SDA(Japan Sign Design Association)

The SDA Award is intended to promote and encourage sign design by presenting outstanding sign designs to the public. Established in 1966, it is the only award system in Japan to honor sign designs.

Today, sign designs are the interface that connects regional or corporate activities with people and provides indispensable information for the revitalization of the environment and smooth communications.

SDA Awards aim to widely communicate this concept along with various new sign production methods. The awards are given once a year to the outstanding sign designs selected from high-quality entries.

Winners

Please select a year: the 45th Awards (2011) the 44th Awards (2010) the 43rd Awards (2009) the 42nd Awards (2008) the 41st Awards (2007) the 40th Awards (2006) the 39th Awards (2005) the 38th Awards (2004) the 37th Awards (2003) the 36th Awards (2002)

The web links are limited to sites in the Japanese language.

There are five categories for SDA Awards. As shown below, some categories are subdivided for a total of eight awards.

This category is intended for signs placed in public places and/or public facilities such as train stations and airports, parks, office buildings, schools, museums, libraries, hospitals, and power plants.

	Individual Signs/ Small Signs	A sign designed for a public purpose with a single function.
	System Signs	Signs planned as a system and that have multiple functions such as name signs, guide signs, route-guide signs, regulation signs and user-guide signs. This is a visual identity (VI) sign system for regional or public projects.

This category is intended for signs placed for commercial and business purposes such as signs for multiple commercial facilities, shopping centers, department stores, shops and financial institutions. It also includes signs for offices, business facilities and plant facilities.

	Individual Signs/ Small Signs	Signs placed mainly at the entry way with a single function such as signboards, shop signs, noren(a shop curtain), and business signs.
	System Signs	Signs planned as a system to provide multi information such as name signs, guide signs, route-guide signs, regulation signs and user-guide signs. This is a visual identity (VI) sign system for large regional and multi-shop developments.

This category is intended for signs such as advertising and media signs that have lighting effects using neon or LED. It also includes signs with great creativity and dramatic entertainment factors such as those for theme parks and exhibitions.

	Individual Signs/ Small Signs	Signs that aggressively communicate information such as large neon signs, large visual signs, advertising towers, billboards, and "wrapping" (covers the body of a bus/train) advertisements. Also, signs with high-quality creative molding and lighting such as monument signs, gate and mall signs.
	System Signs	Signs planned as a system and placed at multiple locations in a large site such as theme parks, amusement parks, stadiums and exhibition halls,

This category is for the site itself that communicates a clear message such as public spaces, commercial spaces, architectural spaces and transportation hubs.

Signs that utilize new technology, new materials and new expression methods that show a promising future.