Akro has been given the Good Design Award 2017, a prize originally founded in 1957 by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry and now hosted by the Japan Institute for Design Promotion. Every year, around 4000 products are judged, and a quarter of these win an award in a variety of categories, including architecture, industrial products, home appliances, cars and software.
The Good Design Award was created with the objective of generating a mechanism that encourages and promotes “good” design. According to the award’s promoters, a product’s design should be primarily assessed from the point of view of the positive effects its use has on people's daily life and work. Analysing and awarding prizes to products with winning designs is a way of promoting the circulation of the best ideas and thus sparking off the next innovation that will benefit the whole of society.
The Akro outdoor projector was chosen for the award because it clearly embodies the purpose for which it was designed: to give lighting professionals a versatility previously associated only with indoor fixtures. In fact, it has a zoom lens to manually change the beam angle (13°–32°, 16°–42°), filters (dichroic, elliptical, diffuser and colour temperature converters) and anti-glare accessories. The jury found it particularly interesting that the product’s multiple functionalities are housed in such a simple, minimalist shape.
This is what the jury said:
