Type
Book and Poster
Location
Siteless
Size
0.5574 sm / 6 sf
Date
Spring 2019
Context
The prompt of the project was to design an accordion book that highlights a graphic designer’s training, theories, and examples of work. The chosen designer, Kenya Hara, has a passion for communication. All of design, he believes, is the design of information or ‘conditions’, rather than in the actual ‘thing’. In his practice since the ’80s, he has written several philosophies: White, Senseware, and Ex-formation. They were created to guide the world in design and communication through clarity, drawing from our existing surroundings and unlearning our habits in order to achieve newness in design. Hara believed that design need not be constantly pursued through the seeking of new customs; rather, the success of design is often found rooted in the present, the ordinary, the everyday.
Project
Inspired by his philosophies, the project puts into focus its functions, which would then drive its form. The Instant Bookster is designed to be both a book and a poster. In its poster form, the text appears on one side of the paper amongst a constellation of windows. It would then reveal the accompanying images that are displaced on the back when the sheet is folded into a book. Though appearing as a sporadic composition of text and images, it becomes clear in its book form that the text and images are governed by the logic of the grid, working together to present a comprehensive essay on Hara’s philosophies and work.
Yale School of Art
Advanced Graphic Design
Critic: Douglass Scott
Advanced Graphic Design
Critic: Douglass Scott