plastic thinking

Do design/not do design. Understand human behavior through design. Private notes of Japanese graphic design master Taku Sato over forty years.

Is the success of NIKKA whiskey related to collecting antiques and laboratory medicine bottles?
When thinking about design, why is "plasticity" more important than "elasticity"?
Why are there not one, three or six penguins in Lotte Xylitol Chewing Gum, but five penguins?
Meiji's delicious milk is deeply rooted in people's hearts because it "maintains its original appearance"? How?
Where did the idea for "Anatomy of Design" come from? How should all aspects of curation be thought about and presented?
How did "21_21 DESIGN SIGHT" come about? Why choose a square shape for your logo design?
 
Successfully created brands such as NIKKA, PURE MALT, Meiji Milk, and Lotte Xylitol Chewing Gum; planned the "Anatomy of Design" series of exhibitions that opened the eyes of Japanese people; was invited by Issey Miyake to jointly build a world-famous brand with Naoto Fukasawa and Tadao Ando The famous "21_21 DESIGN SIGHT"; produces NHK Education Channel's "Ah! Design (DESIGN A)" program that goes deep into Japanese families and cultivates children's design spirit. He is active at the forefront of design. He loves surfing, walking in old streets and alleys, and Taku Sato, who cooks and collects antiques and weird things, has spent 40 years in the design career and published the best-selling book "The Whale Spouting". Through design, he became aware of himself and examined human life behavior.

In this book, he narrates the reasons and cultivation of his career as a designer, and selflessly shares what he sees, hears, thinks, and encounters in his career. He mentioned in his twenty-two private notes on shaping thinking:

●Everything begins with “not understanding”, and “not understanding” is more important than “understanding”.
●"Self" is toxic. Only by maintaining plastic thinking can you avoid being obsessed with yourself.
●Design is not a field for designers to express themselves, but "being there and trying to connect them".
●The "margin" has a "center" in order to be "prominent." The reason why it is difficult to create a conspicuous graphic design is that it lacks a center.
●Value is not something added, it already exists. It just needs to be discovered carefully.
●When "no design" or "no change to design" is taken away, outstanding designs that retain their original appearance gradually disappear from our eyes one by one.
●The design should be limited, and the “blank space” is to promote the exchange of different values.
●Words that have been ignored, excluded, and have complete antonyms in the past─
Unsophisticated, unattractive, complicated, imperfectly functional, inefficient, inconvenient, etc., in fact, there are important things hidden in modern humans that they are unwilling to face and constantly avoid.
●Open call for papers is a product of "distorted democracy" and a virus that weakens national power.

Design is a manifestation of national strength. Design is everywhere in life, but making new designs is design. Is changing the design to pursue better design? In addition to expressing his thoughts on human behavior through design work, Taku Sato also brings out the unique Sato style of inspiration for the essence of design.

“Any technology or information that wants to be delivered to the public must go through some degree of design, regardless of personal ideas or preferences. In order to help humans live a normal life without losing human dignity, design must not be ignored.

If the design is only in the direction of "doing design", "doing" will be the biggest premise, which will cause the legitimate direction of design - the option of "not doing" to disappear. However, there are some items in the world that are ideal if they remain as they are, and there are also some items that do not require excessive "design." In fact, although most items are designed, they are not conspicuous. However, design is moving in the direction of "making design", causing the client or trustee to be forced to think that design must be "made." As a result, designs that only need to remain the same and do not need to be redesigned will never be seen again; finally, even those outstanding designs that should retain their original appearance will gradually disappear from our eyes one by one. "