Nakamura Kazunobu

Specialized in Performing Arts Design.

Nakamura Kazunobu

About Nakamura Kazunobu

I liked the dynamic composition and dynamic curves of the paintings by the Japanese painter Eitoku Kano, Tohaku Hasegawa and Katsushika Hokusai. When I was young, I wanted to copy their paintings and get to know their essence. Nowadays, I design my work with the idea that I want to enter the space of the great waves depicted in their paintings and stand in a place where I am wrapped up in their flow.

  • Winner of the A' Design Award.
  • Specialized in Performing Arts Design.
  • Original Design.
  • Creative, Diligent and Innovative.
  • All Designs
  • Performing Arts
Kasane no Irome - Piling up Colors Installation Design

Kasane no Irome - Piling up Colors Installation Design

Performing Arts Design


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Interview with Nakamura Kazunobu

Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
As a boy, I was a child who loved to make sculptures. I loved the scenery that sculptures, or organic objects, created in space. I wanted to work with this feeling, so I decided to become a designer and studied architecture at university. I studied architecture at university and became a designer of spaces. At the same time, as an art activity, he has been presenting installation works based on the theme of organic shapes as they exist in the natural world.
Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
This is an art studio for Kazunobu Nakamura to create design. The studio that designs spaces such as installation art and interior design. I work with themes of movement and flow created in space by irregular shapes, such as Japanese screen paintings and Japanese gardens.
What is "design" for you?
Design is creation that begins with a request from others or consultation from others about a problem. Art is creation that begins with inspiration that comes from within myself.
What kinds of works do you like designing most?
Most jobs have many restrictions, and the client's image of what he or she wants is often limited. And design tolerances are often limited. What I like is work that is tolerant. It depends greatly on the stance of the client. I like the freedom of work that allows me to use the artistic ideas that spring up within me to solve the client's problems and methods.
What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
The ideal of my work is a rich space created by irregular shapes. The Japanese garden has an amorphous element such as a pond that reflects light on the water surface and creates a cool scenery at its center, and the changes in space created by the amorphous shape characterize the surrounding place and give expression to the entire space. The undulating, asymmetrical path that surrounds it invites people. Beautiful trees filled with the wind cover the road, creating a tunnel of green shade that creates an indescribable sense of depth to the light-filled place at the end. Also, Japanese screen paintings various natural shapes with dynamic brush strokes in a space that should be empty, bringing a richness of space to life. Various forms of nature such as trees have been loved the indefinite form that creates beautiful spaces. Pouring rain, Old pine tree covering the air, Clouds adorning the sky, Mist and Fog. Their shape has the power to rich the space. These motifs of organic forms of nature, with their irregular shapes and dynamic brushstrokes, create a flow in the space and beautiful depth and expanse.
What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
I like materials that are less assertive as materials. Many space designers utilize the strong expression of the material itself, such as stone or solid wood, in their designs. However, I prefer plain, less assertive materials that purely express form and structure.
What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
When designing a space in an empty space, my mind is always empty at the beginning. I seek various stimuli in order to spark ideas in my mind that are suitable for this place. I gather information on the characteristics of the place, the functions required, and the ideal image sought, and turn this information into the seeds of a design.
What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
It gives me great pleasure when it is a space that emanates from my own imagination and is realized.
Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
Vibrant Japanese screen paintings. I believe that the sliding screen paintings and folding screen paintings in the interior of ancient Japanese architecture may have contributed to the depth and breadth of the space. Imagine if these sho-byobu paintings had been plain white, what you would see would be an inorganic, lonely, wretched, empty space in a simple Japanese architecture composed only of horizontal and vertical lines. In the space that should have been empty, a rich space emerges by depicting various forms of nature with dynamic brushstrokes. The large tree that covers the screen and the undulating branches and leaves that surround it, as represented by Eitoku Kano's "Hinokizu Byobu(Cypress Trees Screen)". The rippling, raging river represented by "Hozugawa Folding Screen" by Okyo Maruyama. Although not a wall painting, Hokusai Katsushika's "Fugaku Sanjurokkei/Kanagawa Okinamiura" is known overseas as "The Great Wave" because of its huge waves that seem to engulf the entire space. These motifs of organic forms of nature, with their irregular shapes and dynamic brushstrokes, create a flow in the space and beautiful depth and expanse.
Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
I live in Yokohama-city, Japan. Yokohama is an easy place to get to anywhere in Japan. Living in Japan, I believe that the values of Japanese culture have become ingrained in me. The air, clouds, fog, and rivers that can be felt in the land of Japan. Japanese gardens and art designed with these motifs. By being in this place, one can always feel these tastes directly on my skin.
Can you talk a little about your design process?
I love to walk and explore, I walk in the city, I walk in the fields, I walk in foreign countries, I walk in the canyons. During that walk I find inspiration from a beauty of nature’s forms created by the "irregular shapes" of trees and leaves rustling in the wind, fog drifting through the air, cherry blossoms dancing in the sky, clouds in the blue sky, towering rocks, all in a vague space.
What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
It's hard for me to narrow it down to five items. I believe that design is born from chaos. My desk, surrounded by miscellaneous materials and models, is the most comfortable place for me to imagine design. The miscellaneous models created by my past self inspire me now. They are placed in a seemingly chaotic space.
What is your "golden rule" in design?
I believe there is a golden rule in nature. Clouds, the flow of water, the undulation of mountain peaks, the shape of leaves and petals They are always beautiful.
What skills are most important for a designer?
I think the most important skill for a designer is the unquenchable desire to create something. Since this desire is not present in all people, I think the most important skill is to have that feeling of craving come from one's own heart.
Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
The natural landscape of forests, rivers, and mountains, books on ancient Japanese design theory, ancient Japanese art such as folding screen paintings, and organically designed Japanese gardens are sources of inspiration.
Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
The most important use of time is early in the morning and before bedtime. During those times before the world is on-time, you can organize and reset your mind and set an on-time work schedule.
How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
The design period for most jobs is one year or more from conception to the creation of the implementation design. Most projects, regardless of size, take several years to complete, counting from the initial planning stage.
How can people contact you?
I can communicate in English, such as by e-mail, but I cannot speak or hear English.

