Vanguard
A stunning design arises from observing the core instead of the periphery
Professor Shunji Yamanaka, one of the leading industrial designers in Japan, has been creatively challenging the boundaries between design and science in projects ranging from the design of automobiles for the common public to the design of artificial limbs for track-and-field athletes. He spoke with us about his ideas, vision and reminiscences as a designer.
YAMANAKA, Shunji
ProfessorGraduate School of Media and Governance
When I was a student, all I did was to draw manga
I went to an academic high school not
to an art and design school. The school I went to is known for
supplying smart students to top universities in Japan. During my high
school years I just concentrated on passing the entrance examination.
Consequently, I was able to pass the entrance examination for the
University of Tokyo. Once I was admitted to the university, I lost
sight of my goals. It was, so to speak, a late case of spring fever.
Around the beginning of my sophomore year, I idly began to copy
characters from the comic book I placed beside my desk to take a
break from studying for tests. The drawing was unexpectedly good. I
was engrossed in drawing throughout the night into the wee hours of
the morning. Next day I could not do well in my test. However, this
experience encouraged me to join the Manga Research Club at the
university. For the next two years, I did nothing but draw manga with
my friends at the club. Once, my original manga drew attention from
professional manga publishers at a comic book fair. I thought of
making a career as a manga artist, but I felt this would disappoint
my parents. Even when I became a senior student, I still had no idea
of what I was going to do after my graduation. One day, a friend of
mine told me that one could make a career out of “industrial
design”. I thought this could be the kind of work I could make the
best use of my talent as a mechanical engineering at the Faculty of
Engineering and a manga artist.
Nissan was like a school of design
I started my research on industrial
design hoping to make it into a career. Meanwhile, a professor at my
university introduced me to the General Manager of the Design
Department of Nissan Motor Company. I assume the professor described
me as an oddball student at Tokyo University who wants to be a
designer. Meeting with the General Manager made me incredibly
attracted to the auto designing. I asked him on the spot if he could
hire me. Later I brought him illustrations of my manga and designs of
cars in two paper bags. I was hired after few more interviews.The
Nissan Design Center was an amazing place. I thoroughly enjoyed
working there as I loved to draw and make things. I acquired most of
knowledge and skills I needed for industrial design on the job. At
the time, auto design was a leading-edge field that had been
attracting the most talented designers. It was also the place for the
state-of-the-art designs in the world. I was satisfied with my work,
but there was one thing that was different from what I had
anticipated. I was hoping to be more involved in designing core
elements of automobile. However, work assignments were divided into
smaller groups than I thought. That meant that designers only planned
how to package the internal structure, while engineers determined
most of the basic performance and specifications. I gradually became
more interested in designing core elements, as well as external
appearance. After five years with Nissan, I decided to become a
freelance industrial designer.
Working as an industrial designer
Not long after I became a freelance
industrial designer, Mr. Naoki Sakai, who had already made a name for
himself as a concept designer, approached me with the idea of
designing a camera together. With Mr. Sakai’s concept and my
design, we created the “O-Product” for Olympus Corporation in
1988. This product won international acclaim. Later in 1995, it was
even included in a special exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.
Through numerous works I did with Mr. Sakai, I learned a lot from him
on how to structure a business deal to business protocol and public
relations in making a presentation. Both of us are now professors at
the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University.
The university is a gold mine
In 1991, I became an assistant
professor at the University of Tokyo. Looking around at various labs
and research seminars on campus once again, I felt that the
university is a gold mine—a resource of design concepts and a
fertile technological ground for new products. In the corporate
world, a product is made by giving a structure and design to
partially developed technology. I felt if one could directly nurture
technological seeds, more imaginative products could be created.
However, I had no idea about where I should begin. As I discussed
about my thoughts in my classes, students with the same interest in
design emerged. Slowly, the idea of designing things imaginatively
began to happen. In 1994, I launched a company called “Leading Edge
Design” to work in this area. But it took a few years to develop.
In 2000 we finally began to create products that were creative enough
to interface design and technology.
SFC succeeds in eliciting ideas from students
Starting around 2006, I was invited to
SFC several times as a guest lecturer in the Design Language course.
