The Australian Good Design Awards, formerly known as the Australian International Design Awards and as the Australian Design Awards, is an Australian awards program operated by Good Design Australia. The awards program was originally established in 1958 by the

Industrial Design Council of Australia The Industrial Design Council of Australia (IDCA) was established in 1958 and later became known as the Australian Design Council and then the Australian Design Awards. For over five decades this organisation has been the most active body promoting ...

(IDCA), and recognises achievements in

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

. In 2007 the Australian Design Awards expanded its entry criteria to include all professionally designed products on the Australian market, including products designed outside of Australia as well as those designed within the country. From 2007, the Australian Design Awards was renamed as the Australian International Design Awards to emphasise the inclusion of products not designed in Australia. Projects recognised with an Australian Good Design Award demonstrate excellence in professional design and highlight the impact a design-led approach has on business success and social and environmental outcomes. Each entry is evaluated according to a strict set of design evaluation criteria which includes Good Design, Design Innovation and Design Impact. The Australian International Design Awards has been recognised by the Commonwealth Government and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design as a promotional body for the Australian design industry.

Awards

There are five types of accolades issued in the Australian Good Design Awards program: * Australian Good Design Award Winner accolade (recognising good design) * Australian Good Design Award Gold accolade (recognising design excellence) * Australian Good Design Award Best in Class accolade (recognising best in class design in each category) * Australian Good Design Award for Sustainability (recognising excellence in sustainable design) * Australian Good Design Award of the Year accolade (highest design honor in the awards and awarded to only one project) Special Awards include: * Australian Design Prize * Good Design Team of the Year Award * Michael Bryce Patron's Award * Women in Design Award * Indigenous Design Award * Automotive Design Award * Powerhouse Museum Design Award and Selection

History

In 1958 the

(IDCA) was established funded by the Commonwealth Government. The goal was to educate

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ran ...

s and consumers on the value of design, and encourage and promote high standards of design in

manufactured Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a rang ...

goods. From 1964 Good Design Labels began to appear on products and the Australian Design Index became a register of the best designed products in Australia. A panel of experts reviewed items for inclusion in the Index. Products meeting the criteria received the Good Design Label and other manufacturers were given constructive criticism on how to improve their products. In 1964, the IDCA opened the first Australian Design Centre in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

with an exhibition of selected products from the Australian Design Index. Federal and state government funding helped establish a new Design Centre in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, with more centres to follow in other cities. In 1967 the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design was set up, supported by

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

, with the aim of promoting greater awareness of good design in Australian

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

. The inaugural Prince Philip Prize was awarded in 1968. Over 90 entries were received and the winning entry was a self-propelled grain header, designed by Kenneth Gibson. The Prince Philip Prize continued for twenty years. The IDCA faced funding difficulties in the mid-1970s and was forced to close temporarily in 1976. A new funding injection from the Commonwealth Government helped the Council reopen and a new 'innovation' recognition program was introduced. Recognising not only high quality but innovative Australian designed products, the Australian Design Award (ADA) program became a promotional tool for manufacturers and designers and provided a source of revenue for the IDCA to continue its operations. The Prince Philip Prize continued to be awarded, but only to products which had received the ADA. Televised coverage of the Awards presentation on ABC TV reached audiences of over four million and in 1979, the first annual yearbook of ADA winners was published. For the next two decades, however, continuing funding issues, dwindling industry support and a lack of clear direction plagued the IDCA. In 1987 in an effort to reinvigorate the movement, the government re-launched the IDCA as the Australian Design Council and the Prince Philip Prize was folded, leaving the ADA as Australia's top design accolade. In 1991, control of the Australian Design Council and the ADA program moved to

Standards Australia Standards Australia is a standards organisation established in 1922 and is recognised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Australian government as the primary non-government standards development body in Australia. It is a co ...

. Under Standards Australia, the ADA program continued to run, but the Australian Design Council was disbanded in 1993. New formats and incentives for the ADA program such as the Australian Design Mark certification scheme were trialed during the second half of the '90s without success. In 1997 a revamped format was introduced to the Awards, using an online application form and first round internet shortlisting. It attracted more than one hundred applications. The first Presentation Night was held at the Metro Theatre in Sydney. In 1998, profession-based categories were introduced. However, the program was threatened by significant

operating costs Operating costs or operational costs, are the expenses which are related to the operation of a business, or to the operation of a device, component, piece of equipment or facility. They are the cost of resources used by an organization just to main ...

