Visual Systems
Designing Design
Kenya Hara — 2007
In Designing Design, Kenya Hara—the renowned art director of MUJI—offers a profound meditation on the essence of creativity, arguing that the role of a designer is not to create novelty, but to "make the ordinary unknown." Through a series of conceptual exhibitions and philosophical essays, Hara explores how design can awaken the senses, the power of "emptiness" over simplicity, and why re-examining daily objects like toilet paper and tea bags can reveal more about the world than inventing new technologies. This is a foundational text for understanding Japanese design philosophy and the subtle art of sensory communication.
- ISBN
- 303778105X
- ISBN 13
- 978-3037781050
- Pages
- 482
- Reading time
- 18
- Level
- Intermediate
- Publisher
- Lars Müller Publishers
- Edition release date
- 01/01/2007
Notable Quotes
“Design is the controlling of difference. But while working through countless projects, I came to realize that I was weaving meaning not out of the big differences, but out of the first, smallest ones only.”
“To design is to 'build' a structure with an image inside the mind of the recipient.”
“Creativity is to discover a question that has never been asked. If one brings up an idiosyncratic question, the answer he gives will necessarily be unique as well.”
“Verbalizing design is another act of design.”
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