Good Design Award 【BEST 100】| AQUOS R9 Smartphone

AQUOS R9 Smartphone

Good Design Award 2024　【BEST 100】

Year released: 2024

Designer: Kazushige Miyake (Miyake Design Co., Ltd.) , Kota Kato (Miyake Design Co., Ltd.) , Takashi Tanaka, Hirokazu Shibata, Haruka Okada, Mone Yamashita, Takahiro Sekine, Megumi Takahashi, Risa Yamamoto

Jury's Evaluation

Up until now, the major trend in smartphone design has been the pursuit of high capability, high functionality and a luxurious feeling. However, these pursuits are facing a phase of diminishing returns and less likely to lead to people's affluence and happiness. Against this backdrop, this design was born without being easily swayed by the current trends, and instead, with courage, stopped and looked at the smartphone as the most familiar device. The shape of the panel around the camera using free curves and the layout around the lens which is not equal in height and width become the character of the product, and it is finished to be a product which is somehow endearing like a pocketbook or wallet. From the maker's point of view, this design, which was deliberately removed from the norm, conveys the strong will and courage of the designers and developers to create something different from conventional smartphones, and is suitable as a representative design for this year.