Lab Pens Among 12 products or services honored at 2025 GOOD DESIGN AWARD
KOKUYO Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Osaka / President: Hidekuni Kuroda) is pleased to announce that its Research Lab Pen (alcohol-resistant type) series earned a place in the 2025 Good Design Best 100 at the 2025 GOOD DESIGN AWARD and that 11 other products or services developed by Kokuyo Group earned the 2025 GOOD DESIGN AWARD.
Research Lab Pens (alcohol-resistant type)
Ranked among GOOD DESIGN BEST 100
■ Research Lab Pen
The Research Lab Pen is a marker pen inspired by feedback from scientists. The pen's ink is resistant to alcohol and the pen can even write on frozen or damp surfaces. With its 0.6-milimeter tip, the pen is suitable for labeling centrifuge tubes, for example, making it ideal for lab scientists.
GOOD DESIGN AWARD Winners
■ Lounge Sofa ym-03: Part of the Yuimori Series of Sustainable Wooden Furniture
This lounge sofa is the third instalment in a series of furniture products made of Japanese wood harvested from a forest that is cultivated under KOKUYO's Yui-no-Mori Project. The product uses coniferous softwood, a type of wood that furniture makers have often avoided, to achieve an organic feel and provide the resilience and comfort expected of office furniture. The sofa is designed to be environmentally sustainable and to facilitate relaxed conversation or alone time, accommodating a wide range of working patterns.
https://www.kokuyo-furniture.co.jp/products/office/special/yuimori/product/series/?series=ym03
■ Energy Line: An Innovative Clamp Power Strip
Energy Line is a clamp power strip designed to be aesthetically appealing when viewed from any angle. This design includes a linear socket that transforms the appearance of the office. It also includes a versatile clamp that enables the strip to be fitted anywhere in increasingly diversified office spaces without creating an eyesore. Designed according to inclusive design principles, Energy Line allows any user to plug in their device effortlessly.
https://www.kokuyo.co.jp/newsroom/news/category/20241108fn10.html
■ BIZRACK: A Series of Gadget Pouches and Travel Pouches
BIZRACK is a series of pouches that are self-standing when unzipped. KOKUYO's proprietary core structure enhances repulsive force, ensuring that the pouches remain upright when opened wide. This feature makes it easy to search for and retrieve items in the pouch. The series includes highly demanded gadget pouches and travel pouches, with the design optimized for the respective pouch type.
■ Floor wiper that cleans with light pressure, featuring a newly developed handle. (coming in early December)
Wiping workplace floors is physically demanding and some floor stains can be hard to remove. KOKUYO's upcoming floor wiper solves these problems with its innovative stick grip. Stubborn stains such as footprints can be removed effortlessly with the stick's ergonomic design, whose strain-mitigating effect has been demonstrated in an industrial-academic project. Office cleaners and people with upper limb disorders were included in the design process, ensuring an inclusive design accessible to anyone.
■ Campus Break-Resistant Eraser Parallelogram
Rectangular erasers are often unwieldy and crumble easily, making it hard to erase a particular letter or do so without erasing or smudging the surrounding area. To solve these issues, the Campus eraser dispenses with the rectangular structure in favor of a parallelogramic one. KOKUYO developed this unique approach from scratch and incorporated inclusive design principles to make the eraser accessible to as many users as possible.
https://www.kokuyo-st.co.jp/en/stationery/campus_brand/orenikui-eraser/
■ SAXA
KOKUYO's SAXA scissors are designed to be easy to use regardless of the user's dominant hand. Most scissors are designed for either right-handed or left-handed people. If a left-handed person uses a pair of scissors for right-handed people, they would never get the same tactile feedback that a right-handed person would. SAXA features a blade design that is arched slightly toward the hand, providing a pleasant cutting sensation regardless of whether the scissors are held in the left or right hand. Excludes SAXA straight blade type.
■ Paper Packaging for SAXA and Harinacs
SAXA and Harinacs come in plastic-free paper packaging. The paper packaging uses a clear design, making the product easy for many users to distinguish. It is also the first packaging in the stationery industry to contain an Accessible Code. An Accessible Code is a QR code for accessing multilingual or text-to-speech support, allowing people with visual impairment or a different language background to access the product information with ease.
https://www.kokuyo.co.jp/newsroom/news/category/20241203st1.html
■ Campus Portable Book Clip
This book grip features a compact design. The clips at each end are rotatable. They can align with the shaft to form a pen shape or be oriented away from the shaft to serve as clips. Each clip can be rotated separately to accommodate a range of page thicknesses. The book grip's portability offers new value in a time when students study in an increasing range of environments.
https://www.kokuyo-st.co.jp/en/stationery/campus_brand/bookclip/
■ KOKUYO WP
The WP series consists of a fine-tip pen that allows you to vary the thickness of the line with the amount of pressure you apply. It also consists of a rollerball pen that delivers vibrant lines. Each pen rests comfortably in the hand and features a superior design, allowing users to effortlessly express their ideas or feelings in writing. Users will absorb themselves in the writing itself and feel motivated to write more. When developing a rough concept, you can use thick lines to represent the overall idea, enabling freer idea-generation.
■ "Hello! Family." Hello Coco Talk
Hello Coco Talk GPS is a tracking device for children. The device is easy for children to use with its simple and intuitive interface, consisting of a talk button, listen button and notify button. It was designed with the concept of providing a safe foundation to foster curiosity in children. As well as indicating the child's present location and tracking their route, the device can send and receive audio messages. It also recommends destinations. More than just a tracking tool, Hello Coco Talk brings the family closer together.
■ WORKSIGHT: Vision Driven Owned Media
KOKUYO is committed to building what it describes as a self-directed, collaborative society. To that end, Kokuyo engages in research and development for creating socially transformative businesses. As part of this, it is reorganizing its owned media. In this project, content production is partially managed by an editor hired from outside the organization in an open-recruitment process. The idea is that Kokuyo employees will work with Kokuyo fans to create a process for exploring together how to make this future scenario a reality.
The project has the following four components:
- Printed seasonal publications
- Weekly digital newsletter
- Irregular events
- Social media engagement
Through these actions, KOKUYO is taking a multi-angled approach in its pursuit of its future vision.
Further information
■ GOOD DESIGN AWARD
Originally founded in 1957 as the Good Design Product Selection System, the GOOD DESIGN AWARD is Japan's leading program for awarding and promoting good design. It is an annual global awards program open to companies and other organizations worldwide with the goal of encouraging designs that enhance everyday life and address socioenvironmental issues. Winning entries earn the right to display the G-mark, which is widely recognized as a seal of design excellence.
GOOD DESIGN AWARD website : https://www.g-mark.org/en
Please be aware that the information in this document is accurate as of the time it was written and is subject to change without notice.