Australia’s Good Design Awards date back to 1958 and has an enviable record of unearthing globally recognised talent and products.

The Awards celebrate the best new products and services entering the marketplace, excellence in architectural design, digital and communication design and rewards emerging areas of design including design strategy and social innovation.

In 2016, the Flow Hive, an innovative beekeeping device that has taken the world by storm took out the prestigious Good Design Award of the Year, the highest design honour in the country.

The 2017 Good Design Awards Ceremony and Good Design Festival were once again presented as part of the Vivid Ideas program during Vivid Sydney, the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas.

The 2017 Good Design Awards has attracted the broadest and most diverse range of submissions in the program’s history with entries across seven main design disciplines and spanning 25 individual categories.

After an extensive evaluation process involving more than 35 Australian and international design experts, the Jury finalised their results and awarded only the best entries to receive the Good Design Selection 2017

Good Design 2017 Awards Presentation Evening

Only 244 entries received the 2017 Good Design Selection and are now in the running to receive the coveted Australian Good Design Award, announced at the black tie Good Design Awards Ceremony on June 8 at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney.

The Jury was asked to select the Good Design Award Best in Category winners, Good Design Award Best Overall, Good Design Award for Sustainability and the coveted Good Design Award of the Year – the highest design honour in the country, given to only one project in the Awards each year.

Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia

“Entries in this year’s Good Design Awards include the latest in cutting edge design with everything from trains, cars, boats, kettles, toasters, cameras, VR headsets, washing machines, fridges, vacuum cleaners to medical devices, 3D printed jewelry and even a semi-trailer – and that’s just one of the seven design disciplines,”

“What makes these Awards so unique is the diversity of design projects that are submitted.

No other design award program in the world provides a framework where projects are evaluated across product design, service design, architectural design, digital design, communication design, design strategy and social innovation. The Judges are certainly going to have their work cut out for them,” ……………… Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia

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Overall Gold Design award 2017 winner – Awesome Cards by Chrometoast

The 2017 Good Design Awards Judging Process

The Good Design Awards entries were evaluated by an expert panel of Australian and international Judges in April at Fox Studios in Sydney.

Judges spent a week pouring over the entries in their allocated categories and evaluate each entry according to the specific evaluation criteria.

Entries that met the evaluation criteria were recognised with a Good Design Selection and those that exceed the criteria, were awarded the Good Design Award.

Through the Good Design Awards and other design promotion initiatives, Good Design Australia is passionate about helping to create a better Australia and a more prosperous and sustainable world through design.

Entries to the Good Design Awards are accepted in the following categories:

1. Product Design
2. Service Design
3. Digital Design
4. Communication Design
5. Architectural Design
6. Social Innovation
7. Design Strategy

The Jury and the Judging Process 

Still one of the few design award programs in the world to physically assess projects, the Good Design Awards evaluation process is regarded as one of the most rigorous in the world.

Every year, Good Design Australia invites renowned design experts from Australia and around the world to participate in the Good Design Awards evaluation process.

The Jury consisted of leading design experts in the fields of industrial design, engineering, architecture, software and electronics design, automotive design, service design, design strategy, digital and communication design and social innovation.

The Jury Members

“ We place enormous importance on the composition of the Jury to ensure there is enough depth and expertise to evaluate the broad range of submissions entered into the Good Design Awards each year” 

“This year’s Jury has heavy hitters from some of the biggest companies in the world including Microsoft, Google, Compal Electronics, frog design and Deloitte as well as leading design experts from across Australia,”

“ Good design for a better Australia and a better world lies at the heart of what we stand for. Jury members take their roles very seriously and the debate among judges often heats up. At the end of the day, we are shining a light on what good design is (and what it isn’t) and which projects are worthy of carrying the Good Design Tick of approval. This process can be incredibly demanding and is one of the most interesting aspects of the Awards program,”   ……………………..Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia.

The Jury spent several days in early April evaluating, debating and deciding the winners of the 2017 Good Design Awards.

Behind closed doors, the Judging Panel closely inspect each and every entry and evaluate them according to their professional expertise and the Evaluation Criteria.

Each Judge was selected based on their area of expertise and their ability to bring an individual perspective to the evaluation process.

Judges were asked to sign and agree to a Code of Conduct (PDF) to ensure they act in a fair, transparent and independent manner while evaluating submissions.

Any matters relating to conflict of interest must be disclosed by individual Judges to Good Design Australia where Judges may be asked to abstain from the judging process

The judging experts take great pride in setting international best practice in design evaluation.

All entries were required to provide additional materials for a hands on evaluation.

Entries were showcased in the assessment venue where a panel of Australian and International Judges will assess each entry and select recipients of the Good Design Selection and/or Good Design Award

Judges were issued with a Scoresheet and asked to review entries based on carefully developed Evaluation Criteria.

No formal presentations are required by the applicant, however should judges wish to direct questions to the applicant during assessment, questions will be posed by conference call or email to help inform the Judges’ decisions.

Highly technical entries may be asked to give a short presentation to the judges to help them understand the design merits of the entry.

At the conclusion of the judging process, the Judging Panel mett on the final day of assessments to determine which entries were to be awarded the Good Design Selection and which would go on to receive a Good Design Award, a Good Design Award Best in Category, the Good Design Award for Sustainability, and the coveted Good Design Award of the Year, the most prestigious Award in the program.

Category Design Evaluation Criteria

The Good Design Awards Evaluation Criteria has been carefully developed and refined over many years resulting in a rigorous set of evaluation criteria being developed for specific design disciplines.