Akihiro Kumagaya w/ H>FRACTAL

City culture and fashion of design.
Design, put simply, is man's visualization of advancement.
Although often passing unnoticed, intelligent, elegant design enriches and revolutionizes our daily lives.

As yet unreleased, the Olympus camera bag designed by Akihiro Kumagaya has already been attracting a wave of attention.

The Tokyo based designer has created quite a stir within the fashion industry having received numerous design awards during his young career, promising a very exciting future.
Whilst attending ICS College of Arts, Kumagaya procured several contracts as product designer with a number of famous manufacturers.
His activities however, extend beyond product design to client management, graphic design and branding, consistently unifying "what I can make with how I think".
The idea is extremely simple: Focus on functionality but never compromise beauty.

*credit : produced by Artéfactory. designed by Akihiro Kumagaya.

This camera bag encapsulates his talent.
The result of a year long design study the bag is now ready for production.
It is currently at the first stage of Olympus' product and advertising strategy.
Serving as an accessory rather than a utility bag, current Olympus spokeswoman, Aoi Miyazaki, was also an influence in its development, inspiring a product that both men and women can use.
Functionality is provided by easy access to the digital SLR camera and two lenses.
Whereas most other camera bags are cumbersome, unstylish and quite masculine, Kumagaya's bag is sleek and versatile, with an adjustable belt allowing it to be adapted for a variety of situations whilst never losing its protectiveness.
Although it may appear simple in design, the structure is surprisingly complex.
The functionality, process, and rationality earned praise from Issey Miyake.

Communication skills are essential in the production process, whether it be between the craftsmen who assemble the product, the client and the designer or the designer and the customer. It is a strength that is crucial to a designer and perhaps it's Kumagaya's prowess in this area that distinguishes him from the rest. He possesses an admirable awareness of balance, flexibility, and rationality.

Kumagaya regards this "one of the ideas", judged as important as the previous "what" and "how", as it determines the faithfulness of the final product with the original idea.

His design field is unlimited but his designs are deconstructed to "appropriate points" by "appropriate works". To truly accomplish work is to "design" originally.

H>FRACTAL will open as a street store in Harajuku later this spring and Kumagaya is in control of the branding design.
The design of the H>FRACTAL logo is based on the minimalism of club culture and everything will be designed in accordance with the theme of geometry.

The image of the brand as a whole is obviously dependant on the branding.

The name, Akihiro Kumagaya, a man who started in an industry where image is vital, will be heard increasingly in the future.

Kumagaya was in charge of VI (Visual Identity) and concept creation for Harajuku based CONCEPT shop "H>FRACTAL" opened by fashion brand "ACHIEVERS".

Kumagaya talks about VI CONCEPT-
"The logo itself represents the conceptual diagram of the fractal, which has the shape of a triangle.
Triangle is very pure and minimal shape used for design.
Moreover, it is the shape, which can be considered basic in terms of substance and efficient structure if you are talking about architecture.
As H>FRACTAL Shop is going to establish new culture in the future, I chose the Fractal VI CONCEPT because of its ability to imply numerous interpretations regardless of genre."

official site

H>FRACTAL official site