Introduction

Sun 24-inch Flat Panel Monitor, 2001-2002 Designers: Sun Microsystems, Inc., Menlo Park, California, USA and Therefore Product Design, Menlo Park, California, USA Manufacturer: Sun Microsystems, Inc., Menlo Park, California, USA

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, December 15, 2003. . . . The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design announces the winners of the Museum's annual GOOD DESIGN™ Awards for 2003

won by overr 150 of the world's most prestigious industrial design firms and manufacturers in over 20 countries. The Award publicly acknowledges the world's most prestigious industrial design firms and manufacturers in over 20 countries.  The Award publicly acknowledges and elevates the best and finest new design and design innovation for products and graphics designed and manufactured between 2001 and 2003.

Founded in 1950, GOOD DESIGN is the world's oldest and most celebrated awards program that bestows international recognition upon designers and manufacturers for advancing new and innovative product concepts and originality and for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered standard product and consumer design.

This year, The GOOD DESIGN Awards were judged by a jury of design professionals in Chicago, Illinois, USA .   Previous juries have been held in Reykjavik, Iceland, Mexico City, Mexico, Helsinki, Finland, and Milan, Italy.

Designers and manufacturers from all over the world won this year's competition.  The GOOD DESIGN Show—the annual exhibition of the Awards—is scheduled to open April 3, 2004 at The Chicago Athenaeum.

The Awards this year were for the following categories: electronics, sports equipment, children's products, furniture, office products, industrial equipment, medical equipment, fabric/textiles, automotive/transportation, urban furniture/architecture, tabletop, kitchen andbath, household appliances, household products, lighting, hardware/tools, personal products, and graphics and packaging—sure to influence the environments and the ways in which we live, work, and play around the world and in the new millennium.

For the 2003 edition of GOOD DESIGN, The Chicago Athenaeum received hundreds of applications from 40 countries contributing to the international importance of the historic GOOD DESIGN Award and exhibition.  Over 280 products and graphic designs were selected by a distinguished jury of recognized architects, designers, and authorities in the design world for recent designs worthy of the Museum’s GOOD DESIGN Award, attesting to the design energy, vitality, and current innovation in global design today.

The Museum’s historic GOOD DESIGN program originated in Chicago in 1950 and was organized by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Jr., former curator of the Museum of Modern Art.  Originally the program introduced state-of-the-art, modern products into the office and the home marketplace throughout the post-World War II decade.  The program featured products and installations by some of America’s pioneers of modern design including:  Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Russel Wright, and Florence Knoll, George Nelson—the most prominent design minds in America in the 1950s who blazoned a new international direction in design.

BMW Z4, 2003 Designers: Design Team BMW Group, BMW Group, Munich, Germany Manufacturer: BMW Group, Munich, Germany

The Jury for GOOD DESIGN based their decisions on aesthetic criteria stated in the original 1950 Program—criteria which measures innovation, form, materials, construction, concept, function and utility.  Product appearance and aesthetic appeal is also considered.  Both the 1950s and the competitions of the new millennium encourage manufacturers and designers to improve their design standards and quality.  The Museum allows and encourages winning designers and manufacturers to use the GOOD DESIGN logo through a special license, the design by the late Chicago industrial designer, Mort Goldsholl in 1950, on product packaging, marketing, and promotions—just as it was used in during the 1950s.

GOOD DESIGN is organized by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design—one of the Chicago area's

most prestigious cultural institutions and the only museum of architecture and design in the United States.

2003 AWARD WINNERS

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The GOOD DESIGN logo was designed by Mort Goldsholl in 1950.

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