Friday 28 July 2017

g-mark of approval

In celebration of supporting six decades of competition to improve ergonomics and functionality the Good Design Awards (here’s one of last year’s winner) has opened up a boutique store in Tokyo that features a expertly selected range of the annual contest’s best in show.
With some forty four thousand honoured entrants, the shop couldn’t accommodate the entire inventory but this emporium is surely going to be a place to go to for inspiration. The awards have its origins in the mandate by the country’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1957 to establish a rating system (the G-Mark) to recognise, commend and promote excellence in design and the chief factor for inclusion is whether an object or concept can make people’s lives more prosperous and enriches society as a whole. So many abstract and otherly-versioned things get transformed into amusement park rides, put on stage or otherwise repackaged with questionable judgment but this idea—to showcase talent in a retail setting that’s closer to a museum-going experience—strikes me as brilliant and inviting.