Harajuku Today Process Book

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PROCESS BOOK プロセスブック

Senior Design Capstone: 2018 Amanda Reiter

HARAJUKU TODAY

First Steps For my senior capstone project, I made a book about the current state and history of Harajuku fashion subcultures. So much of the literature on Harajuku fashion available is dated, and only talk about these styles that were around back in the 90s. There is so little information available on Harajuku from the past 10 years so I would like to change that. The styles it became popular for are gone due to changes in style/aesthetics over the years, as well asTourists/gentrification pushing a lot of people out of the area. In addition, popular street snap magazines from Harajuku such as “Fruits” and “Kera” have closed down as a result of the internet and Instagram becoming more popular ways to share information. As a result, many people are worried about Harajuku being “dead” because these 90s styles that were so popularized no longer exist.I want my book to not only speak to the history of Harajuku, but also bring an update to the conversation on Harajuku fashion, what is going on now, and why it’s still flourishing.

At the beginning, I had no idea where I wanted to go with the concept and style of my book. A lot of the imagery relating to Harajuku is so wild and colorful, that I knew I wanted my design to match that. Because HArajuku is made up of so many different styles, I struggled with the concept of finding just one and sticking to it. This problem later lead me to figuring out a big solution to the overall form and function of my book as an object.

A lot of the imagery I collected involved fun, colorful imagery from Japanese magazines, as well as artists. In addition, I had a ton of Japanese street style magazines with these “Street snaps” of people on the streets, so I knew I definitely wanted to use those as imagery in some way.

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Original inspiration board and photos of Harajuku street snaps

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Selection While looking at book bindings, I found an interesting solution to my problem. I very much so resonated with the quote “Harajuku is not a specific style or look — it is a special zone of creativity. Many iconic fashion subcultures have been born in Harajuku, but none of those styles define it.” and used this as a jumping off point. I wanted my book to operate similarly to Harajuku.

Harajuku is a place made up of tons of different aesthetics, styles and people coming together to make it a whole. This, my book can operate the same. By splitting up my book into three main sections to each have different paper sizes, grids, colors, and typefaces, they can all come together to make a cohesive book. Just like how the different styles in Harajuku all come together to make one place. Like Harajuku, my book can’t be defined by one thing.

For my information, I decided to split it up into three sections after much thought about the information I had, and what I wanted to share with my viewers. The first section will be on the history of Harajuku fashion, the second on the current state of Harajuku/gentrification and toruism of the area, and the third section ending on a positive note showing the a catalogue of the current styles/subcultures in Harajuku.

Because information on Harajuku that is current is so hard to find, I had to reach out to Megan Russell, a pHD from the University of Wales to get a transcript for her lecture on kawaii cultures in Harajuku and what is happening to them now that she gave at a “Fruits 10th Anniversary” celebration late last year.

In addition, for my history of HArajuku section I used an essay written in the book “Japan Fashion Now” by Valerie Steele. For the last section cataloging the different styles, I had to do my own research and writing, and connect with my own friends involved in Harajuku communities and go deep into Japanese sites and translate to find out whats happening there now.

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Some rough image experimentation.

A big challenge was taking the way Harajuku has been documented (street snaps, etc.) to look visually compelling and interesting.

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(top) Some initial layouts for the first section (bottom) Some initial cover concepts for the second section focusing on maps and the street

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Process During my first critiques, I was told that I would need some sort of visually compelling way to get people to understand and locate themselves into this world I am sharing. I came up with the idea of opening up with pictures from the classic Harajuku fashion walks that everyone knows and imagines when they think of Harajuku. The Harajuku fashion walks are such an integral part of the spirit of Harajuku, as people gather together in their styles to make friends, connect, and parade around the space showing their creativity. I wanted to start the book with the people walking towards the viewer, and end with them walking away as we see them go into the distance. This would bring the viewer on a journey as they follow this group of people on their walk around Harajuku.

I also thought of opening the section section, which is primarily focused on the location itself, with a map to place the viewer in Harajuku and give them a sense of space. I wanted to contunue this theme of “street” throughout, and started working on ways to do this.

