Good morning.
Thank you very much.
Just like what we did,
I'd like to carry on greeting a little bit more.
Now, I'll change the wording a little and
greet you again.
I'd like you to respond to me with "good morning" like you did.
Good morning.
Thank you for your work.
I guess that wasn't how to say "good morning".
Good morning.
Wonder if it works.
Good morning.
Thank you very much.
I'll come back and talk about what we did later.
My name is Daijiro Ohara.
I do graphic design for my job.
I use different kinds of tools at work.
Pencils, erasers, and paper.
I also use rulers and computers.
Scanners and printers, too.
My office is full of tools.
All of you here
must have various types of work.
I'm sure you use many tools every day at work.
Not just for your work, but for daily tasks as well.
You cook, clean and wash, for example.
Tools are essential in those occasions as well.
For instance, pans and knives are used for cooking.
And brooms and dustpans for cleaning.
You may be using those tools every day.
Words such as "good morning" you just said now
are also tools.
So are letters you write.
I think these are also tools used for communication.
You clearly know how to use those things,
so I suppose you use them naturally
without any doubts.
Let's now imagine what might happen
if you change methods, how you use them,
or environments, where you use them.
What do you think?
You might be able to write with pans.
Or you might be able to play sounds with brooms.
Just like this.
Change methods or environments just a little.
Words and letters, too.
What changes may happen
if you change methods and environments a little?
I've hosted some workshops on this topic,
dividing them into three items.
The first is tools.
The second is methods.
And the third is environments.
Coming back to the greeting we just did,
remember the helium that changed my voice at the end.
That was a tool I used to communicate with you.
When I said "good morning" by whispering,
I changed the method.
That changes the impression of communication.
I said "good morning" in English.
I changed the environment by doing that.
Languages change in different environments.
So do races.
Food and climates change, too.
I'd like to talk about this kind of thing.
Firstly, tools. Something you use.
I host several workshops on tools.
Please have a look at the screen.
This is a workshop on letters with elementary school students.
A workshop on writing letters.
You may be writing casually every day.
You write letters naturally.
What does it actually mean to write?
In my workshop to come back to and think about this question,
they are using pens to write,
just like what they usually do.
Lines curve when drawn free-hand,
so they use rulers to draw straight lines.
Use circle rulers or curved rulers when drawing curves or circles.
I believe this is what you do every day.
But what happens if you use tools that are a little inconvenient?
For instance, use a tool that obstacles the view of your hand.
What happens is
this boy, for example, changes the way he faces the board,
like "where am I writing to now?"
He started observing in a way that he usually doesn't.
The next is expansion,
making the pen extremely long.
What changes here is the posture.
The boy is ready to fight,
as if to challenge the board.
What's happening here is
that he changed his awareness in addition to his posture.
He is just using a pen that's longer.
But the range of his body expanded.
And small changes appear
such as expansion of the body and expansion of the mind.
We made tools inconvenient.
And we also expanded them.
There is one thing that came up to my mind.
I'm making pens sold at stationery shops inconvenient or longer.
I've built a hypothesis.
This one.
All objects could become stationery.
What happens if we gather objects that are not sold at stationery shops
and try to use them as stationery?
I've hosted a workshop on this topic.
We went to a sea first.
We collected various drifted items on the beach
such as driftwood and pieces of ceramics and glass.
What if we use these as stationery?
So we dipped them in ink to write.
We could write surprisingly well.
The upper part of the picture is pieces of ceramics.
The lower part is a character written with them.
You can see the character for "point".
The "point" was written by tracing the shapes of pieces.
Here it says "bitter".
It was written with tiles
which we picked up from the ground.
What's happening here is
not about writing interesting characters,
though it is one of the purposes,
but it is about interaction with objects.
What can we do if we use this object for this shape?
Even if we just pick something up randomly,
we can elicit its potential once we observe and interact with it.
What can I do with it?
That's the objective of this workshop.
So I just showed you
making things inconvenient and expanding things.
Use things that are not usually used as stationery.
I believe this is something you can incorporate into your work,
so I propose you think about how to approach
tools you use every day
so that you can elicit a little changes or enjoyment.
Next point is methods.
I've also hosted some workshops on this topic.
Letters.
The purpose of letters is to write,
but they could be written by just searching and finding.
That's another hypothesis I've built.
Can you see the screen?
This is just a normal view, a view of a motorway.
There are letters hidden in this picture.
Can you see?
I found these letters from here.
"Shape" in Japanese hiragana.
Let me turn it back to the view.
It doesn't have to be "shape".
You may find whatever you like.
You may find your name hidden here.
That's how you play it.
It's called "letter collecting".
The common perception is that it's about collecting letters,
but that's not the point.
It's a power that elicits something
from ordinary views or views in front of you.
We, human beings, have elicited a variety of things
from views of nature since ancient times.
Lines, shapes, meanings, and stories.
It says "line" here.
You can take something out like letters
from ordinary back streets and roads like this.
But I think there are a lot more ideas in them.
