We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Nakamura Kazunobu ("NK").
I liked the dynamic composition and dynamic curves of the paintings by the Japanese painter Eitoku Kano, Tohaku Hasegawa and Katsushika Hokusai. When I was young, I wanted to copy their paintings and get to know their essence. Nowadays, I design my work with the idea that I want to enter the space of the great waves depicted in their paintings and stand in a place where I am wrapped up in their flow.
Nakamura Kazunobu Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Nakamura Kazunobu.
Nakamura Kazunobu Design - Kasane no Irome - Piling up Colors Installation Design
Designer Interview of Nakamura Kazunobu:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
NK : As a boy, I was a child who loved to make sculptures. I loved the scenery that sculptures, or organic objects, created in space. I wanted to work with this feeling, so I decided to become a designer and studied architecture at university. I studied architecture at university and became a designer of spaces. At the same time, as an art activity, he has been presenting installation works based on the theme of organic shapes as they exist in the natural world.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
NK : This is an art studio for Kazunobu Nakamura to create design. The studio that designs spaces such as installation art and interior design. I work with themes of movement and flow created in space by irregular shapes, such as Japanese screen paintings and Japanese gardens.
DI: What is "design" for you?
NK : Design is creation that begins with a request from others or consultation from others about a problem. Art is creation that begins with inspiration that comes from within myself.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
NK : Most jobs have many restrictions, and the client's image of what he or she wants is often limited. And design tolerances are often limited. What I like is work that is tolerant. It depends greatly on the stance of the client. I like the freedom of work that allows me to use the artistic ideas that spring up within me to solve the client's problems and methods.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
NK : The ideal of my work is a rich space created by irregular shapes. The Japanese garden has an amorphous element such as a pond that reflects light on the water surface and creates a cool scenery at its center, and the changes in space created by the amorphous shape characterize the surrounding place and give expression to the entire space. The undulating, asymmetrical path that surrounds it invites people. Beautiful trees filled with the wind cover the road, creating a tunnel of green shade that creates an indescribable sense of depth to the light-filled place at the end. Also, Japanese screen paintings various natural shapes with dynamic brush strokes in a space that should be empty, bringing a richness of space to life. Various forms of nature such as trees have been loved the indefinite form that creates beautiful spaces. Pouring rain, Old pine tree covering the air, Clouds adorning the sky, Mist and Fog. Their shape has the power to rich the space. These motifs of organic forms of nature, with their irregular shapes and dynamic brushstrokes, create a flow in the space and beautiful depth and expanse.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
NK : I like materials that are less assertive as materials. Many space designers utilize the strong expression of the material itself, such as stone or solid wood, in their designs. However, I prefer plain, less assertive materials that purely express form and structure.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
NK : When designing a space in an empty space, my mind is always empty at the beginning. I seek various stimuli in order to spark ideas in my mind that are suitable for this place. I gather information on the characteristics of the place, the functions required, and the ideal image sought, and turn this information into the seeds of a design.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
NK : It gives me great pleasure when it is a space that emanates from my own imagination and is realized.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
NK : Vibrant Japanese screen paintings. I believe that the sliding screen paintings and folding screen paintings in the interior of ancient Japanese architecture may have contributed to the depth and breadth of the space. Imagine if these sho-byobu paintings had been plain white, what you would see would be an inorganic, lonely, wretched, empty space in a simple Japanese architecture composed only of horizontal and vertical lines. In the space that should have been empty, a rich space emerges by depicting various forms of nature with dynamic brushstrokes. The large tree that covers the screen and the undulating branches and leaves that surround it, as represented by Eitoku Kano's "Hinokizu Byobu(Cypress Trees Screen)". The rippling, raging river represented by "Hozugawa Folding Screen" by Okyo Maruyama. Although not a wall painting, Hokusai Katsushika's "Fugaku Sanjurokkei/Kanagawa Okinamiura" is known overseas as "The Great Wave" because of its huge waves that seem to engulf the entire space. These motifs of organic forms of nature, with their irregular shapes and dynamic brushstrokes, create a flow in the space and beautiful depth and expanse.
DI: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
NK : I live in Yokohama-city, Japan. Yokohama is an easy place to get to anywhere in Japan. Living in Japan, I believe that the values of Japanese culture have become ingrained in me. The air, clouds, fog, and rivers that can be felt in the land of Japan. Japanese gardens and art designed with these motifs. By being in this place, one can always feel these tastes directly on my skin.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
NK : I love to walk and explore, I walk in the city, I walk in the fields, I walk in foreign countries, I walk in the canyons. During that walk I find inspiration from a beauty of nature’s forms created by the "irregular shapes" of trees and leaves rustling in the wind, fog drifting through the air, cherry blossoms dancing in the sky, clouds in the blue sky, towering rocks, all in a vague space.
DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
NK : It's hard for me to narrow it down to five items. I believe that design is born from chaos. My desk, surrounded by miscellaneous materials and models, is the most comfortable place for me to imagine design. The miscellaneous models created by my past self inspire me now. They are placed in a seemingly chaotic space.
DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?
NK : I believe there is a golden rule in nature. Clouds, the flow of water, the undulation of mountain peaks, the shape of leaves and petals They are always beautiful.
DI: What skills are most important for a designer?
NK : I think the most important skill for a designer is the unquenchable desire to create something. Since this desire is not present in all people, I think the most important skill is to have that feeling of craving come from one's own heart.
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
NK : The natural landscape of forests, rivers, and mountains, books on ancient Japanese design theory, ancient Japanese art such as folding screen paintings, and organically designed Japanese gardens are sources of inspiration.
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
NK : The most important use of time is early in the morning and before bedtime. During those times before the world is on-time, you can organize and reset your mind and set an on-time work schedule.
DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
NK : The design period for most jobs is one year or more from conception to the creation of the implementation design. Most projects, regardless of size, take several years to complete, counting from the initial planning stage.
DI: How can people contact you?
NK : I can communicate in English, such as by e-mail, but I cannot speak or hear English.