Internationally acclaimed Japanese designer Kenya Hara believes that the practice of sketching is pivotal to articulating what is intrinsically human. For Hara, art director at MUJI and president of the Nippon Design Center Inc., the unpredictability of drawing by hand gives form to an otherwise unattainable image born in the depths of our imagination. He believes sketching is a means of transformation, of asking what else is possible, hence connecting with the volatile conditions of a design problem. As he sees it, his role as a designer is to ask ‘what if’ in response to real-life issues. The act of sketching is the first step to beginning to answer that question with the semblance of a solution. Hara's relationship to sketching, drawings and tracing the ineffable qualities of the world that ultimately guide his view of design is detailed in a recent book, Draw, compiled and edited by the designer himself and published by Lars Müller Publishers. As he writes in the introduction, “This book captures some of the ‘what if’ ideas that I’ve recorded…I don’t consider each one to be the correct answer, but these many sketches are the vestiges of the imaginative leaps I made along the way.”

Through abstract sketches that only hint at an idea being formed to boldly illustrated concepts and detailed layouts for everything, from advertorials to exhibition catalogues, Draw offers readers a peek into the mind and thought processes of someone considered to be one of the most influential designers in present-day Japan. The book presents the act of drawing, or drawings and sketches, as potent imaginative forms. Within different instances in the book, Hara reiterates the suggestion that it is the repeated, meditative task of working through a problem with a pencil in hand that has led to the discovery of something novel. By compiling the sketches and graphic designs chronologically, the richly illustrated volume traces the life and work of the contemporary designer through the cathartic act of creation.

Since the line is constantly in contact with the unknown imagination, it should have no room for mastery. The normal state of sketching is rather instability. – Kenya Hara

The four sections in the book sketch out Hara’s career from 1983 to the present while offering insights into the philosophies that guide his design practice. The images move from small-scale designs for commercials, posters and visual identities for brands to larger projects ranging from exhibition designs to drawings, rendering Hara’s desire to rethink how we conceive our everyday environments, focusing on the future of homes. Hara’s list of collaborators through these minor and major projects, which includes the likes of Issey Miyake, Andrea Branzi and Shigeru Ban, testifies to the sheer breadth of his portfolio, amusingly depicted here only in a vague state between ideation and realisation. Some of the sketches are more abstract, in line with Hara’s belief that sketching is essentially incorporeal thought rendered on paper. For instance, the quick, dynamic sketches for the Tokyo Olympics that Hara has reproduced in the book almost feel like they’re in motion. Similar to these are the very first sketches in the volume, meant to depict tangled fishing lines. Produced when Hara was starting out as a designer, a caption notes that these are simple renditions of whatever was in the designer’s head, “as if exploring the qualities that define [him]”. They suggest that the act of drawing is perhaps a practice of untangling the knots in one’s mind, arriving at something like clarity for a ‘what if’.

The more ambiguous renditions of ideas are followed by Hara’s drawings exploring book covers, packaging designs, advertising work and editorial storyboards. For instance, in the second section (2000 – 2010), Hara includes numerous sketches and iterations created for the 2005 Aichi Expo and the 2008 Beijing Olympics logo competitions. This section also includes Hara’s sketches of buildings, echoing his inherent interest in architecture and his desire to challenge how we interact with the built environment. The third section (2010 – 2020) expands on this theme, with Hara revealing the processes that resulted in HOUSE VISION, an exhibition that dwelt on the house as an assemblage of industrial processes and social issues. Hara’s vision for the exhibition, which was put on display in Tokyo in 2013 and 2016, in Beijing in 2018, and Seoul in 2022, was to bring together ‘business, architects and creators’ to collectively think about the future of residential design. In the sketch, readers see him thinking through an experimental exhibition layout where visitors would move through the space on elevated walkways. The section also details Hara working out MUJI’s branding for that period, where he hoped to develop a global perspective on contemporary life. Sketches detail his journeys to Indonesia’s Raja Ampat Islands and the Galápagos Islands, with him contemplating how we may preserve the natural world. These sections move towards larger ideas about eco-consciousness, sustainability and the relevance of the local—craftsmanship, culture and resources—that Hara hopes to draw out and explore in his work going forward.

Using the motion of the hand, [the sketcher] gingerly traces the boundary between the body and the universe. – Kenya Hara

There’s a dynamic interplay between the more amorphous sketches and the more detailed drawings (a subtle yet vital distinction in nomenclature), which reveal Hara’s assiduous attention to detail as one flips through the volume. Further, the designer ensures that most images within the pages are supported by captions to distinguish between different projects. However, this also makes one wonder if the captions were removed, would the drawings be able to communicate the same ideas as Hara hopes they do presently? Similarly, one might question what is lost when the iterative process of problem-solving or thought is translated onto paper to be consumed, as if in some final form. Hara evidently believes that the works in the book are not final solutions, yet they are presented to readers as objects of design. The idea that drawings can be treated as artefacts leans one towards what is the polarising question for the digital age: can the act of creating images be transferred to technological tools? Can artificial intelligence render our imagination for us?

If for Hara, the bodily act of taking a pencil and putting it to paper is fundamental to the act of creation and, by extension, design, the palpable shadow of AI looms over his mind as he compiles the many, many sketches in the book. In the introduction, he pits the threat of AI and its seeming convenience against the hard-earned synthesis of the hand drawing. He even notes that the book was part of a conversation with the publishers as a way to “provide insight for other creators on how a designer works with hand-drawn sketches in the age of artificial intelligence”. For young designers then, the book offers not only a peek into Hara’s thoughts, but the realisation of the versatility of drawing. It is, in fact, our engagement with the world around us that enables us to come up with innovative ideas. Hara writes quoting his mentor, Shutaro Mukai, “Form is life’s gesture to the universe.” For him, the sketch, more than any final product, is the sublimation of that form.