At SFC, I met professors such as Akira Wakita and Hiroya Tanaka. They
are researchers who conduct research on media art while teaching
electronic engineering. I felt that I had found like-minded
individuals at SFC. Though they are not specialists in design or
engineering they are nevertheless pursuing their own way of making
things. Later I worked with Associate Professor Wakita on a
collaborative project called “Ephyra”. I met a number of SFC
students in the process. It seemed to me that SFC students have high
motivation and ability to take action. I thought that it would be fun
to do more work with them. Eventually I was asked to join the faculty
members of the Graduate School of Media and Governance.Since I came
to SFC, I have observed that SFC is unique in the way it conducts
education and elicits ideas from its students. If you give the same
task to first-year through fourth-year students, there is a clear
difference in the kind of ideas they offer. Perhaps, at other
universities, freshmen may come up with better ideas than their
seniors. These students may acquire an immense body of knowledge and
skills in their professional education, but most of them do not
acquire the ability to produce new ideas. I think students at SFC
posses the ability to be creative in almost all fields.
Learn from the skeletons of the past to
design structures for the future
Until the end of August 2009, the
“21_21 DESIGN SIGHT” (a design exhibition space in Tokyo Midtown,
Roppongi) was featuring the exhibition called the “bones”. This
was the exhibition I directed. Discussions regarding this exhibition
began three years ago. As a director I decided the theme, the space
design and the works to be displayed. The major theme of the
exhibition was to “think about the approach of making things from
core elements”. People might think design only means an external
design, but it is extremely important to think from the bones or the
skeleton. In other words, the technological core is most important in
order to create products that are beautiful and useful. The
exhibition was divided into two parts, the “specimen room” and
the “lab”. In the “specimen room”, we collected a large
number of animal skeletons and the structural skeletons of various
industrial products for display. In the most refined, precise and
complex structures of industrial products, one may feel the presence
of life force akin to that one may sense in the bones of living
things. If the viewer could feel such a life force, I would be happy.
I invited ten creators—designers, engineers, artists, a mechanical
doll maker, etc.—to contribute pieces that would be based on
“thinking from the bones” for the lab. All of these hands-on
works entertained participants. We were convinced that the idea of
“thinking from the bones” will help us to get a new experience.
Creating physical design, using leading-edge technologies
Beginning in April 2009, the faculty of
X-Design Program at the Graduate School of Media and Governance
launched a project at SFC called “Factory of X-Design”. What we
wanted to do was to equip SFC with the machine tools that will make
it possible to directly produce things. The more computer technology
on the Internet become sophisticated, the more serious questions
arise such as: “What kind of effect does this have on our physical
environment?” and “How can we connect this virtual world with our
actual lives?” We aim at creating a prototype that will clarify the
relations between physicality and leading-edge technology. The first
step in that direction is to use robotics as a medium of expression.
The piece called Flagella in the “bones” exhibition is of no
immediate practical value, but suggests a totally new structure and
realizes unusual and intriguing patterns of movement. I would also
like to get more involved in the design where there is a direct
connection between the human body and machines. I am currently
working on the research to produce “aesthetically pleasing
artificial limbs for sports use” with Paralympic athletes and
artificial limb specialists. It is my dream that someday an athlete
with beautiful artificial legs will win a gold medal in the
Paralympics.
A Brief Background of Professor
YAMANAKA, Shunji
Professor Yamanaka graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, in 1982. He joined Nissan Motors Design Center the same year, and became an independent industrial designer in 1987. He became Assistant Professor in the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Engineering in 1991 and stayed at the university until 1994. He founded Leading Edge Design in 1994 and serves as the president of the corporation. He was appointed as the Professor of the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University in 2008. He is a creator of numerous products and basic technologies—from automobiles, cameras, watches, robots, mobile phones, furniture to the design of interface for mass-transit smart card machines—based on a design approach fusing art and technology. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the 2004 Mainichi Design Award and the Gold Medal at the 2006 Good Design Awards.
“bones,” an exhibit directed by Shunji Yamanaka at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT
X Design Program at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University
(11 December 2009)
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