2019.09.09

JAGDA Awards 2019: selection process and exhibitions

Awarded Works
Poster “Life” by Kazumasa Nagai
General Graphics “The Exhibition 'Bridget Riley'” by Atsuki Kikuchi
CI “Osaka Metro” by Yoshiaki Irobe
Book Design “Paul Klee: Tagebücher 1898-1918” by Kaoru Kasai
Package Design “Tartine” by Yoshie Watanabe
Newspaper Advertising “Since 1995” by Yoshinaka Ono + Kazunori Kawagoshi
Ambient Design & Spatial Graphics “The Exhibition 'MASS'” by Taku Satoh
Interactive Design “History of The Internet” by Kazunori Kawagoshi
Video “Split Up!” by Tomohiro Okazaki
Integrated Design “The Exhibition 'Observatory of Imagination'” by Tomohiro Okazaki


Publication: Graphic Design in Japan 2019 (June 2019)
Award Ceremony: JAGDA General Assembly 2019 on 28 June 2019 in Tokyo
Exhibition:Thursday 20 June to Wednesday 7 August 2019 at Tokyo Midtown Design Hub

Selection Process of the JAGDA Awards 2019

The“JAGDA Awards (initially known as the JAGDA Category Awards) were inaugurated in 2008 in line with JAGDA’s conviction that selecting and recording the outstanding graphic design works of the year is one of its most important activities. This year, a JAGDA Award was bestowed on one particularly outstanding work in each category from among the entries featured in this yearbook.

In most categories, the 10 works garnering the highest number of votes in the initial round of voting were nominated for a JAGDA Award. The following categories were exceptions: Posters, 20 nominations (owing to the large number of entries); General Graphics, 15; CI, VI, Symbols, Logotypes & Typefaces, 15; and Interactive Design and Videos, 3 nominations each (due to the small number of entries).

Voting was carried out separately for each category, with each of the 29 members of the Selection Committee in attendance (10 members in the case of the Interactive Design and Videos categories) allowed to cast up to 3 votes per category (with the option of casting fewer than 3). During the voting process, the names of the designers were concealed, and judges who had an entry among nominated works were barred from voting for their own works. Ultimately, the 3 works in each category garnering the largest number of votes were designated as finalists.

The final round of voting was then conducted using printed voting sheets, with each judge required to cast 1 vote per category. Again, the designers’ names were concealed, and when a judge’s own work was included among the finalists in a given category, he or she did not participate in the voting. In the end, the works attracting the largest number of votes in each category were designated the winners of this year’s JAGDA Awards.