Design Creative

Nagaoka Kenmei’s Eye

ナガオカケンメイの眼：10年続くメルマガからの視点107

Nagaoka Kenmei (Author)

Seo Ha-na (Translator)

2024. 6. 10. 444 pages 125×175 mm Softcover 9791168230668 KRW 18,000

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Genmei Nagaoka’s “Long Life Design” offers clues

to change the way we live, even if only a little.

The Eye of Nagaoka Kenmei is a compilation of 107 of the 530 articles from Nagaoka Kenmei’s decade-long newsletter, Nagaoka Kenmei’s Mail Magazine. The author, Nagaoka Kenmei, is a design activist and founder of the D&DEPARTMENT project, who has traveled extensively throughout Japan and other countries to spread new cultures and the value of good design. Long-life design, which has been the theme of his work for over 20 years, refers to a great activity or object that lasts for a long time, and is the main theme of his email magazine, which he has been publishing since 2012, and of this book. In this book, which Kenmei Nagaoka calls “my collective work” and which has a much wider radius of life than its three predecessors, Nagaoka looks at work, time, friends, relationships, ceremonial objects, land, agriculture and forestry, shopping, objects, brands, culture, and most importantly, the world as he sees it “through the glasses of Mail Magazine, which I fiercely contemplate every day”.

Over the years, countless designers and other creators from all walks of life have resonated with Nagaoka Kenmei’s philosophy and looked to him as a role model. As they do, we can look into his mind, feel him, talk to him, and discover how we can grow and change to be more like him in the society we live in.

Nagaoka Kenmei

Design activist, publisher of d design travel. Born in 1965 in Mororan City, Hokkaido, and raised in Agui Town, Aichi Prefecture. He participated in the establishment of the Hara Design Institute, Japan Design Center, and founded Drawing & Manual in 1997 and D&DEPARTMENT PROJECT in 2000. He later founded 60VISION and proposed branding styles beyond reprinting, such as Garimoku 60. Long-life design is the theme of his activities, which range from publishing to product development. He has also appeared in numerous television programs such as JOUNETSU-TAIRIKU, Nikkei Special THE CAMBRIAN PALACE, and Dawn of Gaia. In 2013, he received the Mainichi Design Award. In 2020, he opened “d news aichi agui” in his hometown of Agui through crowdfunding and opened his own store. His books include Nagaoka Kenmei’s Thoughts, Nagaoka Kenmei and Nippon, Nagaoka Kenmei’s method, Learning from the D&DEPARTMENT and How to Make a Store that Gathers People.

Seo Ha-na

A Japanese translator and publishing editor who hovers between language and print. She considers language to be design, translating Japanese into Korean and plans books. She has worked in architecture and interiors, and after studying in Japan, she worked as an editor at Ahn Graphics. She has translated Rojinryoku, Who Made 501XX?, The Mina Perhonen Design Journey: The Circulation of Memory, An Encyclopedia of Tokyo Hotels, The Original Scenery of Harajuku in the 1970s, Walking with the Designer’s Mind, Talking to the Body, Dancing with Language, Manual on Street Observation, Hyperart Thomason, Low-Altitude Flight, If You’re Doing What You Love into Korean, and wrote A Strangely Longing Feeling (co-authored).