Naoto Fukasawa's Minimalist Design Philosophy

An Introduction to Naoto Fukasawa's Minimalist Design Philosophy

Whether in study or at work, we have all come across thesis, which is an essay in which we conduct an in-depth research on a certain issue. How to write a thesis to avoid stepping on the mine? The following is a brief discussion of Naoto Fukasawa's philosophy of minimalist design that I have organized for you, which is only for reference, so let's take a look at it together.

Minimalist products focus on a single pure material and form, humanized details, and comprehensive functions to impress. Naoto Fukasawa is a famous Japanese product designer, whose status in the field of design can be compared with Kenya Hara and Kengo Kuma, and he has had a brilliant design career.

Abstract: This article starts from the background that minimalist product design style has become a major trend, and combines specific product examples. It carefully analyzes the design style of Japanese product designer Naoto Fukasawa, and summarizes the unique design style of Naoto Fukasawa by focusing on two aspects: the characteristics of the product's appearance and the concepts that he adheres to when designing the product.

Keywords: minimalism; Naoto Fukasawa; unconscious

Minimalism is a school of art that emerged in the 1960s, whose external characteristics are mainly manifested in the simplicity and purity of the form, composition, and materials, and which advocates the stripping away of the artist's emotional expression of the creation of a calm and objective way of dealing with the viewer, leaving the broader space for association. It advocates stripping away the emotional expression of the artist's creation and leaving the viewer with a broader space for association through a calm and objective approach. Minimalism involves painting, sculpture, product design and many other fields of art, but the influence of its paintings and sculptures is not prominent, on the contrary, in the field of product design, which is not much emphasized by traditional art schools, but has a greater potential for development.

First, the reasons for the prevalence of minimalist design style

Minimalist products focus on a single pure material and form, humanized details, comprehensive functionality to impress people. Most of the high-end products on the market today practice minimalist design, such as Apple cell phones, Chanel clothing, and Hermes bags. In fact, there are profound reasons why minimalist design style has become a trend. First of all, from people's psychological needs, in the minimalist design style before such as European style, Chinese style, etc. is mainly advocating the exquisite, complicated beauty.

Although this style has its merits, but for a long time, the cumbersome pile will be visually oppressive to people, and then will be aesthetic fatigue, the desire to return to the simple, innocent world, so people will turn their attention to the minimalist design style. Secondly, the significance of the existence of the minimalist design style itself, existence is reasonable, the significance of minimalism is that it provides a new choice for design, a new perspective. The reason why design styles can continue to progress is that they are constantly innovative and constantly injected with new vitality. Of course, minimalism is not always applicable, and if it really penetrates into all walks of life for a long time, its seemingly monotonous style will be tired of by people again. But at present, this design style is still very easy for the public to accept.

Two, the outstanding representative of the minimalist style Naoto Fukasawa

So when it comes to the outstanding designers of the minimalist style, we have to talk about Naoto Fukasawa. Naoto Fukasawa is a famous Japanese product designer, whose status in the field of design can be compared with Kenya Hara and Kengo Kuma, and his design career is very brilliant.

He is a typical representative of the perfect combination of Japanese design style and international style. He has won a number of awards, including the Red Dot and the Japan Design Excellence Award, and has worked with brands such as Apple and Muji, as well as creating a new product brand called "±0", which emphasizes the use of a minimum number of elements to show the full functionality of a product. Below is a list of specific works to better understand Naoto Fukasawa's design philosophy through careful analysis and appreciation. As shown in the picture above, this is a kind of beverage packaging designed by Naoto Fukasawa. The most distinctive feature of this series of juice skin beverage packaging is that it realistically imitates the shape, color, and touch of the shells of bananas, strawberries, kiwis, and other fruits. The banana has a small stem-like connector on the side, and the strawberry skin has small particles and the kiwi skin has fine fuzz.

This is all made using a new type of processing. This kind of packaging can bring customers a clear feeling, realistic design seems to open up the customer's visual, tactile and olfactory senses at the same time, so that customers can quickly understand the different packaging corresponds to different types of juice, at the same time this kind of packaging is very eye-catching, which implies that its juice is wrapped in the peel, highlighting the brand's juice freshness, health, it's very easy to stand out among the many products with full of creativity and fun, arousing everyone's interest. As shown in the picture above, this is a heater designed by Naoto Fukasawa, with clean and rounded lines, a small volume, and a bright color, like the hot midday sun and a bunch of fresh red peppers. In fact, the most prominent feature of the whole design is a piece of tiny red fluff on the surface of the heater, and the use of this material triggers a strong tactile feeling. The warm fluff weakens the sense of alienation brought about by the cold machine, and the fiery red color echoes the function of the heater.

Three, Naoto Fukasawa's design features

The above products are more representative of Naoto Fukasawa's work, from the above products, we can roughly understand Naoto Fukasawa's design style, in fact, for Naoto Fukasawa's design, we not only want to see the obvious surface of the characteristics of the design, but also see his deeper level of a design philosophy. He has a deep-rooted design philosophy, design concepts.

