Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization

The success of the P900i customers' jacket is ascribable not just to the exchangeable outer panel but also to the structure that makes it possible for users and third parties to become involved in customizing the mobile phone. This is a good example of open-ended design development that differs from how products have been created in the past. It is a form of new business creation, organization and promotional activity involving collaboration with experts from other fields who have previously had little connection with design. In this article we take a look at how mobile phones are being developed by the Design Group at Panasonic Mobile Communications. We focus especially on how discussions are being held with external staff and experts in a variety of fields such as hardware, software and service that play an indispensable role in the development of mobile phones, at a time when they are increasingly being used as terminals for the provision of services.

Moving away from design development that follows in the path of marketing-led production and trends as has been the case in the past, the Tokiwax project featured in this issue of Design News aims to reconstitute design on the basis of new ideas and processes and to generate creative value.
In this feature, which explores new modes of innovation and creation in design, we focus in particular on the following five examples:
1. Kenya Hara and the Japan Design Center Ltd: Hara Design Laboratories.
2. Kazuhiko Yamazaki and IBM Japan, User Experience Design Center.
3. Hiroshi Kumamoto and Realfleet.
4. Rem Koolhaas and AMO.
5. Shin Nishibori and Cafe “efish”.
Our aim in this plan is to take these activities as a starting point for throwing light on the features of contemporary design laboratories, workshops, collaborations, product development processes, methods and devices.
It might be described as an attempt to create a new forum for contemporary design in the image of the Tokiwa-so, the apartment building in Tokyo where up-and-coming manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka, Fujio Fujiko, Fujio Akatsuka and Shotaro Ishinomori, who later all came to occupy center stage in the Japanese manga world, initially acquired knowledge of their craft, met up with their colleagues, and pitted their skills against each other.

The 2004 Good Design Awards have finally been decided, with the Grand Prix being awarded to the NHK children's programs Do-re-mi-no TV and Nihongo de asobo (Let's Play in Japanese)
The two programs that won the main prizes were both launched in April last year. Do-re-mi-no TV is a musical education program aimed at children of early primary school age. Based on the theme of communication, musicians and production staff work in close collaboration to convey the pleasures of music to children. Nihongo de asobo is based on the idea that young children really don't like childish things at all and much prefer the real article. In line with this idea, great effort is taken with the screen images and the emphasis is placed on wordplay that children are likely to find enjoyable and entertaining. The judges assessed these programs very highly for the way in which they are produced by designers and other experts at the cutting edge of their respective fields and for their adventurous approach to visual images and sound.
In this article we present the works that were awarded the Grand Prix in this year's Good Design Awards along with the thirteen recipients of the Gold Prize and the six recipients of the Theme Prizes.