Designing Invisible "Relationships" - The "NOSIGNER" Way of Being

Design as a language has no domain

Mr. Tanaka Tachikawa gave a lecture last year at our Tama Symposium, "Considering the Region from the Perspective of Design and Social Innovation. His talk was especially well received by our staff, and because of this, we asked him to talk about the university branding that Hosei University is currently working on. First of all, what does the word "nosainer" mean?

Tachikawa: The root of the word "design" is "sign (symbol, shape)," and I think of it as work that "creates relationships" through form. In this way, it is very important to decipher and create relationships in areas that are not visible to the eye. When you get down to it, the shape and size of a cup, for example, will automatically be determined by the size of the human hand and the distance between the mouth and nose, just as the shape and size of a cup will settle in the "right" place based on the size of the human hand and the distance between the mouth and nose. And I thought that a kind of anonymous work might be created there that transcended my artist-like nature.

Tanaka So that's how the artisan world views design. That is interesting.

Tachikawa: So, I tried to become a "No-sign-er" (a person who pursues something that has no "form") and ended up with a strange word after thinking too much about it (laughs).

Tanaka You have changed the concept of design in your mind. That is why you are able to work as a designer regardless of field or discipline. Is it correct to say that your starting point was the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Engineering and Design at Hosei University?

Tachikawa: At that time, the department was in its golden age, and our seniors were achieving great results in competitions, and the atmosphere was full of creativity. I remember that I and my friends were inspired and naturally became aggressive. To my delight, I have been having more and more opportunities to work together with my classmates recently.

Tanaka How did your interest in fields other than architecture expand?

Tachikawa: I moved to another university for graduate school to follow Kengo Kuma, but gradually I began to think that we were designing not the buildings themselves but people's "perception" of the buildings. Then the boundaries of the field disappeared. That is why I wrote my master's thesis on the theme of design, not architecture, and its "grammar" from the perspective that it is a kind of language.

Edo Design Patterns

Tanaka I often meet Mr. Kengo Kuma, and he is different from architects up to that point in his pursuit of what Japan has to offer, working with craftspeople to uncover their skills and link them to innovation. And I feel that such a movement can be seen in the entire design world.

Tachikawa: I myself have been involved in traditional Japanese industries since the beginning of my career, and my interest in this field grew especially strong when I accepted the position of concept director for the government's "Cool Japan" initiative. In this respect, there are many things I would like to learn from Mr. Tanaka, who specializes in "Edo culture.

Tanaka: If we take a fresh look at "Edo culture" from the perspective of design, we can indeed see several patterns. One is the word "world," which in kabuki terminology means the basic story, and "taste," which means a reflection of the reality and individual expression of the time. The other is to change the distance and angle of the gaze. This is typical, for example, in the design of a tenugui, but the "shape" of the hanging bell pattern when viewed from a close distance or the chonmage from directly above is incorporated into the design. There is also the idea of "ren" (linkage), which is to create, connect, and develop the semantic linkage of multiple objects, as in renku, for example.

Tachikawa: What is interesting is that even within the same "wa" (harmony), for example, there is the Kyoto aesthetic of subtle elegance, and the Edo aesthetic of contrasting colors and clear outlines. This leads to the "grammar" of design mentioned earlier, which conveys things in place of words, and I would like to deepen this research based on traditional Japanese design and publish a book about it.

Good listening is also an element of design

Tanaka You also designed the "Tokyo Disaster Prevention" booklet distributed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. What should have been a boring booklet was made interesting and easy to understand, and yet it is something that can be used immediately in case of an emergency. When I see this, I understand what you mean when you say that design is a language.

Tachikawa: Good design must be "good at speaking," that is, it must successfully convey the creator's intentions, and at the same time, it must be "good at listening," responding to the convenience and selfishness of the users and receivers.

Tanaka Hosei has been steadily promoting university branding within the university, but even if we can put it into words in the form of a charter, it is difficult to move on to the next stage, which is how to effectively communicate it. This is where we would like to borrow the power of design.

Tachikawa: From the perspective of "good listening," it is important to create "points of contact" that are easy for recipients to find. For example, when a high school student who is interested in Edo culture searches the Internet, the first thing that comes up is a video of Mr. Tanaka, and when he wants to learn from this teacher, it says "by Hosei". It would be necessary to increase the number of faculty members who can serve as points of contact, or who already have many points of contact, and to make good use of them.

Tanaka There is a proposal to enhance the number of faculty members with a high degree of freedom. Universities, while claiming to be open to society, tend to follow the conventional way in terms of organization, such as the employment system for faculty members. This is also connected to the reform of that part of the university.

Tachikawa: There is also a need for reform in the quality of education, such as "making students confront questions that have no answers," isn't there?

Tanaka This type of education has always been an important part of Hosei, and it should become one of the university's strengths in the future.

Tachikawa: With the declining birthrate, universities and the education industry as a whole are shrinking, and existing evaluation criteria such as deviation scores are becoming invalid. I also feel that the more a university is a university, the more difficult it will be to develop a strategy for survival. Branding is the design of "recognition" itself, so if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know!

Tanaka Thank you for your reassuring words.

• Reprinted from HOSEI ONLINE