Kenya Hara is a leading Japanese graphic designer known for his minimalist style. Some of his most notable works include designs for the Olympic Games in Nagano and Beijing. He has been the art director of the retail brand MUJI since 2001, helping shape its concept of "everyday" design. Hara believes that Japanese design draws on cultural resources like delicateness, meculousness, and simplicity. He emphasizes exploring the essence of design through exhibitions that reimagine everyday objects.

1. COURSE: HISTORY OF
CONTEMPORARY
DESIGN
THE 21ST CENTURY
JAPANESE LEADING
DESIGNER:
KENYA HARA
STUDENT: XINGYI HUANG DATE: 8TH MAY PROFESSOR: LAWSON
BOTEZ

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. About
How important Hara is in the Japanese
design world.
2. Work
His works cover adver7sing, exhibi7on,
graphic, package etc.
3. InspiraIon
What makes Hara really valuable as a
Japanese designer.

3. ABOUT
Kenya Hara, born in 1985, is a Japanese graphic designer, curator and writer.
He graduated from Musashino Art University, one of the top Art school in Tokyo, Japan.
Hara has been the art director of Muji since 2001.
Muji is one of the most famous is retail company in Japan, with 505 outlets in the globe.
He is a professor at Musashino Art University, his alma mater
He is the President of the Nippon Design Center Inc., a design company
He is the vice President, Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc., which has more than 3000 members

4. Corporate AdverIsing
MUJI
Corporate AdverIsing
RE DESIGN
Graphic
Olympic Game

5. Graphic:
Programs for the Opening
and Closing Ceremonies of
the Nagano Winter
Olympic Games
- Special paper was developed to evoke
images of snow and ice.
- It seems like the footprints on ice or in the
new-fallen snow.
- Japanese text running ver7cally and the
French and English running horizontally.

6. Graphic:
Entry for the Beijing
Summer Olympic Games
Symbol Design CompeMMon
- The inspira7on was from tradi7onal Chinese
handmade physical environment.
- The design is based on the theme of Chinese
characters.
- Each por7on represents different sports
program.
- They are designed to moved as mo7on
graphics.

7. Corporate AdverIsing: MUJI
- MUJI, a Japanese retail store, was founded in 1980.
- Its original concept was “some7mes simplicity surpasses splendour”.
- MUJI’s product lines cover daily necessity, from a single spoon to a house.
- In 2002, Kenya Hara became MUJI’s art director.
- His concept, ”everyday” design has affected almost every customer of MUJI.

8. Horizon, 2003
MUJI hopes that its products can meet the public's needs, but also express its own atude towards the design.

9. Let’s take care, 2008
In 2008, the global financial crisis occurred.
MUJI raised its own slogan "gentle treatment", and visual art is "hands-on", showing MUJI's design ingenuity.

10. Natsure, Naturally, MUJI., 2014

11. ExhibiIon:
RE DESIGN daily products
of 21st century
- The "re-design" project focuses on re-
designing the familiar forms of everyday
products.
- Creators are from a variety of fields to
design some very ordinary commodi7es.
- Each par7cipant was given a different
design theme.
- It’s not to propose objects but to redesign
everyday’s product.
- Goal : to explore the compelling essence
of design.

12. Toilet Paper
Designed by Shigeru Ban
“Inconvenience caused by design”
The resistance when pulling toilet paper
helps save resources. To save space when
arranging for storage and transporta7on

13. Matches
Designed by Kaoru Mende
“Crea7vity through destruc7on”
Replacing the average matches with the
ordinary wooden s7cks and pung the
combus7ble substance on the top.

14. “ The purpose of design is to search for an essential quality in things. ”
KENYA HARA
…

15. Interview:
The future of design
- Ar7cle published on Japan Time.
- “I only have two types of jobs,” he says.
“The first are jobs where I’m commissioned
to make work and the second are jobs
where I propose an idea to society, where I
suggest another way of looking at
something.”
- What makes Hara really valuable as a
Japanese designer is his ability to
summarise a clear philosophy about
Japanese design.

16. What are Japan’s resources?
- Delicateness - nature resources
- Me7culousness - manner
- Thoroughness or aaen7on to detail - thinking
- Simplicity - “less is more”
- Hara believes that Japanese designers need to
consider how to create or design value, to think of
culture as a resource.
- “When we typically think of resources we think of
materials and minerals,” Hara says, “but a resource
can also be aesthe7c, or even cultural.”

17. Book: Designing design
- Design entry book for beginners.
- It was printed 17 7mes acer it was first published in Japan in 2003.
- Hara emphasised the importance of emp7ness in both the visual and
philosophical tradi7ons of Japan, and introduced its applica7on to design by
using examples from his own work.

18. Illustra7on from Zero Home

19. Thank you for listening!