디자인이란 무엇인가? – 아뜰리에 무지 긴자

‘Design emerging from words (디자인은 말에서부터 시작된다)’

무인양품 긴자점 6층에 위치한 ‘아뜰리에 무지’에서 열리는 ‘The chestnut tree project(밤나무 프로젝트)’의 기획의도입니다. 다양한 형태의 디자인 결과물은 말로 표현된 크리에이터의 철학과 관점으로부터 구현되기 때문에, 크리에이터들 각자가 생각하는 디자인에 대한 정의가 중요하다는 뜻입니다. 그래서 밤나무 프로젝트를 위해 각계각층에서 활약하는 103명의 크리에이터들에게 물어봤습니다.

“Design is ( )”.

‘디자인이란 무엇인가?’라는 질문을 던지고 그들이 정의하는 디자인을 종이에 적어 전시했습니다. 유선형의 꽃잎 모양을 하고 있는 종이를 가는 막대에 연결하여 특정 영역에 촘촘히 심어두니, 마치 디자인을 정의하는 말들이 하나의 씨앗이 되어 꽃으로 피어나 꽃밭을 이룬 듯한 풍경이 펼쳐졌습니다. 103명의 크리에이터들이 정의한 디자인은, 의미가 유사한 경우는 있어도 표현은 하나같이 모두 달랐습니다.

디자인에 대한 깊이 있는 고찰을 할 수 있도록 전시장의 꽃밭에 피어난 디자인에 대한 생각의 씨앗을 공유합니다. 크리에이터들의 정의를 보면서 디자인에 대한 각자만의 철학과 관점을 정리해보는 건 어떨까요?

