My Day With The BraunPrize Jury: Kazuo Tanaka
One of the things that make the BraunPrize special is composition of the jury members. In particular Braun is taking care of the fact that there is a correlation between globalisation as such and the increased number of submissions from all across the globe. For the current BraunPrize 2009 students have submitted their work from a total of 54 countries and a considerable number from Asia as such (more details to be released soon via the BraunPrize Newsboard).
Therefore I was happy to see Kazuo Tanaka from GK Design not only as a representative of ICSID, but also and more importantly as a stakeholder of the “Asian View” on Design. In case you are interested in getting to know Kazuo’s view on design a bit better you should spend a minute on GK Design’s website where he explains that GK Design Group:
” … is aiming at further progress as a creative industry to create “new value.” Many issues that society of our times facing should be solved in global vision. What could design do on wider issues such as global warming, problems for all humans in common, ever changing global economy and moreover desire for peace of mind that today’s society is harboring? We are going to contemplate them through creation of things, systems and nurturing human capability.”
The integrated approach he’s following can already be found in his very first answer to my question how is managing design for the 12 sub-companies GK Design is consisting of: For Tanaka Design has become a process and the network of GK Design companies is somehow mapping a (design driven) value creation structure. In relation to the BraunPrize what fascinates him most has been the emphasis & integration of seriousness, meaning and function into product design. But let’s listen to him literally (and please apologise for all the noise in the background!):
