Good Design Award: The G Mark Moves from the Product to the Trophy

Since 1957, the Good Design Award has recognised designs in Japan, whether or not they take a physical form. It is run by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP), which manages the product selection system the Japanese government created that year.

The organiser presents the trophy in three formats depending on the distinction: compact, Best 100 and special awards. All of them revolve around the G Mark, the symbol that graphic designer Yusaku Kamekura created when the selection system was born. Winners use it to promote their designs.

This article looks at how the trophy brings the symbol and a red sphere together in a transparent block, what each winner receives and what lessons brands that want to design their own trophy can draw.

Contents

• Good Design Award Trophy Design and Materials: The Red Sphere
• Good Design Award Distinctions and What Each Winner Receives
• Dezeen and Designboom Cover the Good Design Award Winners
• Aligning the Trophy with the Symbol the Winner Communicates
• Good Design Award 2026: Key Dates
• Honouring Design with a Block That Shows Its Symbol
• Frequently Asked Questions

Good Design Award Trophy Design and Materials: The Red Sphere

The Good Design Award trophy carries the G Mark from the product to the object. The red sphere echoes the red circle of the logo, and the symbol reads over it, in a lighter tone, through the transparent block.

In the compact format, the sphere sits in the centre of the front face and the symbol is superimposed on it. In the taller formats, the sphere sits at the top and the symbol appears below. The straight edges and flat faces let the sphere be seen from several angles. The name of the award and the year of the edition are engraved on the same block.

The JDP states that the compact format is an acrylic trophy: its transparency keeps the sphere visible from several sides and the symbol in view over it.

The format changes with the distinction, and the position of the sphere changes with the size:

• Compact: 55 × 55 × 90 mm, available to all of the year's winners.
• Best 100: 145 × 70 × 70 mm, in a horizontal format.
• Special awards: 214 mm tall for the Grand Award, 190 mm for the Gold Award and 166 mm for the Good Focus Award and the Long Life Design Award, with square bases of 90, 80 and 70 mm.

The red sphere gathers the colour of the symbol into a single volume, and the transparent block keeps both in view from several sides.

Good Design Award Distinctions and What Each Winner Receives

The jury assesses each design from four perspectives—human, industrial, social and temporal—in two selection rounds. Designs from any field may enter. In 2026, the jury chose 1,484 of 5,111 entries, and the higher distinctions receive a trophy:

All other winners receive a certificate and the yearbook.

A winning design may use the G Mark in its promotion. According to a survey the JDP carried out in February 2020, 81.0% of respondents know the symbol. The main benefits include:

• Use of the G Mark: the JDP grants it free of charge from the announcement until the exhibition closes and asks for an application for later uses. This lets the winner flag the distinction on the product with a symbol the public already knows.
• Exposure: all winners are displayed at Tokyo Midtown, where the public can see the designs and buy them, bringing the product closer to potential buyers.
• Public archive of winners: anyone can search it for the awarded designs of every edition, so the distinction remains permanently on record.
• Jury assessment: the JDP publishes the evaluation comments on each design's page, giving the winner an independent argument to put to customers.

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Dezeen and Designboom Cover the Good Design Award Winners

Design media publish the Good Design Award winners. Notable examples include:

• Dezeen: in January 2017, this architecture and design magazine reported that the AuthaGraph World Map, a world map by architect and artist Hajime Narukawa, had won the Grand Award in the 2016 edition. Its professional readership thus came across a work that may interest the creator's potential clients.
• Designboom: in November 2020, this architecture and design magazine reported that WOTA BOX, a portable water recycling plant with a shower kit from the company WOTA, had won the 2020 Grand Award. Its readers, also from the design sector, saw the product linked to the highest distinction.

This coverage, which an independent outlet decides on and the winner does not buy, is known as earned media.

In a 2025 JDP survey, winners list interview requests from newspapers and other media among the effects of winning. Each publication thus widens the design's reach among readers who did not know the award.

Aligning the Trophy with the Symbol the Winner Communicates

A trophy works best when it continues something the brand already communicates. Three decisions in the Good Design Award trophy show how to achieve this:

• Bring an element of the logo into volume: when a brand renders a shape from its logo as a volume and not just as a print, the trophy is recognisable from several angles. In the Good Design Award, the red circle of the symbol reappears as a sphere.
• Make the trophy the physical counterpart of the winner's symbol: when the object reproduces the sign the winner uses in its communications, trophy and communications reinforce each other. The G Mark on the winning products is the same one the block carries.
• Keep one language across several sizes: when a programme has tiers, repeating the composition in other proportions lets them be told apart without changing language. The JDP does this in its compact, horizontal and tall formats, and every winner recognises the piece as part of the same award.

The red sphere, the transparent block and the symbol answer to a single decision: that the trophy shows the sign the winner already uses.

Good Design Award 2026: Key Dates

The JDP publishes the call's calendar and sets out the exhibition and ceremony of the 70th edition, which brings both together at Tokyo Midtown (Roppongi, Tokyo).

• 1 April – 21 May 2026: entry period, until 1:00 pm (JST).
• Early April – late June: first selection.
• Early July – late August: second selection.
• 15 October: announcement of the winners and start of free use of the G Mark.
• 31 October – 4 November: exhibition of all awarded designs, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm (JST), until 6:00 pm on the last day, with free admission.
• 4 November: ceremony and announcement of the public vote result.

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Honouring Design with a Block That Shows Its Symbol

The Good Design Award trophy carries the G Mark from the product into a transparent block, where a red sphere echoes the circle of the logo. In this way, the winner displays on an object the same sign used in its promotion.

At Sustain Awards we design and handcraft custom trophies based on your brand's symbol; if that symbol has its own shape or colour, the piece can incorporate them as volume.

Frequently Asked Questions