Makoto Umebara (b. 1950) was born and raised in Kochi Prefecture, where he still resides, continuing to develop his roots there in his work. Beyond his work in graphic design, Umebara is also involved in copy, editing, production, management, and various other fields. While his work is often associated with regional revitalization, he works on locally inspired designs, that go beyond simply renewing product packaging.

He primarily utilizes design as a way to boost the appeal and value of both regions and industries. He always has the landscape in mind, and by physically visiting the locations and speaking to locals, he is able to capture the essence of products and places, and in so doing draw out what makes them special. This allows him to create designs that naturally call to mind the local landscape and producers. Umebara thinks of regional idiosyncrasies and originality as providing additional value and he is able to sublimate these into a single design; there are countless examples of industries that his skills have helped to revitalize in this way. 

In recent years, how to boost more rural areas has become a serious issue, but any bid to make them uniform and like the cities risks losing their charms. Each and every region has its own individual flavor, and even bad points are a type of individuality. Areas of Japan away from the major cities currently face various disadvantages, but Umebara’s approach is to blend what might be considered negatives to create positives. This concept has inspired the “We have nothing?” part of the exhibition’s title. While such regions may lack the kind of things that can be found almost anywhere else, they do have things that can only be found in these places. The idea is to breathe life into such things.

Umebara’s designs are a form of psychological and communications tool. In the way they arouse interest, make the viewer take pause, and promote a product, he enables them to function as a form of media in their own right. To do so, his work goes beyond merely creating visuals to be deeply involved in naming products, coming up with copy for them, and in some cases even helping with product development. Umebara says that he just does the work that comes across his desk, but the connotations of his designs go far beyond that.

This exhibition, which focuses on two of his most important projects, introduces a number of his works that are the result of interactions and emotional bonds with many others, alongside the words of the designer himself. The first is his project for Shimanto Ziguri, a brand from the Shimanto River valley created to help revitalize the area’s run-down Japanese chestnut orchards. The second is his project for the Sunahama Museum   , a museum that turns a 4 km stretch of sandy beaches in Kuroshio, Kochi Prefecture, into a giant exhibition space and makes the beach’s flora and fauna into part of the exhibit. Funnily enough, these projects cover both the sea and land, representing Kochi’s abundant nature. As Umebara himself puts it, the approach and rule that negatives can be blended to make a positive is behind his designs. We hope that this exhibition provides visitors with a chance to discover this central focus that runs through his designs.