Judges selected ten works that bring a tomorrow that people can't wait for. Encouraging young leaders of the next generation
KOKUYO Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Osaka/President: Hidekuni Kuroda) held an award ceremony on February 9 for the selection of ten New Generation Award entries in the international product design competition KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2024. The New Generation Award was newly established this year.
The KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD was established by KOKUYO in 2002 and is one of the biggest product design competitions in Japan. This year marks the 21st time it has been held. In addition to receiving works on themes that reflect the social situation and selecting excellent product designs, the award-winning works have been commercialized through co-creation between the award winners and KOKUYO developers. This competition aims to encourage designers' future activities and bring a tomorrow that people can't wait for by introducing to the world reliable products with designs that breathe new life into tools that are common in people's lives and work.
For the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2024, one Grand Prix and three Merit Award winners will be selected, and the NEW GENERATION Award will be newly established.
* Please note that the Grand Prix and Merit Awards may not be applicable.
The New Generation Award was established for the purpose of challenging and supporting young leaders of the next generation by selecting works that were submitted for the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2024 and have appealing ideas and perspectives.
The selection criteria were that the work should have exciting elements and align with KOKUYO's purpose of bringing a tomorrow that people can't wait for. During the judging, KOKUYO employees exchanged opinions about each work, thinking outside the boundaries of their jobs. As a result, ten winners were selected and awarded with a trophy and cash prize of 30,000 yen at the award ceremony.
1. The KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD NEW GENERATION AWARD Winning Works (Order of Entry)
| Title | Designer Name |
|---|---|
| Candle Clock | Sakan Kiatboonsri |
| Fifty-Six Kilometers | Joonyeol Bae |
| Fingers-go-wild | Ma Kwan Lam |
| Once upon a time | Tamaki Higo, Akiho Takehara |
| SHIORI Bookstand | ZHUYANSHUO |
| ITZULI | meem (Cristina Echeveste, Nicolas Marquez) |
| Bloom | Zhou WenBiao |
| one square kanji workbook | Shunsuke Kubota |
| Blossom | A STUDIO (Chen Yang, Jiang Fang, Lyu Muzhi) |
| Incense Calendar | RonCha (Karin Tomonaga, Rio Takahashi) |
The presentation sheets, descriptions of the entries, and comments by the judges are available on the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD website.
https://www.kokuyo.com/en/award/archive/prizepast/2024/ng/
2. KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2024 Final Judging, Award Ceremony, and Talk Show
The final judging to decide the Grand Prix and Excellence Award for the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2024 will be held on Saturday, March 16, and the award ceremony will be held that evening.
In the first half of the final judging, ten designers from Japan and abroad who were selected to be finalists after 1,450 entries were judged through two screenings will give presentations and have a question and answer session with the judges. The award ceremony and talk show by the judges will be held in the second half.
The final judging and award ceremony will be streamed live on the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD YouTube channel.
In addition, a vote will be held halfway through for the Audience Award, which will be selected live by viewers, and the results will be announced at the talk show.
〈 Schedule 〉
Saturday, March 16
14:30-17:00 (Planned) Part 1: Finalists' presentations (Final Judging)
18:30-20:00 (Planned) Part 2: Award Ceremony and judges' talk show
* Voting for the Audience Award will take place between the first and second halves.
[Livestream channels]
KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/KokuyoDesignAward
* Details of the content will be available on the KOKUYO homepage from March 16, 2024.
https://kokuyo.jp/pr/en_award/
* The live broadcast will be available in Japanese only. English subtitles will be available for the judges' talk show at a later date
The website will be updated, and information will be posted on these social networks.
- Facebook (in Japanese and English)：https://www.facebook.com/KokuyoDesignAward.japan/
- Instagram (in Japanese and English)：https://www.instagram.com/kokuyo_designaward
- Twitter (in Japanese) ：https://twitter.com/kokuyo_DA
- LINE account name (in Japanese) ：@kokuyo_da
