Gutes Design

The Gutes Design award (od 'Good Design', and sometimes stylized as 'GUTES DESIGN') was a state award of East Germany for industrial products with outstanding industrial design. The award was established by the East German State Council, and was presented twice yearly from 1978 to 1990 by the Amt für industrielle Formgestaltung (transl. Office for industrial Design) at the Leipziger Trade Fair.

History The Gutes Design award was given to "excellently designed mass--produced goods" and was presented to the manufacturing compaines and combines. The award was established by the East German State Council and from 1978 on presented twice a year by the Amt für Industrielle Formgestaltung (AiF). The awards ceremony took place at the Leipziger Spring and Autumn Fairs. The winning products were published in the Form und Zweck magazine, and the designers involved were also named alongside the product and the manufacturing company. Despite the mentioning of the designers, the "Gutes Design" award was primarily a product award, similar to the West German design prize Gute Form. The goal was to increase the competitiveness of East German industry, particularly for export goods. However, outstanding designers were personally awarded the <i>Designpreis der DDR</i> prize. The last presentation of the Gutes Design award was made in the Leipzig spring fair of 1990.

Logo and plaque The joint logo of the design prize, the design promotion prize, and the Gutes Design award was designed by Dietrich Otte based on the work Verklammerte Kreisscheiben (transl. Clamped Circular Discs) by Hermann Glöckner. The plaque for the product award was made of Meissen porcellain and was displayed at the Leipzig Fair among the award-winning machines and products. The front of the plaque featured the logo, abiv it the inscription "GUTES DESIGN", and below it "DDR" and the year of the award. The products and their packaging could also bear the logo, either as a sticker or a printed design.

Awards A maximum of 50 prizes were awarded at each fair, but in practice the number was more like 20 to 40. Therefore, a complete list of all award-winning products, their manufacturers, and designers is not possible. This information can be found in the footnotes of the digitized editions of form+zweck, which include a breakdown by category and—for example—particularly well-known products among those awarded. The column showing the number of prizes awarded refers only to products from the GDR, as the form+zweck journal does not fully list the prizes awarded to international submissions from 1988 onward.

Literature Christian Wölfel, Sylvia Wölfel u. Jens Krzywinski (Hrsg.): Gutes Design. Martin Kelm und die Designförderung in der DDR. Thelem Universitätsverlag, Dresden 2014. ISBN 978-3-945363-11-9. Leiter des Amtes für industrielle Formgestaltung, Leiter des Leipziger Messeamtes: Richtlinie für die Teilnahme der Betriebe am Wettbewerb GUTES DESIGN. In: form+zweck, 20. Jahrgang, Heft 5/1988, urn:urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id416501729-198800502:{{{2}}}, S. 3–4. Bernd Havenstein, Peter Raasch: GUTES DESIGN – Ergebnisse und Tendenzen. In: form+zweck, 15. Jahrgang, Heft 6/1983, urn:urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id416501729-198300601:{{{2}}}, S. 43–51.

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