Picked up a book called ‘Design of Design‘ (mine’s the Taiwanese translation, the English translation is titled ‘Designing Design’) by Kenya Hara last winter when I visited Taiwan. Mr. Hara is an influential Japanese designer responsible for many iconic Japanese packaging designs, and is a board member of MUJI, an ingenious product company that embraces design - the simple, functional type, not the kind of slick but superfluous design.

The first half of the book is mostly about his work, and a lot of it about the Re-Design exhibit he produced. Re-Design is a project where he asks designers, architects, artists, and writers to take an everyday object and redesign it. For example, architect Shigeru Ban redesigned the toilet paper roll, and came up with a rectangularly-shaped roll. His idea is that with a square tube, there will be resistance when you pull on the roll, which sends a message of conserving resources. And the new shape also means you save on space when packing and storing the paper. Brilliant.

The second (and dryer) half of the book is more abstract, about his philosophy of design and design’s role in Japanese society. At one point he talks about his general concept of a good design, how it should combine the three elements of clarity, creativity and a sense of humor. He offered three diagrams, and my favorite one is that of a shrimp sushi:

Bear in mind that I read the Chinese translation of a Japanese book, and my understanding of Chinese has definitely its limitations. But I think the diagram makes things pretty clear. I would think that by creativity, Mr. Hara also meant originality and aesthetics. And so let me try to summarize the diagram: good design is the combination of clarity in the message, creativity in its delivery, with a dose a sense of humor. I’m not sure if that’s something generally accepted as a good guideline for designs, but it is something I believe in.

Here are some links to find out more about Kenya Hara:

• IDEA Magazine, issue 306
• A short article in I.D. magazine
• Hara Design Institute (I think this is his design studio)