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DesignNewswire · COMO, Italy ·

Shotaro Inahara Is Honored with the Silver A' Design Award for Morita Wds 2023 Exhibition Booth in Trade Show Architecture, Interiors, and Exhibit Design

Shotaro Inahara acknowledged for trade show architecture, interiors, and exhibit design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Morita Wds 2023 Exhibition Booth by Shotaro Inahara, designed for HAKUTEN Corporation, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Trade Show Architecture, Interiors, and Exhibit Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

What the Silver A' Design Award Means

The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

Regarding Morita Wds 2023 Exhibition Booth

Morita Wds 2023 is an exhibition booth created for a dental equipment manufacturer. The booth measures 32000 by 15000 by 4500 millimetres. The design presents the background of the products rather than the products alone. Parts are disassembled and displayed, internal mechanisms are shown through transparent windows, and dimensions are exposed to explain design intent. Wall panels are made from scrap sheet metal left after die cutting. The structure is fixed with screws without adhesive, so the materials can be recycled.

Award Record

With this recognition, Shotaro Inahara is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Trade Show Architecture, Interiors, and Exhibit Design Award

The A' Trade Show Design Award is an international competition recognizing innovative trade show booth projects and the best designers creating them. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to trade show designers, exhibition designers, event planners and interior designers from all countries. Typical entries include trade show interiors, exhibits, booths, pavilions, showrooms and kiosks. The awarded exhibit designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/trade-show

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project
Morita Wds 2023 Exhibition Booth
Function
Exhibition Booth
Category
Trade Show Architecture, Interiors, and Exhibit Design
Discipline
Spatial Design
Industry
Architecture and Branding & Advertising
Colors
Black, Dark Slate Gray, Light Gray, Silver and Light Slate Gray
Images
5
Client
HAKUTEN Corporation

The Recognition

Laureate
Shotaro Inahara
Country
Japan
Recognition
Silver A' Design Award
Edition
2024 - 2025
Design ID
#162228

Credits

Team
Akiyuki Maruyama, Tatsuya Sato, Riku Nishihara and Toshiki Takei
Image Credits
Image #No1~5 : Photographer, Akira Arai.

Design Details

Unique Properties
Began with a deep understanding of Morita by reading the technical history that describes how the products were made. The exhibition also included a tour of the manufacturing process and interviews about the company's commitment to its products. The exhibition also included a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the products, including an introduction to the development story, a transparent and disassembled mechanism display, and an appeal to the design intent by exposing the dimensions.
Inspiration
Morita also exhibited at the annual regional dental shows. There, the company exhibits directly related to sales promotion, focusing on products and services, and it was a place to sell products. This year's WDS will focus not only on products, but also on their backgrounds. Who and what kind of thoughts and processes go into the making of a product. The experience was designed as a branding opportunity for people to learn more about Morita and become fans.
Research
We also visited Morita Manufacturing Corporation, where the products are actually manufactured, to observe the manufacturing process and hear about the developer's commitment to the products.
Challenge
Based on the above, the booth will be a “fascinating display of the invisible” by (1) disassembling the product part by part, (2) introducing the development process and its secret story, (3) showing the internal mechanism through a transparent window, and (4) showing the design attention to detail through the dimensions of the product.
Realization and Technology
The “MORITA MUSEUM” sign. The sign is side-illuminated, and one side is embedded in the wall to suggest that this is a booth that attracts visitors to Morita from a different angle. The base design of the graphics is based on drawings, which gives visitors a sense of the product manufacturing process. The wrighting of the corner signs is not based on product names, but on words that are beneficial to visitors, in order to induce their interest in the contents of the corner.
Operation and Interaction
On the wall, we used a scrap piece of sheet metal from which parts had been die-cut.The design matched the concept of this exhibition as a material reminiscent of the manufacturing process, and the design also functioned as an eye-catcher, attracting visitors' interest by allowing them to see inside the booth through the hole in the wall. The booth was fixed with screws, without using any adhesives, so that it could be returned to the factory and returned to the normal recycling flow.
Project Duration and Location
The project started in September 29, 2023 and finished in October 1, 2023 in Yokohama.
Specifications
The overall dimensions of the booth are W32000 x D15000 x H4500 mm.
Keywords
Exhibition,Booth,Sustainability,Branding,Luminous Signs,Dental,Equipment

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