Graphic designer Hagihara Takuya returns with even more details, wobbles and colours

In August 2016, a graphic glitch took over at It’s Nice That. Some kind of computer malfunction worked its way onto our screens, where colourful smears and abstract shapes were presented before us as if they were composing a message sent from the future. Well, this futuristic voyage is back, but this time it’s a little bit different.

Rather than relying solely on his own digital compositions, Hagihara Takuya (萩原 卓哉) has returned with a more refined and surrealist approach. The Tokyo-based artist and graphic designer has been working on a new series that sees him warping external imagery into something that’s slightly unrecognisable. Take the common street, for example – we’re used to seeing the road markings, cars driving by and street lamps shining the way. Yet the designer has taken this familiar scenario and added in a twist of graphic imagination, where unrealistically pink fluffy clouds are gushing in from the horizon and the lights are outlandishly blinkering in the night’s dusk. Relatable, indeed, but the artist’s manipulation techniques have steered it towards the supernatural.

Another image depicts an off-kilter perspective of a building, as seen through the mirrors of a reflective building sat opposite. The thing is, it’s not merely a reflection – the panels have been altered, enlarged and skewed slightly, making the building seem incredibly wobbly. Elsewhere, by using what seems to be disfigured bodies and various digital techniques, Hagihara has created a collection of abstract pieces that are majestically trippy.

Evidently, the designer’s work has evolved in such a manner that he seems to be applying more detail. Less so is he interested in a simple and abstract aesthetic, and more so is he turning towards a busy picture filled with colours and strange shapes. When asked about what’s changed specifically, the artist comments that this evolution is inevitable: “I like to create artworks that nobody has ever seen – I would prefer not to imitate my past artworks.”

To achieve this growth, Hagihara is constantly pushing himself with new techniques and creative methods, which includes those that he’s yet to challenge and “methods that [he’s] not good at.” As such, his main goal is exploration: “I am trying to exploit good flavours from unrefined visuals.”

In terms of his influences, Hagihara does not believe in the “existence of good things in any era.” Instead, his aesthetic is determined by the present, and he turns towards “normal daily life unconsciously” for his inspiration, just as “most people do”.

As for his background, the designer graduated from the Institute of Faculty of Technology Electronics in 2002 and has since been working freelance. Since we last spoke, he tells us how he’s still working on his graphic design pursuits, but that he’s also started to dabble in a bit of animation, too. “I’ve started to get job requests about animation production and I’m developing my skills in the medium,” he tells It’s Nice That. With plans to expand his skillset and send his works in multiple directions, it’s an exciting turn for the artist, to say the least.