JPEN

DESIGNER KAZUSA NUMAO

沼尾 知哉 KAZUSA NUMAO
INTERVIEW

納得できるまで何度でも繰り返すと、意思が宿る。

PROFILE

2010
Graduated from the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Engineering of the Musashi Institute of Technology
2012
Graduated from the Architecture Program in the Graduate School of Engineering of Tokyo City University
Joined N STUDIO
2014
Joined DE-SIGN INC.
沼尾 知哉 KAZUSA NUMAO
Has anything changed since you decided to make a living from design?
Soon after I joined DE-SIGN INC. I noticed that I had gone from a world in which one could be evaluated highly for a good design alone to one in which that alone was not enough. Unless I first get them to recognized Kazusa Numao as a person, a client will not want to work with me whether or not my designs are good. I think such trust is an essential precondition to all of our work at DE-SIGN INC., not just the job of design itself.
Of the projects you have worked on through now, which made the biggest impression on you?
It was a project on which the client’s idea was almost too strong. No matter how many revised proposals my superior and senior colleagues made, the client always demanded more, more. When I was asked to help out, I saw it as an opportunity. I thought as hard as I could about not just how to make the best design but also how to explain it to the client. That made a very strong impression on me as the first project in which I feel that I was able to do it all myself.
沼尾 知哉 KAZUSA NUMAO
At what moments do you find your work most enjoyable?
The moment when, after proposing multiple designs to a client, the client says, “This is the best one,” I reply, “You’re right, shall we go with it?” and the client answers, “Yes.” Whether a proposal fits well depends most of all on the quality of the design process, rather than how well it was presented. It feels good when a design fits well, because that shows that I had ascertained the client’s wishes well and created the design through the correct process.
What is your specialty or strength?
My ability to create a narrative to help anybody understand why a certain design is the right one.
I think I am able to explain why a design is a good one and earn the client’s agreement because I go through such an extensive thought process before reaching a decision on the correct design. Of course, that ‘s because in preparing the design I think about it 100 times more than they do (laughs).

MY WAY OF THINKING

Intent comes from repeated effort, until one is fully satisfied.

In doing my work, I value the approach of doing everything for a reason and explaining that reason to the other party. Explaining things conveys my one thinking, and in conveying my own thinking I take responsibility for the idea. To fulfill this responsibility, I think about the subject repeatedly until I am satisfied. It would be too risk to take responsibility for an idea without first laying this groundwork. I suppose it comes from cowardice (laughs). But I believe that a design that has been created through thinking about it repeatedly until I can explain its reasons is one that’s based on a clear intent.

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