Blog "5": Yugo Nakamura

Yugo Nakamura (born in 1970) is a multimedia designer and one of the worlds most innovative web designers. His websites are www.yugop.com and www.surface.yugop.com. The interactive animations he has on his sites are both simple and user friendly while being very complex in their design at the same time. When Flash 4 came out he was one of the first to use it and showed how powerful it could be through version 2.0 of his MONOcrafts site.
MONOcrafts is the end result of over a decade of experimentation in digital media. According to the site “MONOcrafts is a net-based studio located in Tokyo interested in exploring new expression under this networked situation. And we are creating web-site / net-application with a new concept of interactivity. Our concept and techniques are expressed in every part of this site.” The site is definitely all about interactivity. Even while reading the previous passage you have to move your cursor over the screen to allow the text to appear.
Multimedia design was not Nakamura’s first passion though. While at Tokyo university he studied landscape architecture and civil engineering, and these are the fields that he worked in for the first part of his life. He became obsessed by his relationship with his surroundings and he formed a desire to create an abstract version of that relationship. This background in landscape architecture and civil engineering became an important influence for Nakamura.
Another important influence for him was John Maeda. Maeda is a graphic designer, creative technologist, computer scientist, and theoretician. He is interested in the merging of design and technology. This interest is also present in Nakamura’s work where design and technology have been combined to create user-friendly interfaces. Nakamura was also interested in how Maeda’s work at MIT media lab helped turn the computer into a creative device as opposed to a functional tool. Nakamura states “if I had not encountered his work six years ago, I would never have got into interactive design.”
Yugo Nakamura says he is inspired by everything that surrounds him. He is inspired by “the unique relationship which he can find in literature, movies and architecture.”
He is a craftsman for sure. He likes using his hands and likes to be able to create the feel of craftsmanship even in things such as websites. He believes the feel of craftsmanship can be felt most everywhere. “It is a spirit that has no relationship with media and technology.” He is using his Japanese background to try and apply the detail of Japanese craftsmanship to the things he creates on the web.
It seems as if his place in the design field is slowly falling though. Most of his great work has been done already and we haven't heard much from him recently. He hasn't won an award since his gold at Tokyo Interactive Ad Awards in 2007, hasn't had an exhibition since 2004, and his last workshop was 2006. I'm sure he is still working on projects and coming up with new creative design ideas, but it appears that his true claim for fame is in the past now.