1) Naoto Fukasawa's product design has a very prominent feature: simplicity. The shape is often a simple several body, the color is also mainly solid color, and more use of warm tones, the lines of articulation is sharp and smooth, let a person pleasing to the eye. But simplicity does not mean bland, his simplicity is actually the attention to the essence of things. The essence of things is pure, the only, what should be, should be what. There is no need to change the most essential appearance of living things in order to pursue a new and different appearance.

In fact, many designers in the market now have such a problem, just for the pursuit of the unique appearance of the product, have to concave the product into a strange shape, or attached to a bunch of flashy and cumbersome decorations, changing the thing to bring the most comfortable state, but also hard to change the habit of people's lifestyles, the claptrap design concept is actually very childish!

Deeply visible, the design of the object is not only a simple, but also a very simple way to make it more comfortable.

Naoto Fukasawa's simple design style unlocked the shackles of luxury and cumbersome things to people, and made people return to a soothing, pleasant rhythm. This kind of simplicity is not equal to the rough simplicity, in fact, through the appreciation of the above several products we also feel that Naoto Fukasawa's style is simple but elegant. It is a style that many Japanese designers seem to have mastered. It abstracts away all unnecessary and cumbersome designs, but this trade-off is based on the perfect utilization of the item's function, not random cutting. The sparrow is small, but it has all the essentials.

The lines and shapes that appear to be extremely minimalist contain deep and complex thinking and precise calculations behind them, and sometimes, in order to achieve the spiritual pursuit of simplicity, they even go to great lengths to achieve a precise balance between form and function, design and materials, and material and spirit. Naoto Fukasawa's attention to every detail, striving to achieve perfection, also reflects a kind of care for humanity.

A cold product is ultimately difficult to impress customers. Naoto Fukasawa's simplicity is different from Mies van der Rohe's stereotypical style of pursuing simple forms at the expense of functionality, and from the rough style of functionalism, which emphasizes only the function of the product and does not care about the appearance. This style is nourished by traditional Japanese aesthetic interests. Simplicity does not mean monotony, and its non-aggressive form leaves the viewer with a freer and broader space to play. Naoto Fukasawa's unique style of simplicity and elegance has touched the hearts of urbanites.

2) Naoto Fukasawa also pays special attention to the development of a mixture of senses in his designs. For example, the famous juice packaging series introduced above not only mobilizes people's visual attention with bright colors, but also the realistic strawberry particles and kiwi fluffy inlays make the outer packaging more tactile, which means that the viewers can enjoy it by mobilizing the visual and tactile senses simultaneously, which makes them have a deeper impression. Naoto Fukasawa focuses on the unobtrusive expression of the texture of the raw materials of the objects themselves.

In this "hot media" era, designers in the design of products is also to abandon the past that only in the visual performance of the backward design concepts, should be combined with a variety of sensory performance, fully mobilize the audience's senses, for them to create a three-dimensional, comprehensive product experience.

3) Naoto Fukasawa's design style is unique not only because of its outstanding product design features, but also because of its unique design philosophy. Naoto Fukasawa has repeatedly emphasized in public that his design is a kind of unconscious design, and the unconscious is actually a kind of ideology that is hidden in people's heart and has not yet been recognized. People often have some unconscious actions in their daily life.

Naoto Fukasawa explains unconscious behavior this way: "In places where there are no umbrellas, almost all people will lean their umbrellas against the wall, and the other end of the umbrella will be placed in the gap between the tiles. In this case, for example, when you build a new house and you want to design something to put umbrellas in, you don't need to design the place to be the usual one space dedicated to umbrellas.

You just make a gap in the floor, and when a guest comes to your house, he will put his umbrella there. This unconscious action, in fact, the designer's purpose is achieved, to achieve the function of putting umbrellas." Naoto Fukasawa believes that designers should pay attention to people's deepest unconscious needs, and design products that cater to these unconscious needs, that allow people to use the product naturally and purely without the need for an instruction manual, and that this is the most relaxing design. In fact, as I understand it, unconscious design should be a kind of care for human nature, that is, not only to take into account people's regular needs, but also to take into account the additional needs.

Considering the function of a product from the user's point of view is the real humanization. Unconscious design pays attention to the details that people don't usually notice, so people often feel a sense of déjà vu and a sense of intimacy when they use it. By analyzing Naoto Fukasawa's design, we not only understand the charm of simple product appearance, but also the advanced design concept. In relation to the reality, China's product design level is still relatively backward, most of the product appearance is still too cumbersome, fancy, and even some products are simply not useful. In general, we still need to learn from the concepts and skills of these Japanese designers. How to seize the opportunity to follow the trend of minimalist product design is still a very worthwhile issue.

References

[1]Su Liu. Interpreting the new connotation of minimalism from Naoto Fukasawa's design style[J]. Art and Design, 2009,(7).

[2]Yanni Huang. Returning to the Origin of Product Design-Analysis of Naoto Fukasawa's Design Thought and Design Practice[J]. Decoration, 2008, (11)

Expanding the Creative Expression of Minimalist Photography in Poster Design Essay

Abstract : The paper mainly explores the theory related to the creative expression of minimalist photography and poster design, and hopes that through the research, it can play a theoretical support role for the development of the combination of minimalist photography and poster design. We hope that through the study, we can play a theoretical support role for the development of the combination of minimalist photography and poster design.