That's an exercise to practice it.
That's what "letter collection" is about.
We are focusing on letters now,
but let's go back to words here.
Words we use are
made up of different combinations.
You may think like
"That person speaks in a unique way."
I'm wondering where words came from in the first place
and what the difference is between professional novelists and me.
It's fascinating that there are professionals of words
even though words are something all of us can use.
So, here is the workshop I came up with.
I named it "letter lots".
Here is how it works.
Extract words from many different sources such as
novels, essays, newspapers and columns
and cut them short on slips of paper.
Make lots like this.
And shuffle them.
Mix them up completely
so that you don't know from where or who they come from.
Pick up 2 slips from here.
Then, someone got the combination:
"a new civilization" and
"seems important, indeed".
That was completely random.
This workshop is about
adding your own words
before or after, or in the middle of words you pick up
and create sentences that make sense.
This person came up with "A new civilization,"
"like a blanket with heater in the winter," "seems important indeed."
Nice, isn't it?
Probably this person never had these words
in mind a few minutes before that.
But with one hint, or one action,
this kind of thing can happen.
Let's see another example.
"When I went out, a small para..."
"It's like a niche, isn't it?"
This person made this one: "When I went out, a small parachute"
"took me there."
"It's like a niche, isn't it?"
I like it.
Another one.
"Later"
"Make a toast again"
Please think about it by yourself.
What words would you add in it?
This person came up with
"Later,"
"if we see each other in the universe," "make a toast again."
It's a bit pretentious, though.
But this shows participants' sense of words.
How can I say.
If you are asked to compose a poem or say or write something interesting,
that would be very difficult.
But you can see your own personality here.
Other people's words give you ideas of
what kinds of words you use every day.
That's what this workshop is about.
The workshop on words.
Writing is describing.
It's an action of writing letters.
There should be many different methods.
A right-handed person may write with left hand, for instance.
Write with feet.
Or write up side down.
Here is another workshop with elementary school students.
They are writing, looking at mirrors.
It's really tough.
You can give it a try at home.
Try writing with many different methods.
Hold hands of partners with their eyes closed and write for them.
Give directions to partners closing their eyes;
"Right, right, right, left, left, up here!"
Allow partners to write by giving directions like that.
There are so many methods as you see.
You can think of different methods
even in simple actions like writing.
Elementary school kids are really interesting
as they keep inventing new methods.
Write while running, screaming or
Something like that.
Not just them; you can also come up with many ideas.
I first talked about tools for your jobs.
And changing methods second.
Finally, I'll move onto environments.
I touched on environments, using English "good morning" a while ago.
The language changes in the environment.
Quite a lot of things can change.
But there are some things that don't change.
A lot of environmental factors on the earth,
namely gravity, pressure, buoyancy, centrifugal force and so forth,
don't actually change.
Interestingly, we never have a moment when
we are not in touch with any objects in our daily lives.
Our skin is always in touch with clothes.
Our feet stand on the ground.
Your buttocks are touching chairs now.
If you didn't want to be touching anything,
you'd have to take off all your clothes and jump.
But it would last for one second only.
You could say you are not touching anything.
But someone may say you are touching air.
You can't have a moment when you're not touching anything
on this earth.
That means gravity has a lot to do with us.
Letters are also influenced by gravity.
The top and bottom are clear in Japanese or Chinese.
Historically, we read from the top to the bottom.
And we read European scripts horizontally.
That's how we read texts and write letters,
which was formed with gravity of the earth.
If went to a place with no gravity,
what would happen to letters?
They would fall apart and nothing would stick to each other.
Even letters have profiles and backs.
That's what I think.
I've made this video.
Is it moving?
It says "or" in Japanese hiragana.
It's not made by computer graphics; it's just thread and paper.
It may be hard to read.
Or it may look intangible.
Environments can change that dramatically.
It's interesting to be aware of
how letter are made up or how you live every day,
bearing in mind that you are living on the earth.
Speaking of environments,
there are obvious changes in environments
like simply going to the outer space or to foreign countries.
But there are also ideal environments
which all people on the earth have.
If you think of these environments
in your head and in your mind,
your head can be free from gravity,
or you can create a boundless plateau in it.
In that sense, there are fascinating environments here
in our heads.
Coming back to tools which I mentioned in the beginning,
you can change what you use
or how you use them.
About environments, finally. What happens if environments change?
Thinking of this sort of thing
may sound like designing.
Designing is not for designers only.
It's something simpler,
something you would encounter every day.
What you can pick up from sights you see, for example.
What you can pick up from tools you use every day.
What you can do with what combinations.
I'm giving this speech today
to propose you think that way.
The 3 things: tools, methods and environments.
You can take them home and use them at any time.
Design thinking and idea thinking are often
conceived with intangible words
such as sensibility, personality and inspirations.
But they should be something simpler:
combinations of tools, environments and methods right in front of you.
You can remove or add something, or apply your own concepts.
I hope this will enliven
your work and everyday lives a little
and you will get some hints out of it.
Thank you for listening.