21_21 DESIGN SIGHT Exhibition “Design Ah!”

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT Exhibition “Design Ah!”（Exhibition）

This exhibition was developed as a result of “Design Ah!,” a design education program for children aired on NHK E-Tele. We learned that design is required not only for everyday matters but for everything, including politics, economy, medicine, education, and welfare. I felt that we need to more actively develop design capability in the minds of children. This idea was developed not only into a TV program but also into an exhibition that visitors can experience with their whole body. The Japanese hiragana and katakana characters used in “Design Ah!” consisted of original fonts produced for the TV program. The Japanese kanji characters were produced by adjusting existing fonts to match these hiragana letters on a case-by-case basis. “Ah!” is the first letter in the Japanese hiragana alphabet and is an exclamation that’s uttered when we are hit with an idea or when we find something.

Taku Satoh + Yugo Nakamura

Taku Satoh (left): Graphic designer; graduated from the Department of Design, Tokyo University of the Arts in 1979, and completed postgraduate studies at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1981. After working for DENTSU INC., Satoh founded the Satoh Taku Design Office in 1984. He also produced package designs for “LOTTE Xylitol Gum,” “Meiji Oishii Gyunyu,” etc. along with symbol marks for the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, etc. Satoh also engages in diverse activities, including planning and art direction for the NHK E-Tele “Nihongo-de Asobo” program, general direction for the “Design Ah!” program, and direction for 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT.

Yugo Nakamura (right): Web designer, interface designer, video director, and visiting professor of Tama Art University; after graduating from the Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Nakamura has been engaged in web design and interface design since 1998. He also founded the “tha ltd.” design studio in 2004. He has since engaged in activities in the fields of websites and video art direction, design, and programming.