Art drawn with indigo and ink
A frame for cherishing everyday life
A solo exhibition by designer Yamano Hideyuki will be held for eight days from Thursday, September 4th to Sunday, September 14th, 2025 (Gallery closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays).
Yamano Hideyuki continues to work in many design fields, including books, advertisements, brand logos, and architectural signs, but he is also known for his work as an artist, making use of his unique perspective and sense.
What's interesting is that his style changes dramatically with each exhibition.
Perhaps he is deliberately avoiding the idea that "this is a typical Yamano Hideyuki work," or perhaps he is a bundle of curiosity that cannot be contained within a single category, but his works, which give a dramatically different impression with each exhibition, attract a wide variety of fans.
This series expresses the thoughts that Yamano, who began living in two places, Tokyo and Okinawa, over the past five and a half years, has accumulated over the past five and a half years since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We hope you will enjoy this look at the artist's current state, as he has decided to move to his next home, Nara, by the end of the year.
Yamano-san in his Naha studio. Born in Nara, he studied at a university in Kyoto, and moved to Tokyo in 1997. Although it has been a long time since then, he still speaks in a quiet, gentle Kansai dialect .
Yamano Hideyuki's Okinawa studio is an old, single-story house in a residential area close to Shuri Castle in Okinawa, where the suffocating heat of summer hangs in the air. It has been five and a half years since he started living in two places, Tokyo and Okinawa, in 2020. When I visited the place where I had been quietly spending my time working and creating, I was surprised to find that it was surprisingly simple, and that artists have so few possessions, despite the various thoughts and trials they engage in every day. However, Yamano says:
"I've worked as a designer for a long time, so that habit is ingrained in me. So I don't think of myself as an artist. There are times when I want to express the sludge and ideas that have accumulated from my work in a different form, without being particularly conscious of boundaries," says Yamano.
I see. In order to talk to you today, perhaps we first need to define the difference between a designer and an artist.
Even if you don't know the name "Yamano Hideyuki," you've probably seen his work in various places. He began working in the design field while he was a student, and has demonstrated his talent in the music scene, editorial design for books, and the architecture genre. Yamano's work is well-known to the public, and includes many books, signs inside famous buildings, and brand logos. The fact that each of his works blends so naturally into society speaks to his exceptional talent as a designer.
"I believe that being a designer is a job that only comes into existence when there is a client or a theme. I work in a variety of design genres, but rather than expressing myself, I think of them as something that guides the reader through my own filter, like making the main points of a sentence easily resonate with the reader, or casually pointing someone in a building who needs to go to the toilet to the location. That's how I see it." (Yamano)
The job of a designer is to give the world a "frame"
In the corner of the studio there is a tasteful table that can only be called a "writing desk," with tools and paintings in use spread out on top of it. This somehow gives a sense of Yamano's personality, which is unable to help but arrange things in an orderly manner.
However, what I found particularly interesting during this interview was when Yamano said, "In order to maintain a creative balance, expressive activities as individual productions are meaningful." In other words, the process of organizing, verifying, collaborating, and coming to a conclusion that is carried out on a daily basis in the design field is surprisingly useful when attempting to express something. And it seems that it is precisely because Yamano holds these two positions that his activities as an artist are unique, giving his work a character that sets it apart from others.
Looking back at the numerous works that Yamano has presented thus far as personal expression, the individuality of someone who holds two positions as both a designer and an artist stands out. The exhibitions that made the biggest impression on me were the "Shitty Badge" exhibition (2014) and the "Onokonoe, Voe, Misosokageru, Mariwaka" exhibition (2020). Both of these exhibitions had incredibly different themes from works by the same artist, which was fascinating.
For example, the "Shitty Badges" exhibition initially surprised me with its overly strong name, but it also had a consistent and interesting framework and attempt. It took on the challenge of breathing new life into badges by attaching pins to items that would otherwise be consumed as "trash." Items that had previously been trash were selected through Yamano's perspective, pinned, and neatly arranged in the exhibition, almost like jewelry. They were actually available for purchase, and I was impressed by the excited looks on visitors' faces as they browsed the items, as if selecting their favorite accessories. While the exhibition is named "shit," I felt that it conveyed the unexpectedness and excitement of how something can be instantly reborn as a "product," and ultimately, how fragile and illusory human values are.
The "Onokonoe..." exhibition was held in 2020, when the world was in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the accompanying visual guide included a large copy that read, "Images are for illustrative purposes only." The main focus of the exhibition was not the paintings themselves, but rather the 20 or so "spells" that were created, including "Onokonoe...."
???
I don't understand what it means. At the venue, in the cold of Tokyo at the end of the year, wearing a mask as if to protect myself, I found that each of the paintings, brimming with colors that seemed to play beautiful melodies, had been given a "spell" as its title. Meeting Yamano for the first time in a long time, he shyly told me, "I wonder if there are magic words that can save everything. That's what I thought of when I came up with this work."
Each exhibition has a different style and theme, but it makes sense to me that this is the expression of someone with a designer's spirit. Yamano is good at setting a framework for whatever he does. No, rather than being good, I think that by setting up a framework that ordinary people have not noticed, he is able to see the world in a slightly different way and come up with ideas that make things easier, and that is what he is trying to do in both his work and his creative endeavors.
The Yamano style was evident in his childhood drawings and notebooks.
This is a drawing by Yamano when he was in the early grades of elementary school. In the bottom right corner, the title of the work, "Inside the Clock," is written in careful calligraphy, likely by his mother. While it has the freedom typical of a child's drawing, the scrupulously adhered framework of gray lines and the regularity of the placement of colors reveal Yamano's unique style.