Keywords: minimalist photography; poster design; creative expression

The relationship between minimalist photography and poster design, with the changes of the times gradually closer, the application of photographic technology in the field of poster design, can highlight the creativity of poster design. In people's pursuit of diversified styles of poster design, minimalist photography has been emphasized. Strengthen the application of minimalist photography research, can provide a theoretical basis for the development of design.

I. Minimalist style features and the relationship between minimalist photography and poster design

1. Minimalist style features embodied

With the development of modern design, people are paying more and more attention to the minimalist design style. In the process of product design, the minimalist style can carry people's spiritual care and highlight the psychological needs of people. In the application of minimalist design techniques, the value and significance of the product to the people, showing the spiritual level of people's needs. The application of minimalism reflects the humanistic care. Modern design is often concerned about the attractiveness and personality of the design work, and the application of the concept of minimalism in design has become an important design idea to optimize modern design.

2. The relationship between minimalist photography and poster design

People's mindsets are constantly changing with the development of the times, and people are not satisfied with the aesthetics brought by traditional culture. In the poster design process, the choice of minimalist style has become a trend. Minimalism requires a glance and expresses the information of things in an instant. In the context of the ever-accelerating pace of life, people's thinking is constantly changing, requiring a glance and de-complexification. Therefore, the distance between minimalist photography and poster design has been drawn closer, and poster design has formed a modern form of poster design with the intervention of photographic technology, which also has a certain impact on the creative thinking of poster designers.

Second, photography and posters and minimalist photography in the creative expression of poster design

1. Photography and poster design are both graphic plastic arts, capable of reproducing space, and have the same visual perception and aesthetic characteristics; at the same time, both are mass media media, in the information conveyance and art can be organically combined. Only by accomplishing the task of conveying information can they highlight their own value. Photography and posters in the technical characteristics of the significant reproduction, the work is the author of the unity of thought and means of expression, in the style of the type is also more diverse. Poster design and photography is the soul of creativity, so the two organic combination of feasibility.

2. Minimalist photography in the poster design of creative expression

Minimalist photography into the poster design to focus on creative expression, the need for its innovative thinking. The essence of its design application is to seek simplicity, strengthen the visual contrast, to simplify the visual image, to obtain a simple but not simple visual effect. Minimalist photography can be regarded as a kind of design composition, the pursuit of the minimum visual experience to elaborate the overall image story, with a finishing touch to let the viewer see the simple theme, a large area of white space under the focus of the image. Minimalist photography techniques often require out-of-the-box thinking, the focus of the theme can deviate from the classical golden section, sometimes with little relation to the background, or even abstract framing to add a piece of work. Minimalist photography can not only think from the shooter's point of view, but also from the viewer to face the image of the connotation of the idea of touching, so that the content of the picture is no longer presented as the previous kind of narration, but to give the viewer the freedom of interpretation, so that the viewer to think in their own way. The combination of photography and poster design can fully demonstrate the artistic personality of photography. For example, Li Siski is an important representative of the compositionist design movement in the field of graphic design, which highlights the characteristics of compositionism in the process of poster design, mainly in the simple, clear, concise horizontal and vertical layout as the basis for the use of fonts with no decorative lines, the plane decorative basis for simple geometric shapes and vertical and horizontal structures, the use of photomontage design illustrations and posters. The collage of images was originally a more common artistic technique used by Dadaism, which Lisiski developed and used extensively in the design and production of political propaganda posters, incorporating minimalist photography into poster design. Each style of photography has a different way of expression. The combination of minimalist photography and poster design can present a new design style. For example, the Steinberg Brothers, who were born in the same period with Lisiski and Rodchenko, were pioneers in combining photography and poster design. In the design process, they gave full play to the highly sensitive concept and awareness of two-dimensional space and designed a large number of film posters. Realistic images can be seen in their posters, which are usually drawn by means of coordinate squares and enlarged projections. The use of photographic photographs is similar to Lisitsky's photomontage technique, in which black and white photographic images are organized into colorful poster designs, and the use of color is shown through the symbolic colors of compositionism, which creates a superposition of different planes and makes the visual effect of the poster designs stronger. Under the application of minimalist photography, the effect of poster design is more prominent. For example, the Steinberg Brothers designed the Horse Cloth posters using this method of design creation. Steinberg brothers in the poster design process of the application of color and shape, later designers have a greater impact.

Conclusion

The application of minimalist photography in poster design needs to be fully emphasized from various aspects. The article explores the application of minimalist photography in poster design, in order to deepen the significance of the application of minimalist photography from the theory. We hope that the research results of the article can play a role in promoting the development of poster design.

References:

[1]Xue Fen. Creativity - the soul of poster design. Journal of Nanjing Institute of Industrial Technology, 2004(2).

[2]Yang Junhe, Lv Wenjing. Creativity in Poster Design. Journal of Zhengzhou Railway Vocational and Technical College, 2007(3).

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