is a Japanese graphic designer, curator and writer. He is a graduate of Musashino Art University. Hara is employed by Musashino Art University as professor, and taught Communication Design and Design Theory in Science on Design Faculty since April 2003.
Hara is one of the leading designers in Japan and his books Designing Design and White are recognized as essential for anyone studying design theory and aesthetics.
Hara has been the art director of Muji since 2001, and designed the opening and closing ceremony programs of the Nagano Winter Olympic Games 1998.
In 2008, Hara partnered with fashion label Kenzo for the launch of its men's fragrance Kenzo Power. He also designed the official posters for EXPO 2005 Aichi, created the signage system for the Umeda Hospital and the visual identification for the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, worked on new design for the Matsuya department store in Ginza, among many other design projects.
In 2021, Hara partnered with Xiaomi and designed a new logo for the company, which was unveiled on 31 March 2021, replacing the previous one. Hara and his company converted the previous square logo into a squircle. He earned $300,000 from the project.
Exhibitions
In 2000, he organized the exhibition Re-Design: The Daily Products of the 21st Century.
This exhibition was first held at Takeo Paper Show in Tokyo, and then traveled to the U.K. (Glasgow), Denmark (Copenhagen), Hong Kong, Canada (Toronto), and China (Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing).
According to Hara, re-design is "a means by which to correct and renew our feelings about the essence of design, hidden within the fascinating environment of an object that is so overly familiar to us that we can no longer see it".
He invited 32 leading Japanese creators from various fields such as architecture, graphic design, lighting, fashion, photography, to design anew some very mundane commodities, and each participant was in charge of one subject to re-design. Shigeru Ban re-designed toilet paper, Masahiko Sato – exit/entry stamps for passports at international airports, Kengo Kuma – roach trap, Kaoru Mende – matches, Kosuke Tsumura – diapers, Naoto Fukasawa – tea bags.
In 2004, Hara planned and produced an exhibition HAPTIC–Awakening the Senses, which focused on human sensory perception in design. For this exhibition, he invited various creators such as fashion designer Kosuke Tsumura, graphic designer Shin Sobue, product designers Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa, architects Kengo Kuma and Toyo Ito "to design an object not based on form or color, but motivated primarily by "haptic" considerations". The term haptic means “relating to or pleasant to the sense of touch."
His other exhibitions include The Architects' Macaroni Exhibition (Tokyo), Tokyo Fiber – Senseware held in Paris, Milan and Tokyo, Japan Car (Paris and London).
Works
1998 – Umeda Hospital - VI System, Applications
2000 – Hakkin – Sake Bottle
2000 – Matsuya Ginza – VI System, Advertising
2003 – MUJI – Poster, "Horizon" 2011 – Tsutaya Shoten (Bookstore) – VI System, Sign System, Applications & Advertising 2011 – Zhi Art Museum – VI System 2014 – PIERRE HERMÉ PARIS – Product Design 2017 – Graphic, “NOH” 2018 – Poster, "Natsure, Naturally, MUJI."
Books
The Riddle of the Macaroni Hole, 2001
Asahi Shimbunsha published, as a book, a series of columns that Hara had written for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun [Japan Economic Newspaper] from 2000 to 2001.
Designing Design, 2007
In Designing Design, Hara explains his theories and philosophical approach to design. Hara writes about the essence of design: "There are an unlimited number of ways of thinking and perceiving. In my understanding, to design is to intentionally apply to ordinary objects, phenomena and communication the essence of these innumerable ways of thinking and perceiving". "Producing something new from scratch is creative, but making known unknown is also an act of creation. Maybe the latter is more useful in nailing down just what design is". In this book, Hara also mentioned about his study “Information Architecture”. Hara explained, the formation of impression is through the external stimulation of the senses, recall the past memory in the brain, the past memory is constantly combined with the external information to build the "Information Architecture" (form the new memory). By changing the external stimuli, designers can meet the effect of certain information transmission.
