Award Winners
Aki Kanai, Masaki Hanahara, and Takuma Fukuzawa

Publication: “Graphic Design in Japan 2018” (June 2018)
Award Ceremony: JAGDA General Assembly 2018 on 29 June 2018 in Niigata

Exhibitions
Thursday 24 May to Tuesday 26 June 2018 at Creation Gallery G8, Tokyo
Monday 9 to Thursday 19 July 2018 at Paper Voice Osaka, Osaka
Tuesday 18 September to Monday 8 October 2018 at Gallery Art Site, Seian Art Center, Seian University of Art and Design, Shiga
Saturday 20 to Wednesday 24 October 2018 at Gallery, Nagaoka Institute of Design, Niigata
Wednesday 7 to Saturday 17 November 2018 at Sojo Gallery, Kumamoto
Monday 3 to Monday 10 December 2018 at 101 Gallery, Nippon Designer Academy of Fine Arts, Aichi

Selection Process of the JAGDA New Designer Awards 2018
The JAGDA New Designer Awards were established in 1983 with the goals of calling attention to outstanding young designers and vitalizing the realm of graphic design. The award winners – normally no more than 3 – are selected each year from among all entrants who have not reached their 40th birthday as of the end of October of the judging year.

This year 152 designers with works featured in the 2018 JAGDA Annual qualified as “new designers” (JAGDA members under age 40 as of October 31, 2017). Among these, a first round of voting was held for the 35 individuals and 1 pair who had 3 or more featured works in total selected in the 10 categories (2 or more if the Integrated Design category was included). The featured works of each designer (or pair) were grouped together at the judging session; all names were kept anonymous.

In this first round, the 27 members of the Selection Committee in attendance were permitted to cast up to 5 votes in total, but they were not required to use up their quota. A total of 6 individuals respectively garnered 8 or more votes, thereby becoming finalists.

The final round of voting was then conducted, only this time with each of the 26 Selection Committee members in attendance casting 3 votes in total (without the option of not casting all allotted votes). Again, the designers’ names were kept anonymous. In this round each Committee member indicated his or her choices for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places; a 1st-place vote was worth 3 points, 2nd place 2 points, and 3rd place 1 point. The designers who received the most votes in this second round – and who thereby won this year’s JAGDA New Designer Awards – were Masaki Hanahara (36 points/15 votes), Aki Kanai (33 points/18 votes) and Takuma Fukuzawa (27 points/11 votes)..