Kenya Hara

Designing Design

Representing a new generation of designers in Japan, Kenya Hara pays tribute to his mentors, using long overlooked Japanese icons and images in much of his work. In Designing Design, he impresses upon the reader the importance of “emptiness” in both the visual and philosophical traditions of Japan and its application to design, made visible by means of numerous examples from his own work.

“To understand something is not to be able to define it or describe it. Instead, taking something that we think we already know and making it unknown thrills us afresh with its reality and deepens our understanding of it,” Hara says of his design philosophy. Designing Design gives the reader an understanding of said philosophy as well as opens their mind to new ways of thinking.

Hara, born 1958, is a Japanese graphic designer and professor at the Musashino Art University. He for instance designed the opening and closing ceremony programs for the Nagano Winter Olympic games 1998. In 2001, Hara enrolled as a board member for the Japanese label MUJI and has considerably molded the identity of this successful corporation as communication and design advisor ever since.

Representing a new generation of designers in Japan, Kenya Hara pays tribute to his mentors, using long overlooked Japanese icons and images in much of his work. In Designing Design, he impresses upon the reader the importance of “emptiness” in both the visual and philosophical traditions of Japan and its application to design, made visible by means of numerous examples from his own work.

“To understand something is not to be able to define it or describe it. Instead, taking something that we think we already know and making it unknown thrills us afresh with its reality and deepens our understanding of it,” Hara says of his design philosophy. Designing Design gives the reader an understanding of said philosophy as well as opens their mind to new ways of thinking.

Hara, born 1958, is a Japanese graphic designer and professor at the Musashino Art University. He for instance designed the opening and closing ceremony programs for the Nagano Winter Olympic games 1998. In 2001, Hara enrolled as a board member for the Japanese label MUJI and has considerably molded the identity of this successful corporation as communication and design advisor ever since.


“this book is perfect for design hobbyists and practitioners alike.”
designboom


Author(s): Kenya Hara

Design: Kenya Hara

16,5 x 24 cm, 6 ½ x 9 ½ in

472 pages, 389 illustrations

paperback

2014, 978-3-03778-450-1, English
CHF 60.00

Kenya Hara

Kenya Hara (*1958) is considered the most influential designer of present-day Japan. After graduating in design from the Musashino Art University of Kodaira in 1983, he worked as a curator and graphic designer before taking on the role of art director at Muji in 2002. Hara is president of the Nippon Design Center Inc., and head of the department of Science of Design at Musashino Art University. He has published widely on his design theory, including the books Designing Design (2007), White (2009), Designing Japan (2018), and 100 Whites (2019).