Although he appears carefree, he tried to write a collection of short stories to heal after a broken heart ( he had planned to complete it with 13 stories, but after writing the fifth one, the pain had healed and he left it unfinished), and he would sometimes seem passionate about something, only to quit a few years later. When I asked him how the character Yamano was formed, he showed me a drawing he had drawn as a child.
"We're rebuilding our family home in Nara, and I've been sorting through my belongings recently. My mother left behind a lot of drawings and notebooks from my childhood, including my brother and me. I had left them as they were, feeling a sense of doubt about my origins somewhere in my heart, but when I look at the drawings I made in elementary school, I feel they're the same as they are now. It wasn't something I acquired, but maybe I've always been like this. It made a strange kind of sense of understanding." (Yamano)
The overflowing use of color also exudes a sense of generosity, evoking Yamano's current creative approach of devising frames without being bound by common sense or societal constraints, by first going blank and clearing the way for himself. Meanwhile, the careful and meticulous work, seen in his math drills and kanji workbooks, which is far too meticulous for a child, already suggests a talent as a designer. Yamano smiles shyly as he says this, "Until now, I had vaguely assumed that my personality was shaped by the influence of my strict parents, but it's fascinating to realize that it was formed naturally long before that. I'm grateful to my parents for leaving me these things."
From a moratorium student to a bored professional
During the interview, whenever Yamano suddenly found himself bored, he would sit at his desk, reviewing his work or preparing for shipping, making us think that his childlike restlessness is part of his lovable character.
Another thing that cannot be overlooked when talking about Yamano as an artist is his innate tendency to get bored easily. To be clear, I mean this in a positive sense. He was involved in the Shibuya-kei music scene during his student days in Kyoto, but after moving to Tokyo, he temporarily stopped working a few years later, working in editorial design at a magazine company. That, too, ended a few years later. He then moved from designing books in the architectural field to designing signs and logos... and even now, Yamano says, "I don't know what my next step will be, or what my theme will be, and I haven't decided." However, I believe it's precisely because he has unwittingly developed a career as a professional who easily gets bored easily since his student days that the mysterious and unique designer Yamano Hideyuki was born.
"Maybe it's because I'm not very productive, but when I devote myself to something and work hard, I get bored of it once I've mastered it. When that happens, it almost feels like I'm being dishonest to myself or the other person by continuing to do it. However, when it comes to design, for example, signs and logos are not just for the client, but also for the end users - the consumers and people who visit the building - so they need to be easy to understand as well as stimulating in some way, so in that sense, my tendency to get bored easily may not be entirely useless," says Yamano.
I feel that this is directly connected to what Yamano has unconsciously valued up until now. That is the perspective of not forcing anything on the viewer or user. I think that what is distinctive about his work, whether it be design work or his work as an artist, is that he always sets up some kind of framework or common language. Yamano says that he doesn't want to create a world where things can be understood or not understood solely through sensitivity, and this is one thing that remains consistent. Even if the theme seems overwhelming at first glance, you can immediately find some kind of entry point, some kind of ladder, and that is Yamano's work. There is always something that will comfort you, something that will show you something useful.
The thoughts behind the expression that is not a client work
In summer in Naha, the temperature and humidity outside are like those in the subtropics. However, when you look out at it from inside an old wooden house, you feel a mysterious calm, as if time has stopped. Yamano says that he spends his time in a relaxed and enriched state while looking at such a view.
Finally, we asked him about this piece.
"I didn't have any particular theme in mind. However, I have decided to put an end to my dual-base life in Okinawa in the near future. I will continue to visit Okinawa, but it will no longer feel like I live there, so in that sense, this feeling may have been the trigger. The friends who gave me the opportunity to live in Okinawa, who give me indigo for drawing, who make washi paper, and who apply beeswax to my paintings - all of these are connections I made in Okinawa. However, I don't want to convey my personal feelings to those who view the works, I want them to be viewed freely, so I have made them to be of a size and presence that will naturally fit into any space." (Yamano)
From Okinawa to Nara. Always for others and for myself
I read somewhere on a website that one of the defining features of Yamano Hideyuki's work is that it "has no style." I think that's wonderful. This doesn't mean that it lacks individuality, but rather that by minimizing the artist's branding-like qualities, his work is able to seamlessly integrate into the lives of those who use and view it. I also think that these pieces, which have been accumulated over a long period of time, are truly the "Yamano style."
Yamano is a traveller-like artist who freely moves between all kinds of creations and products. After putting an end to his life in Okinawa, he has chosen his family home in Nara as the next stage of his dual-base lifestyle.
" I decided to renovate my 81 -year-old mother's house so that she could live comfortably. She is the client, so to speak. I will also be staying there, so I am working with an architect friend to find a way to combine comfort and design," says Yamano.
At the end of the interview, I was reminded that one of the qualities of Yamano's work is kindness. I hope you will come and see these new works at MIN GALLERY in early autumn.
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Hideyuki Yamano - Exhibition of New Work
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Hideyuki Yamano
Born in Nara Prefecture in 1973 , he completed graduate studies at Kyoto Institute of Technology and moved to Tokyo as a founding member of the design group " groovisions ," which he had been involved with since his student days. After working in design and music, he left the group and joined the design firm " nana " to work on editorial design for Magazine House's " Relax " (currently on hiatus). He went independent in 2002 and has since worked on books, advertising, brand design, architectural signs, and more. In 2009 , he founded " TAKAIYAMA inc. "
Text by Mayuko Yamaguchi