The judges of CG 19 were asked to look at the year’s competition entries in a new way. Instead of considering, for example, whether an entry was a well-designed brochure, they asked themselves what the brochure did and how well it did it. The chair of the competition, Margo Chase, suggested that designers need to consider themselves in different roles, as problem solvers and business strategists rather than decorators and image makers.

The exhibition design and graphics of CG 19 represented these ideas by using the visual language of engineering structures rather than façades. The main element was a lighting truss used as a shelf. Its clean steel grid informed the typography and feel of the exhibition.