Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

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Following on from our coverage of his thoughts on Theories behind Japanese Design, Aen Direct has posted his Chapter 2 expansion article which focuses on “Yugen”, which is all about the idea of a Focal Point in design or the seemingly lack of one.

Aen Writes:
The key to achieving visual interest has nothing to do with opticals in actual fact. Our eyes are just muscled control apertures. Light enters the lenses and images are then produced within our brains. We are actually seeing with our minds. When we dream, our eyes are shut and yet we can observed vivid images and even live in our dreams like our eyes are open.

What’s deeper than a focal point? A mental area.

What’s a mental area? It can be as small as a bullet point or as big as the universe. Yugen roughly means “Suggest and not reveal layers of meaning hidden within. Invisible to the casual eye and avoiding the obvious”. That is to touch someone, you have to set the mind thinking and not so much of the eye seeing.

If you have not already, do check out his Chapter 1: Fukinsei (Imbalanced, Asymmetry) first.

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