The 2024 Australian Good Design Awards are open for entries until midnight on Friday 3 May under this year’s theme, the Design Effect, which aims to showcase the ripple effects that exceptional design can have on people, place and planet.
Design has the power to change the way we live, work, play and grow so it is more critical than ever that design is good design with purpose, humanity and integrity.
This year’s Australian Good Design Awards theme, the Design Effect is about pushing boundaries, co-designing closely, challenging conventions and harnessing the power of imagination to positively transform life, work, interactions, strategies and leadership.
The Design Effect is an idea, a movement, set of principles and clarion call coined by design figurehead, social entrepreneur and the Patron of Good Design Australia, Dr. Jan Owen AM in her speech at last year’s Awards Ceremony.
Good Design Australia managing director, Rachel Wye said, “Through the Australian Good Design Awards, we aim to recognise and showcase the powerful ways in which design helps to shape better outcomes, products, experiences, services, spaces and places, for people and our planet. That’s what the Design Effect is all about – being part of the positive change through design.”
The 2024 Awards sees a new category for Policy Design to uplift the role of design in the policy-making sphere and support the required changes to culture, mindsets, skills, tools and processes.
Good Design ambassador, aerospace, mechanical and systems design engineer, and figurehead in the development of the Australian government’s strategic policy methodology, Jane MacMaster (pictured), worked closely with the Good Design Australia team to outline the criteria for the new discipline.
“I’d love for this new discipline to contribute to raising the profile and awareness that design plays an important role in policy, and that good policy is well-designed policy. We’re here to achieve change. Recognising that good design is an essential part of the process in achieving effective and positive change will help us all get there faster and encourage lasting and meaningful impact for a broader range of people,” she said.
Also new for 2024, Good Design Australia is launching the Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design, in partnership with the Pataki family.
Named in honour of Robert Pataki OAM, recipient of the 2022 Australian Design Prize, Life Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia and industrial design pioneer, the Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design aims to inspire, recognise and support design solutions that have the potential to improve the lives of people living or working within the healthcare system.
“We hope this Award will stimulate and increase discussion on what solutions are needed within the healthcare space, how they will affect the end users, and how design can improve and assist the quality of life for our most vulnerable populations,” Robert’s wife, Jackie Pataki said.
This year’s Australian Good Design Awards introduces a new partnership between Good Design Australia and AirSeed, an Australian company at the forefront of the ecosystem restoration movement. Good Design Australia is donating a percentage of each award entry to AirSeed’s regeneration efforts in Australia to help reforest and restore habitat biodiversity in damaged ecosystems.
The Awards recognise design excellence in the following categories:
- Architectural Design
- Communication Design
- Design Research
- Design Strategy
- Digital Design
- Engineering Design
- Fashion Impact
- Next Gen (Student Design)
- Policy Design
- Product Design
- Service Design
- Social Impact
Nominations for Special Accolades include:
- Good Design Award for Sustainability
- Australian Design Prize
- Australian Good Design Team of the Year Award
- Michael Bryce Patron’s Award
- Women in Design Award
- Indigenous Design Award
- Powerhouse Design Award
- Automotive Design Award (Interior + Exterior)
- Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design