Graphic Design Award by Yamaha 2015 Winners

A design competition to celebrate the power of graphic design and encourage new visual design voices in a global dialogue reveals award winners out of 1,100 submissions entered from 69 countries and regions worldwide.

www.graphic-day.com

Japan, January 30, 2015 - Yamaha Corporation, together with Yamaha Motor CO., LTD, are proud to announce the winners of Graphic Design Award by Yamaha 2015 (GDAY), a new international design award inviting innovative graphic communication ideas. Today, the winner for Grand Prize and Audience Award are announced as below.

The competition, inviting worldly renowned graphic designer Neville Brody as head of jury to lead and direct the whole judging process along with Yamaha brands, was held for 3 months from call for entries 1st September until the final judging on 15th December 2014. This memorial 1st year at GDAY, the competition received 1,100 submissions from 69 countries and regions under a theme "KANDO", a Japanese word and philosophy sits at the core of both Yamaha brands which means "for the heart" or "to be deeply moved".

"The whole competition, I think was a fantastic opportunity for, first of all, two companies to work together in this fantastic creative space and then also to link with the rest of the world for young designers. I understand there's around 69 different countries and regions. There are about 1,100 entries, which is fantastic. I think the competition has a really, very strong future. There's a great beginning and we are going to give some young designers opportunity to be seen and their work to be seen." Head of jury, Neville Brody.

[Title]:

Graphic Design Award by Yamaha (GDAY)

[Theme]:

Graphic Form of KANDO (感動).

*The Japanese word "KANDO" means for the heart "to be deeply moved". The word is the core philosophy for both Yamaha Corporation and Yamaha Motors CO.LTD.

[Jury]:

Neville Brody (Dean of the School of Communications at the Royal College of Art, Founder of Brody Associates)

Manabu Kawada (General Manager of Design Laboratory at Yamaha Corporation)

Akihiro Nagaya (Chief General Manager of Design Center Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd)

[Judging process & periods]:

- Primary Audit /14th November 2014: 15 works were selected out of all the submissions.

- Open Review /20th November - 10th December 2014: 15 selected works was release to the public for open review on GDAY official site. The work which received the most "Like" will achieve Audience Award.

- Final Review /15th December 2014: Final result with 1 Grand Prize, 1 Audience Award

[Award Prize]:

- Grand Prize: Receives trophy, certificate and prize money (10,000 US Dollaors)

- Audience Award: Receives trophy and certificate

[Organizer]:

Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

Grand Prize

[Title]: Kando

[Entrant]: Laurie Concannon

[Nationality]: Irish

[Occupation]: Student

[Concept]:

The graphic mark expresses the passion of music and motor through merging the emotional and visual stimulus of movement and sound. Executed through creating forms with light the mark reflects a composers hand gestures influenced by music's universal ability to break language barriers communicating the emotive qualities of music. The mark submitted is in a static state, moving forward the intention is that this mark would move and be created in real time in front of the viewer/ user/customer.

[Comments from juries]:

"This piece shows the power of expression in an abstract way. It's neither too much nor too little. Since the fundamental principle of the "blank space" has been captured, this piece has unlocked the potential to be used in many different forms of media." (Head of Jury, Neville Brody)

"While these lines are depicted as playing with quadruple rhythm, there also exists dynamics and variations, which fluctuates and stimulates our "Kando". We are able to see the feelings and subtleties of the artwork coming forth." (Jury, Manabu Kawada)

"Kando" has a wide variation of elements ranging from static to impulse to continuity. This piece has an array of dynamism and rich expression. Depending on the perspective, it looks as if part of the track has been cut out." (Jury, Akihiro "Dezi" Nagaya)

Audience Award

[Title]: Feel the Kando Spirit.

[Entrant]: Faryl Roberts

[Nationality]: Republic of South Africa

[Occupation]: Student (currently studying in Ireland)

[Concept]:

The shape of the pictogram was inspired by the bass clef symbol found in Western music, by the curving lines used to represent the pictograms arms as well as abstract circle representing the pictograms head. It also links to music of Japan. The Dadaiko drum in the Gagaku orchestra incorporates the ying-yang symbol that forms the drum. The ying-yang symbol is a very important symbol to the Japanese people that represents balance. It is depicted in my pictogram in the flow of the arms and represents the balance and equal importance of Yamahas' music and motor-based products. The figure when viewed as a whole also represents the 'Y' in Yamaha, which links Kando to being a part of the both Yamahas. The 'Y' shape is also painted in a way to look like a person expressing profound excitement and raising their arms up in the emotion felt by it.

[Comments]:

The selected 15 works which passed the primary audit were release to the public for open review on GDAY official site. #Feel the Kando Spirit" successfully received the highest number of "Like" among the rest of the selected work and received the award.

Head of Jury, Neville Brody

Founder of Brody Associates, is an internationally renowned graphic designer, typographer, art director and brand strategist, working predominately in digital, typography and identity. Noted for his early work Art Directing revolutionary issues of The Face Magazine and designing iconic album covers for the music industry, he now collaborates with a diverse range of global clients from blue chip corporations to independents. Brody's insight, methodology and appetite for pushing creative boundaries and pursuit of excellence inform every aspect of his studio's work. Alongside this, Brody is Dean of the School of Communications at the Royal College of Art (London) and dedicated spokesperson for design education and creating opportunities for young creatives.

Jury, Manabu Kawada

Joined Yamaha in 1992. Started by designing sports gear and moved on to GUI for various digital musical instruments, AV products and music production software. Studied abroad at RCA (Royal College of Art) in London from 2001. After returning to work, he has become a group manager of digital musical instrument design, a head of product design centre and was appointed General Manager of Design Laboratory at Yamaha Corporation since June, 2008.

Jury, Akihiro "Dezi" Nagaya

Joined Toyota Motor Corporation in 1983 and participated in various Toyota Lexus designs starting with the original Lexus LS. In 2003, Nagaya became Lexus Brand Planning General Manager, a contributing member to Lexus Brand-building. In 2010, Nagaya became Toyota Design General Manager, in 2012 he became President of techno art research co., ltd. In 2014, Nagaya was appointed Chief General Manager of Design Center at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.