I had the idea to create an exquisite corpse of the different fashion subctulures that are there now for the third section, but felt it needed more of a purpose. I reasoned adding in text that describes why each part of the corpose is essential to each style, and use each image as a different picture. That way it is fun, but also could be used as a teaching tool.

Finally, I started finding better photographs and thinking more about what I’m trying to say with my photos. I opted to not draw designs on them, as that takes away from essence of the fashion and draws focus away. I liked the idea of using patterns and collages in the first section with the street snap photos, to show the excitement and fun of the mish mash of styles that are involved in Harajuku’s history. I also at first wanted the text for this first section to be flipped, as I thought that was exciting but later decided against because that would be a bit overwhelming for the viewer to start off with.

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(above) initial sketch of my exquisite corpse teaching device idea

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Experimenting with different display and body typefaces

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Different concepts for my second section, focusing on the “street�

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For the second section, II wanted to focus on the special zone of Harajuku, based on geography and street, as this part deals with the problems going on in the location itself. I decided to switch out the baby pink background I had initially for something that was more remniscient of a road. I tried gravelly textures, but those just looked busy. I also attempted to have gradients on the sides or spine to represent all the grafitti that exists in Harajuku. The greys I chose initially seen on this page were a bit too dark, so I deided to go with a lighter color grey later on to be less obvious and more airy.

Image wise, while the other two sections I focus more on the fashion itself and thus use street snap images, this section I opted formore candid photos that show the location better.

I wanted to show what Harajuku looks like to the locals who interact witht the space, and what it looks like when its open and there are no tourism around. This gives the viewer an inside look to the workings of the location, untouched by the outside world.

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For the cover of the second section, I struggled a bit in deciding what to do. I opted out of the first image I chose for one that was a lot less busy. While looking for inspiration from Japanese streets, I came across images of Japanese traffic signs and really like the graphic element to them. For this reason I wanted to try and use them in my cover, as well as possibly in my pages as well.

I had wanted my three sections to be numbered, and found the traffic signs a perfect way to incorporate the Section “02� for this part of the book in a smart way, because it would not show up without something around it on the dark grey background.

I also had the idea of putting a distance bar at the top right of my pages, to make the pages seem like part of a greater map.

I ended up taking that out in the end, as it seemed a bit too decorative and lacked any real purpose.

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(above) an image of different Japanese traffic signs that I used as inspiration

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Above, you can see my different concepts for the different covers of the book. I ended up scrapping the idea to number each section, as I deemed it was unnecessary because it was already pretty obvious with their different sizes that they were different sections.

My next big decisions involved the third section, and how to make this section visually compelling. It was a big challenge, because I had to come up with a grid system and concept that was completely different than the first two. I struggled a bit, as I couldn’t come up with another idea. In the end, I really enjoyed the simple, minimalistic style I employed. The first section was colorful and crazy to speak tot he creativity of the area, the second was street based, and I reaized the third was all about information about the new styles. I didnt want crazy colored backgrounds or styles to get in the way of the documentation of styles I had here, so I opted for a clean system to really showcase each subculture.

To spice things up, decided to create an interesting table of contents involving silhouettes of the different styles that were then seperated and shown with a page number, so viewers could see all the different styles at once and decide which one they wanted to see in a visual way.

Just listed “Cult Party Kei” with the page number doesn’t say enough about what that is, so I thought it would be nice to show it all at first as a preview for what is to come. I also decided to colorize each section’s titles and bullet points in a certain color to give a distinct color code to each subculture.

For this section, not only did I give a summary of each style, I also listed key points and elements to each so that viewers could know where to start and what to wear if they wanted to dress in the style, or just wanted a laundry list of each style’s different elements to see what is involved. Overall, I wanted it to work as a guide to the current subcultures (as Harajuku subculture communities are pretty strict, have specific ways to do them) and I think what I ended with was successful.

