India has huge resource of futuristic design creations: Kenya Hara

Hara, also a curator, author and educator, had designed the opening and closing ceremony programmes of the Nagano Winter Olympic Games in 1998. He is currently the art director at Muji and a professor at Musashino Art University.

Suggesting to look within the country for design creations, Hara said to “dig your own land”. “Please dig your own land and certainly you will find important resources… Western knowledge of designing is important but digging our own land is more important, which I am very interested in.”

Hara’s talk covered his approach to design and the philosophy behind it. He outlined how ‘everything is already designed but good, functional design is hidden”, thus ‘becoming invisible”.

Maintaining that this “becoming” is an important aspect of his design thinking – backed by minimalism and simplicity – Hara emphasised on the power of communication through design to make daily objects more interesting, compounding on the idea of simplifying a complex world without losing its intrigue.

“…The society is always changing and we cannot divide designing into communication design, product design, interior design and others. All these are combined. By doing so, we can create our own field by ourselves… So, it is important to prepare students who can survive in every condition. depending upon the changes in the society and the world,” Hara said.