Summer Call - Japan Trip and Graphic Design Theory (featuring Zen Design and Kumamon)
- FONG SAY KIAT
- Apr 7, 2018
- 7 min read
Monologue: I had an inner argument to whether or not to share the whole copy of research essay originally written for my Typography 3 Final Project. I thought it would be better to share only the key ideas of Japanese graphic design that I've personally experienced during my Kyoto-Osaka trip along with my shallowest knowledge of Japanese graphic design, and not delve too deep into the experience itself. For readers who've gone through my papers, do note that I might reuse some quotes or paragraphs written before, please don't go harsh on me.
Japan had always been my prime location to visit since 2016, precisely after the moment I had decided to devote fully into the study of Japanese design before my trip to London Global Campus. Nihon's graphic design is weird, loud and always busy. It shouts for attention, it likes to be the coolest kid among the posters. If anything in Swiss poster is your ideal design standard, then Japanese graphic design could (not would) be the complete opposite.
Japan trip is not something I thought I could see it coming though due to last minute planning.
It really depends on which designer/artist you are studying. For modern western influenced designers who are influenced by modern art movement (Bauhaus, for example), you might be interested in Ikko Tanaka's work on poster design for the Nihon Buyo performance by the Asian Performing Arts Institute. If you are looking for profound Japanese typographical design and master of layouts (for me), you should be looking on Katsumi Asaba's quirky works. For corporate level groundbreaking design, look no further onto Yusaku Kamekura, the one who've designed Tokyo 1943's Olympic logo (which sets a very high standard on following Olympics logo design, hardly surpassed due to its simplicity and clear meaning). If you are high all time, google Tadanori Yokoo to find whole list of extreme psychedelic poster, jam packed with flying colours and graphical elements as if Andy Warhol had a strong beer after his worst emotional mood swing.
News: Andy Warhol had a strong beer after his worst emotional mood swing.
Interesting Read:
Different style of designs, but they just looked so Japanese. How come? If you are looking for simple answers, you can (1) insert random Japanese word, preferably Hiragana and Kanji Mix, (2) draw anime character with blue bright sky as background, (3) insert a polaroid quality photo of young Japanese teenage girl to your design preferably in school navy-like costume, or (4) include random brush strokes. Don't include cute image without Japanese words though, they are easily confused with Korean graphic design, not good uh-hu.
Only if you put cute images beside katana sword then yes, Nihon certified.
Or, if you enjoy spending your precious leisure time reading long unscientific highly bias answer...
Minimalist's a Myth
So you think the whole Japan is neat and tidy like Muji and Uniqlo? Well, it's neatly cluttered. The streets are clean and well-defined with pedestrian-bicycle route marking, but the houses and shops are so packed and dense! Geographically speaking, due to the lack of space and crowded population, the only way to accommodate human is to shrink spaces.
Japanese do not tolerate with space, they make use of it. Every inches counts, size does matters. When it comes to words on advertising billboards and decoration, the more the merrier. Tourists like it, no doubt it's very instagramable. I wouldn't love to call this visual pollution, and the great advertiser, David Ogilvy certainly will not like the idea of billboards, saying that "Man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard". For politeness sake, let's called it visual clutter just to sound softer. Sumimasen!
A View from Yodo Station, last fourth station of Keihan Line in Kyoto
This kind of visual clutter, I call it "Irregularity". It's a strong word though, because irregularity in this context could mean two things, (1) it could mean that things are extremely cluttered in an well-organised manner, such as dense house area separated with distinctive streets, or information dense poster with clear typographical contrast, and (2) just plain mess, or nature-kind of asymmetrical. If you still can't recognise the pattern in it, irregularity doesn't always mean untidy, it means sometimes it's messy and sometimes it doesn't, it's just not fixed like the way it looks.
There's something under your skirt let me fix it.
My first encounter with irregularity was the worm-eye view of a maple tree in a very neat garden. I thought, how crazy it looked, the branches are like dynamite explosion of melt wooden stems (weird). As crazy as it is, it is still pleasingly beautiful, something so satisfying to look at for the whole noon until my eyeballs get burnt in the retina.
Photograph of mini Japanese Garden
What are the ideas behind these irregularity that is so satisfying to look at? Are these just Japanese logic? Why clutter and mess which are seen as "distasteful" in standard design practice just seems attractive to me at this moment (I didn't say it's nice, I'm saying it's cool-looking)? Turns out it is Zen logic, and Zen is not exactly minimalist. Bust the myth!