Design makes people happy. – Naoko Aono / Writer
Thinking about structure – Keiji Ashizawa / Architect
Design would be ideal if derived from DNA – Koji Arai / Eastable of Many Orders
An application of colours with no names – Toshihiko Arimoto / Art Installer, HIGURE 17-15 cas
A daily scent – Tomoko Ando / Actor, Theater Company ARICA
An expression of honest feelings – Hisashi Ikai / Editor
To redefine a relationship between forms and significations – Taro Igarashi / Architecture Critic
Surprise and discovery – Naoki Ishikawa / Photographer
A meal – Hiroko Iwatate / Directore, Iwatate Folk Textile Museum
As much about undesign as it is about design – Ishan Khosia / Visual Artist, Designer
Design is always a link between simplicity, function and esthetic values. – Ingegerd Raman / Designer, Professor
A pleasant greeting – Hiroshi Eguchi / Distiller
Design adds colour to our everyday life. – Miwa Echigoya / HORIGO (Tokyo Winery) CEO
Developing ideas – Yutaka Endo / Managing Director, LUFTZUG
Design is, ultimately, beauty in utility – Takayuki Ohira / President, Ohira Tech
Stop bragging as if you are the answer to everything! – Keisuke Oka / Arimasutonbuilder
A form of though – Miyoko Okao / Stylist
Dignity – Hitoshi Okamoto / Editor
Editing, and vice versa. – Takenori Okuno / HOBO NIKKAN ITOI SHINBUN
An expression of deliciousness – Ayao Okumura / Culinary reseracher of Traditional Cooking
The beauty of utility + futility – Tetsuya Ozaki / Journalist, Producer
A warm feeling – Shinsui Ohara / Photographer
Soil – Susumu Odagiri / Artist
An attribute of homo sapiens – Yousuke Kaifu / Evolutionary Anthropologist
Enriches our lives – Kaoru Kasai / Art Director
The process of creating and producing visionary, functional and esthetical solutions for our lives and future living – Katarina Brieditis & Katarina Evans / Designers
A reflection of ourselves – Mika Kawase / Art True Film
‘punctuation’, but it is never a full stop. – Noriko Kawakami / Journalist
Virtual image – Takakuni Kawahara / Inheritor of the BIRUDAN WASHI Japanese paper
Design can be invisible to the naked eye when it`s done brilliantly. – Tadao Kawamura / Designer
Design is to use a creator`s aesthetic values to improve something. – Shogo Kishino / Art Director, Graphic Designer
A brilliant way of giving something to people and to the environment – Norio Kidera / Photographer
A triangle of lights, forms and languages – Nobuko Kibe / Professor, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
A garden to explore the way of life – Sunhee Kim / Director, Busan Museum of Art
A letter between here and there – Osamu Kushida / Editor
Design sinks deeply into our mind – Mika Kuraya / Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
“Ame-no-Uzume” *Japanese goddess in Shinto mythology – Kazuko Koike / Creative Director, MUJI Advisory Board
Like a puzzle – Yasunori Goh / Educator, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“Tomoe nage” *Tomoe nage is an overhead throw technique in Judo martial art that is one of sacrifice tricks. – Kazuto Kobayashi / Roundabout, OUTBOUND, Shop Owner
A symbol of diversity – Takehiko Kobayashi / President, Confederation of Biological Science, Japan
Everything imaginable – Konstantin Grcic / Designer
An encounter that can be found in our everyday life – Fumiko Sakuhara / Interior Stylist
To think about the difference between “to appear” and “to express” – Osamu Sakuma / Organizer
An invitation to “Yuraku” *I use the word “Yuraku” in a conceptual meaning that gives us not physical but spiritual delight. – Takehiko Sanada / Artist, Designer
The sum of all the parts of quality, reliability, value, beauty and joy / A promise to make what is relevant for how we are living – Sam Hecht / Partner, Industrial Facility
An art made of wisdom accumulated from everyday life – Sang Choi Rhee / Producer, Design IGA Square, Inc
A key to open up a new world – Takehiro Shiozu / Bonsai Nursery
A deep understanding and affection for all and everything – Lieko Shiga / Photographer
Human wisdom helping us to live as ourselves – Fumie Shibata / Designer
Inclusive, useful, long lasting and making good atmosphere – Jasper Morrison / Designer
A true language – Syo Tatsu / Portrait Artist
A mariner’s compass – Kosei Shirotani / Designer
A small shrine – Hiroshi Sugimoto / Artist
A guidepost to the future of society and mankind – Takashi Sugiyama / Journalist
Design will be offered, and will also offer itself to others. – Yoshio Suzuki / Journalist
Lending the user a hand – Reiko Sudo / Textile Designer, MUJI Advisory Board
A purposeful gesture rendering poetry to life’s needs. – Zeuler Lima / Designer, Artist, Curator, Educator
The ultimate method which enables to lead the world either for better or worse – Mizuki Takahashi / MILL6 Foundation, Co-Director, Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong
Imagination – Eva Takamine / Director, Czech centre Tokyo
A torch for our lives – Atsuko Tanaka / Arts and Crafts Journalist
To solve problems – Takahiro Chiba / COO, Manufacturing Manager, Ishinomaki Laboratory
“Ohgiri”, the comic act of questions and answers – Tetsuya Tsukada / Dainippon Type Organization
Design is liberal – Takahiro Tsuchida / Journalist
Deisng is being humble. – Kyoichi Tsuzuki / Journalist
A joyful torch lighting our way – Mayumi Tsuruoka / Director, Professor, Institue for Art Anthropology, Tama Art University
A massage – Manpei Tsurubayashi / Sound engineer
Design belongs to everyone. – Ricca Tezuchi / Designer
Wisdom – Novmichi Tosa / MaywaDenki
An accident occurring right under your nose – Motohiro Tomii / Artist
KA, KI, KU, KE, KO *KA – Karada (body), KI – Kimochi (feeling), KU – Kurashi (life), KE – Kei (system), KO – Koko (here) – Reiko Tomita / Atelier Zo
A means to make a better future – Yusuke Hayashi, Yoko Yasunishi / DRILL DESIGN Designer
Isn’t this nice? (in Dialect of Hakata) – Keiji Nagai / Interior Designer
Daily bread for us – Tomoko Nagao / Food Creator
Arrangement – Takayuki Nakanishi / Schoo Evangelist
An activity that creates connections between things in general – Shin Nakahara / Founder, Landscape Products
A switch for action – Norio Nakamura / Graphic Designer
A storyteller of the age – Hiroki Nishihara / Fizz Repair Works, President
An echo from the living in a distant and ancient place – Tomoko Niwa / Anthropologist
Design is life water – Kenya Hara / Designer, MUJI Advisory Borad
Emotion – Mao Harada / Architect
Something very important but of no use – Hidechika / Dainippon Type Organization
A clue to discover an invisible world by touch – Koujirou Hirose / Associate Professor, The National Museum of Ethnology
For All, aesthetic, functional, beautiful, meaningful, poetical, for tomorrow, a step toward the future, to imagine another world, to share – Philippe Claudet / Teacher for blind children, Founder, Les Doigts Qui Revent (Dreaming Fingers)
Design is the integrity of things. – Naoto Fukasawa / Product designer, MUJI Advisory Board
A means to shape a desirable future – Keiichiro Fujisaki / Design Critic
A vessel to contain people’s sensibility – Hitoshisadanari Fujimoto / Handcrafts Reconstruction
Design is a kitchen-knife. I am a chopping board. – Dai Fujiwara / Designer
To have the sense – Eriko Masago / Designer
Design brings ideas and reality close together – HIrotoshi Maruwaka / EN TEA, CEO
To imagine, and to experiment – Motosuke Mandai / Architect
A gaze of contemplation and an attitude of discovery towards every material in the search for a profound meaning – Michele De Lucchi / Architect, Designer
A bridge – Shuhei Mita / Owner, Mobile bookstore “BOOK TRUCK”
Designer helps us to think about our lives, and to show the way to go – Ryuji Mitani / Woodworking Designer
Hospitality, the child born from a partnership between thoughts and materials – Akira Minagawa / Designer
The equilibrium made by hands, eyes and minds – Chihiro Minato / Photographer
Scenery – Ayumi Motose / Architect. SaMo Archi
A guide light to the future – Yoichi Motoyoshi / Professor, National Institute of Polar Research
Design enriches our everyday lives. – Yoshiyuki Morioka / Shop Owner, Morioka Books
Soup stock or chemical seasoning for society – Ryota Morikawa / GELCHOP Artist
To arrange various chairs – Aya Yamagishi / Archtect
Creative problem solving – Yung Ho Chang / Architect
A way to live this eternal moment – Samiro Yunoki / Dyeing Artist
Design makes society beautiful – Koichi Wakasugi / Designer Director, Powerplace

참고로 아뜰리에 무지의 밤나무 프로젝트(The chestnut tree project) 전시는 2019년 4월 4일부터 6월 23일까지 열립니다.