MUJI really doesn't have any aspirations towards creating new things at the expense of things around us now. As a member of this unique screening panel whose points of view were in competition regarding the discovery of the "oh, OK, right" over that of creation, I evaluated the works entered into this competition from the standpoint of an ordinary person living an ordinary life. There were items that were newly designed, but they didn't grab me. Looking at the works entered into the competition, I felt a strong sense of happiness residing in even the smallest details of life, and I realized that ingenuity and knowledge in our daily lives really does enrich the act of living.
It would be fair to say that the winner of the Gold Award, the straw straw, was something so obvious it was almost too obvious, but I believed that if it was MUJI, then this was something that could be put into production. Thinking of the environmental pollution around us in this day and age, it's not even possible nowadays to use such a small tool created from nature with any degree of safety. Being able to use this small straw, I believe, points out that improvements have been made to the world environment.
- Kenya Hara
- Kazuko Koike
- Takashi Sugimoto
- Naoto Fukasawa