Designer of the Day Interview with Nakamura Kazunobu

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?
I worked at NOMURA Co., Ltd. since 2002 as an interior designer.I studied at the Department of Architecture at Tokyo University of the Arts.I am also designing the stage art from the university.The name when doing a stage design is "NAKAMURA KAZUNOBU DESIGN-WORKS"
How did you become a designer?
When I was a child, I liked sculptures at first.Because I liked three-dimensional objects.However, I wanted to get in there soon.I was more interested in the interior space created by the shape than the appearance.So the university selected architecture.
What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?
First of all, I imagine what kind of event can be realized by design.Next, think about whether it can be realized by a characteristic form. Because if the objective event is realized by its characteristic formBecause it is likely to produce an unknown experience.I want to create an unknown space.
Which emotions do you feel when designing?
Like making sculptures, it is fun to create the space we have thought of as a model or 3D.And it is the most exciting time when it appeared in reality size.
What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?
I think that influencing my design is sculpture production that I liked since I was a child, and the stage art design I've been doing since my college days.
What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?
I want to create a characteristic space created by the shape.I would like to continue my efforts to realize that.
What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?
I would like you to find something you like, such as your favorite event, your favorite material, your favorite process.I think that whatever it is.
You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?
I do not think that I have succeeded.I have not produced many things yet.I always want to keep an inquisitive spirit and work hard.
What is your day to day look like?
Unfortunately, the time being chased by day-to-day work is long.Even a little, I value the time that I can think alone.
How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?
I try not to be conscious of the trend much.I think real beauty is immutable.
How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?
Just to judge by seeing the real thing. Think about it, make a model and judge by intuition as to whether it is good or not. I think that how long iterations can repeat determines the quality of the design.
How do you decide if your design is ready?
When the design is completed and the best condition is photographed in the picture, the work is over.Whether the job succeeded or not depends on others' reactions after a while.
Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?
When I go abroad, I realize the way of thinking unique to Japan that I did not conscious until now.I think that I am Japanese style.
Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?
Work should not concentrate solely on making money.When I die I want to make something that seems to have left something in this world.
What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?
I am honored.I am extremely happy to be able to win the Italian design award with a deep design history.

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