Theory-kudasai
Specifically speaking, Japanese aesthetic surrounds the concept of Wabi-Sabi, and its definition, according to Wikipedia means "a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".
A juxtaposition of modern and traditional means of transportation in this image captures the essence of Mono No Aware. The seemingly old shoplot depicts the age of Yodo area.
Under the concept of Wabi-Sabi, one aspect that comes right after it is Mono no Aware, which translates to "an empathy toward things", which is the reaction towards, impermanence. In layman's term, it is the kind feeling of sadness or empathy triggered while watching dropping dry leaves, or visiting a rustic old house of grandmother. The reason to feel sad is because (1) we realise things are impermanence, (2) it is as raw as untouched, as if something was left to grow or accumulate on its on, be it the dusts or expanding mosses, which obeys to the "rule of nature", and look like "it should be" - this reason is important as seen in Bonsai art, where plants have to look poignant, asymmetry, proportion, mature with no trace of the artists.
The kind feeling of sadness or empath...slurppp! (Mono no more Emo)
It's characteristic includes "asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes", which is (almost) completely opposite from Western aesthetics - symmetry, grid-driven, hierarchy, bold, straightforward, and perhaps, more rhetorical in words.
The perfect example to illustrate both Wabi-Sabi and Mono no Aware will be Kinstugi, where again it should portray impermanence, poignant, imperfection and has trace of history, where Wikipedia describes "As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise."
Therefore
Therefore, Mono no Aware explains why we are in love with crazy neon billboard and flashy LED - because it is nostalgic, it looks like the 80's revived. The post-war look of a city, funky vibe and messy landscape is what our soul yearned for. We are enough with tall glass buildings and planned garden (Zen Garden is exception).
Wabi-Sabi slowly becomes the standard aesthetic measurement of things in Japan and our surrounding. The more we feel about something due to its characteristic, the more beautiful it is. We understood and feel beautiness not from the surface of a subject, but from how much we resonate with it, which is also the main reason some people find certain kind of art interesting, some find it utterly distasteful.
Resonate pain in 3,2,1...
We are brought up to understand beauty by the measure of modern Western aesthetic, biological symmetry of human body parts and mathematical composition on paintings and photography. Asian aesthetic value thought us to change our perspective on understanding subjects, including the usage of white space.
Reason We Misunderstood White Space on Japanese Design
In most design school, designers are taught to leave certain amount of blank space enough to let design "breathe" and function more effectively. Our eye scans for information from up to down, left to right, retaining information through our understanding. If words and informations are not properly laid out in hierarchy to ease reading experience, we might run the risk of misreading or misunderstanding intended meaning.
What kind of misunderstanding led to this groin fight?
Interesting read:
Typographical poster at its golden form exist among Modern designers who are pioneers of Swiss Style, or International Typographic Style, or simply, IKEA style. Helvetica became popular, along with my personal favourite typeface Univers. Most Swiss Poster adhere to strict grids and contains clear & strong flat graphics accompanied with sans serif fonts. It's just something pleasing to look at.
Definition of modern modern: IKEA style, well-kerned type on recyclable brown box
Simplicity achieved on most Zen design is not the result of proper hierarchy planning.Meanwhile the Wabi-Sabi thought us that aesthetic is achieved through imperfection and subject's truthfulness (which translates to subtleness, being asymmetrical and be one with nature.) Thus, white space that presents on Zen design aids the visual and form by setting "a atmosphere" (or I personally call it storytelling). It is empty for this reason - because it is, not because it should be.
Therefore, not all Japanese poster flaunts Zen design, many are extremely packed and vibrant. White space only exists when subject calls for peace and mood, otherwise, it is not included (not omitted). It's best to understand white space is just like words that help to tell stories, except they are set in the same colour as background.
In A Nutty Shell
Nutty all the time
It's been an humbling experience to be able to reach Japan itself to understand the its design. I'm always a big fan of Japanese graphic design because it is distinctive and playful in its way. Anyhow, I do not think I've owned the secret key to unlock mysteries of Japanese graphic design thinking, and I might be wrong on certain concept of Japanese aesthetic (do correct me if you found them). Still, I'll share what I've learnt throughout the research process, hope you've enjoyed this lengthy answer.
"The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting"
The Conduct of Life (1860), Ralph Waldo Emerson
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