. The 1999 program was put on hold while Standards Australia explored other options to secure the future of the awards. The majority of staff was made redundant and for the first time in many years, no Design Awards were presented in Australia. The Design Institute of Australia was approached to take over the program but declined the financial commitment. After developing a new business plan and financial model, the Board of Standards Australia approved another year for the awards. For the next few years, the ADA continued to grow in standing and support, buoyed by financial stability. A student design category was launched in 2002 supported by Dyson Appliances Australia and in 2004, product-focused categories were introduced. In 2008, on the 50th anniversary of the awards program, internationally designed products available for sale in Australia were allowed to enter the awards for the first time. In late 2010, Standards Australia transferred the awards program to a new organisation called Good Design Australia. In 2015, the awards were renamed as the Australian Good Design Awards.

Previous winners

Previous winners include: * 2019
Inventia

RASTRUM 3D BioprinterProduct of the year
*

Caroma Caroma (Caroma Dorf) is an Australian designer and distributor of bathroom products. Caroma was established in 1941 by Hungarian-born Charles Rothauser, and since closing its last factory in 2017 now sources all products from third-party overseas ...

's Invisi Series II Toilet Suite and H2Zero Cube Urinal * Qantas A380 Economy Class Seat designed by

Marc Newson Marc Andrew Newson CBE RDI (born 20 October 1963) is an industrial designer who works in aircraft cabin design, product design, furniture design, jewellery, and clothing. His style uses smooth geometric lines, translucency, strength, transpar ...

, *

Ford XE Falcon The Ford Falcon (XE) is a full-size car that was produced by Ford Australia from 1982 until 1984. It was the second iteration of the fourth generation of the Falcon and also included the Ford Fairmont (XE)—the luxury-oriented version. Histor ...

* 1987

Mitsubishi Magna The Mitsubishi Magna is a mid-size car that was produced over three generations between 1985 and 2005 by Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL). Developed as a replacement for the Mitsubishi Sigma, each Magna generation derived from Japanese ...

wagon *

Holden VT Commodore The Holden Commodore (VT) is an executive car that was produced by Holden from 1997 to 2000. It was the first iteration of the third generation of the Commodore and the last one to be powered by a locally made V8 engine (1998). Its range inclu ...

* Ford AU Falcon * Ford Territory *

Holden Commodore The Holden Commodore is a full-size car that was sold by Holden from 1978 to 2020. It was manufactured from 1978 to 2017 in Australia and from 1979 to 1990 in New Zealand, with production of the locally manufactured versions in Australia endin ...

VE Sportswagon and Ute * Blueye Sport Goggle designed by

Paul Cohen Paul Joseph Cohen (April 2, 1934 – March 23, 2007) was an American mathematician. He is best known for his proofs that the continuum hypothesis and the axiom of choice are independent from Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, for which he was award ...

* Victa

Lawn Mower A lawn mower (also known as a mower, grass cutter or lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the design of the mower, but g ...

Bionic Ear A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech und ...

winged keel The winged keel is a sailboat keel layout first fitted on the 12-metre class yacht ''Australia II'', 1983 America's Cup winner. Design This layout was adopted by Ben Lexcen, designer of ''Australia II''. Although Ben Lexcen "had tried the winged ...

* VentrAssist

Artificial Heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, experi ...

Sunbeam A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of particle-scattered sunl ...

Mixmaster * Test Series Cricket Helmet * RØDE Podcaster microphone * Dolphin Torch * Enzie Spiral Stair * 1974: P. A. Yeomans'

Keyline A keyline, in graphic design, is a boundary line that separates color and monochromatic areas or differently colored areas of printing on a given page or other printed piece. The line itself, usually consisting of a black (or other dark colored) b ...

plow, originally known as the Bunyip Slipper Imp

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Australian Good Design Awards

Standards Australia

AIDA Facebook Page
Awards established in 1958 Design awards Industrial design

Design Award A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

1958 establishments in Australia