Awakening the Senses

Over the years I have collected a fairly large stack of books by Japanese designer Kenya Hara.

Here in the US, if Hara is known at all it usually as the art director for MUJI, famous for wide-angle shots of the earth-sky horizon with a MUJI logo set right on the line.

In Japan, Hara is famous for a much wider range of communication design work, as well as long-form aesthetic theories, exhibition curation, and book publishing.

One of my favorite Hara books is the catalog from HAPTIC, an exhibition he curated for the Takeo Paper Show back in 2004. Takeo is a Japanese paper distributor that uses its annual Paper Show to explore new uses of paper.

The word "haptic" means "tactile" and for this exhibition Hara invited about two dozen creators to design objects (mostly out of paper) that foreground touch - to awaken the senses in a culture dominated by the visual.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Geta, Shuhei Hasado (pictured)

Hasado, a master plasterer, brings ground texture and body awareness into footwear. Geta are traditional Japanese sandals, characterized by an elevated wooden sole supported by wooden pegs that lift the sole off the ground. Hasado's geta heighten the foot–floor interface - hardness, edge, balance, even the clack of each step - making locomotion itself a haptic act. It’s proprioception-as-design.

Zabuton of Paper Leaves, Yasuhiro Suzuki

A cushion that feels and sounds like layered leaves: crisp edges, slight rustle, shifting support. It blends tactile and auditory cues to make sitting seasonal and textural, not neutral. A classic Suzuki poetry-through-use design. The instructional illustrations that accompany the design are also great.

800 Dots Book Cover, Masayo Ave

This paperback jacket is printed with foaming/Braille ink so the surface swells into a field of raised dots arranged in the traditional same-komon “sharkskin” pattern. It turns a purely visual graphic into a gentle tactile skin - you “read” the cover with your fingers as much as your eyes. Professor Ave’s haptic move here reminds me of WIRED magazine's sandpaper covers, only with larger grit.

Snake Skin Paper Towel, Kengo Kuma

Another smart “paper-as-skin” trick: embossing/texture that reads like scales adds micro-friction and a faint, animal “otherness.” Kuma’s design nudges a throwaway paper into something you feel (grip, drag, raspy surface) before you use it - an instant re-sensitizer. Hopefully this unique and natural texture leads to fewer towels-per-handwash as well.

Paper Furniture, Reiko Suda

Paper that carries structure, sound, and temperature - light yet stiff, with audible rustle and a cool touch that warms under use. The haptics are in the give and crinkle, and in how the surface records tiny dents and handprinted - paper as a memory medium for touch. Hey IKEA, how about flat-packed furniture made from paper?

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Pretty expansive, right?

I love the idea of exploring the use of a material (like paper) through a design competition as a way to inspire new categories of uses. Hara did a great job inviting male and female designers, from different generations, to create a wide range of ideas and to pass that knowledge in all directions.

The ideas still feel fresh 20 years later.