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Different concepts for the third section and its’ table of contents drafts

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Cover I started working on the cover at this point. At first I was going to have a big cover that laid on top, not showing the other sections but realized it would look best if the cover was smaller so that the other sections could peak through, to better display this metaphor of Harajuku being made of tons of different styles coming together. This from the start, the viewer can see the fun and color involved in Harajuku.

(bottom left) experimenting with using english subtitles on my cover (top left) initial cover concepts that were later dropped

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Various mockups of what my book would look like from the top, with each section peaking through

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I wanted the cover to subtly reference things from different sections. The shooting out lines and closed format with japanese reference the first section, the typeface references the second section, and the silhouettes reference the third.

I also worked to make sure that each section head was different enough from eachother so it would be visually interesting. the first being a solid color, the second being a location photo, and the third being a close up of a pattern.

I considered adding English to first cover page, but it didn’t look quite right. I rationed it was Ok to not have a subtitle in English on the cover, but instead to have it on the poster for the exhibit.

In the end, I went with the yellow cover as that looked the best and was different enough from the other covers. I ended up moving the elements on the each section so that none of it would be obscured by the covers in front of it, or peek out awkwardly and look like a mistake.

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Poster For my poster I really started having a lot of fun making new things and trying out different styles. I started with using 3D type to give a sense of space, and went with the idea in my final poster concept. It was a bit hard to sum up my entire book into one poster, as there were so many different parts to it. I ended up creating something that was a different style than used in my book, but still had a similar color scheme and vibe. It felt very colorful, and used the type as a location of space with a street in the background. I used the silhouettes of Harajuku kids popping out from behind the letters, to show them interacting with the type. In the end, I felt it was a lot more successful than my other concepts, as it matched the vibe of my book a lot better than others.

Initial poster experiments that were not used in the end

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(right) final exhibit poster design

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Binding One of the hardest but most important parts of my book to figure out was the binding. I initially planned to do a Japanese stab stich, but when that was done the book would not lie open and things in the margin could not be seen. I then considered seriously doing a spiral bound book, and using neon coords. But I realized if I did this, holes would have to be poked through the image and I would have to change the bleed for each page and it might look a big funny. I couldn’t find any example of people who had bound large amounts of different sized pages together in anything but spiral bound. After doing a lot of research on binding, I found an image of a book that was made through coptic stich, and showed me it would be possible to bind different sized paper this way. This would be perfect, as coptic stich books lie open flat, and the visible stich work would help my metaphor of showing harajuku as being “stiched” together.

I could not find the right color linen string that I needed to bind my book so that it would be strong, so I took matters into my own hands my painting all of the string I used and then waxing it so it wouldn’t get on the pages.

(below) Main inspiration concept for final binding (right) different binding string color options that I painted

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Finished Book + Crit I ended up going with a silver for the string of my book as it balanced out the neon colors of the covers. In the end, it worked out beautifully and I was so incredibly proud of my finished result. The binding was a huge struggle, but I think it turned out really well.

Many people have an idea of Harajuku as being a place that is crazy, random or superficial—but there is a lot of rich inspiration, lifestyles and communities associated within each style.

My capstone aims to deepen the understanding and appreciation for these styles and creativity, as well as bring an update to the conversation about what is happening in Harajuku today.

My book stands as a testament to the fact that no, Harajuku is not dead, it is very much so alive and thriving.

During my critique, I was happy to have gotten very positive feedback. I got the suggestion to continue my research on Harajuku, and maybe even add another section about my Harajuku fashion community back at home in Los Angeles to bring another point of view to the book. I also will be in Tokyo this summer, so I’m hoping to continue making content about the subject, possibly in the form of animation, video, or zines to keep exploring and showcasing the creativity in the area. The only legitimate critique I got was that some of my type was a bit off, and there were a few problems with units/spacing. I am planning on making another 2 copies for myself, and have fixed these things for those copies.

Overall, this process was incredibly rewarding and I’m very proud of my finished work. Harajuku fashion subcultures are something that I’ve been very passionate about for a long time, and I’m glad I was able to bring the subject justice in my book design. I cannot wait for what the future holds design wise!

(left) Final book photographs

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Final Images of each section head

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