

After the Second Screening is concluded, the Organizer will open the venue to the public, and host the 2008 GOOD DESIGN EXPO fair. Applicants participate in the GOOD DESIGN EXPO event by exhibiting their subject entries at the Second Screening venue.
Detailed information about the GOOD DESIGN EXPO event and exhibiting is provided under Exhibition Information.

11) Notification of Results, Announcement, and Ceremony

The Organizer will notify applicants of the results at each screening phase through the Good Design Awards website. Except for the Grand Award, the Organizer will announce the recipients of the Good Design Awards at a press conference and through this website on the Good Design Awards announcement date (October 8).
Once the Organizer's announcement is completed, Good Design Awards recipients may independently disclose their recipient status.
The Organizer will host an Awards Ceremony on November 6, and respectively confer commemorative plaques to all award recipients.
The organizer will publish the Good Design Awards Yearbook that will feature all award recipients, who will also be presented with a copy of the Yearbook.
Details are provided under the Application Process.

12) Information Releases

For subject entries that pass the First Screening, the Organizer will release summaries and images provided by applicants on the Good Design Awards website.
The Organizer will unveil the subject entries introduced to the Second Screening venue during the GOOD DESIGN EXPO fair. For recipients of the Good Design Award and Special Awards, the Organizer will release summaries, images, and judges' awarding comments on or subsequent to the Good Design Awards announcement date.
Details are set forth under Release of Information.

13) Using the G Mark

Companies and designers who are awarded the Good Design Award and any of the Special Awards can conduct public relations activities and sales promotion activities using the G Mark, which attests to receiving the award.
By employing the G Mark, the Organizer and recipients will jointly aim to enhance the design mindset among consumers and society at large.
Details are provided under G Mark Usage Guide.

14) Revocation of Awards

In the event that the following facts come to light, the Organizer may revoke the Good Design Award or Special Award received by such subject entries.
A subject entry inflicts socially impacting damages arising out of its functional defectiveness.
A subject entry is publicly recognized as infringing intellectual property rights, such as design rights, of another party.
The G Mark is used in a manner or method not specified in the G Mark Usage Guide, without the consent of the Organizer.

15) Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

  • Use of Personal Information

    Use of company information and personal information provided by an applicant shall be limited to the extent necessary for conducting the Good Design Awards operations. The Organizer hereby stipulates consent to such use.

  • Using Information of Subject Entries and Awarded Entries

    Applicants reserve the copyrights to information duly provided (including images) in association with subject entries, information whose use shall be limited to the extent necessary for screening and public release. The Organizer hereby stipulates consent to such use. With respect to award recipients, the Organizer hereby stipulates consent to use of such information on the part of the Organizer for publication in the Yearbook, publication on the website, and usage to the extent necessary for other public relations activities of the Good Design Awards, and to modifications under unavoidable instances concerning purpose and format in the use of this information.

  • Protection of Industrial Property Rights

    Prior to any information release made by the Organizer, the Organizer asks for subject entries to file design registrations or the like in order to retain industrial property rights. The GOOD DESIGN EXPO fair is scheduled to receive an exposition designation from the Japan Patent Office related to exemption rules concerning the loss of innovation.

    Details about releasing information are set forth under Release of Information.

16) Applicant Responsibility Clause

With respect to subject entries, applicants shall bear all responsibility for any harm arising in connection with intellectual property rights like design rights, quality, performance, safety, sales, construction, and the like. Regarding the foregoing, the Organizer bears no responsibility whatsoever.

17) Good Design Awards Fees

  • Screening fees are 10,000 yen (tax included) for the first screening, and 50,000 yen (tax included) for the second screening.
    A separate exhibition fee is necessary for exhibiting under the second screening. For subject entries that pass the first screening and proceed to the second screening, entry into the exhibition and exhibition fee payment are mandatory.
    The yearbook publication fee is 15,000 yen (tax included).
    Using the G Mark after being awarded requires payment of the G Mark usage fee.
  • Applicants shall remit payment for fees associated with screening by the dates set forth in the Application Process.
    If payment by an applicant is delayed, the Organizer may refrain from judging the subject entries concerned.

18) Schedule

The Organizer operates the Good Design Awards in 2008 according to the following schedule:

2008

May 8 to June 11:

Application acceptance period

June 12 to July 15:

First screening period

July 16 to September 10:

Second screening period

August 21 & 22:

Second screening panel

August 22-24:

GOOD DESIGN EXPO

During September 1-10:

Special Awards screening panel

October 8:

Award recipients to be announced

November 6:

Awards Ceremony

2009

January:

Yearbook published

Details of this schedule are set forth in the Application Process.