First ever design philosophy manga?! Author - Hiroshi Ohbayashi x Corsica Interview

Author: Sena Kondo
A sentence like this may leave you scratching your head, but this is actually an important theory in design, called Affordance.
Though seemingly complicated, the comic Affordance breaks it down into bite-sized pieces of information. Written and overseen by information architecture cum experience design expert Hiroshi Ohbayashi, it comes with lovely illustrations by illustrator, manga artist Corsica.

In celebration of that, Ohbayashi and Corsica will be bringing us stories from behind the scenes this time!

- Hiroshi Ohbayashi
- President of OVERKAST Inc., an information architectural company that observes its relationships with its users, think about the quality of their experiences and further design media. Also the in charge of ÉKRITS. Teaches at the Toyo Art School (Toyo Bijutsu Gakko) at the School of Creative Design as a UX Design teacher.

- Corsica
- Manga artist. Born and raised in Tokyo in 1983. Graduated from the Japan Designer Institution (Nihon Designer Gakuin), School of Graphic Design, and was the 7th batch of E to Bi to Ga to Jitsu (Literally Drawing and Art) from Bigakko. Also works as an illustrator, and deals with a range of media.
Your view of the world can change sharply with just a simple change in mindset.









It started from the work How Do You Read Manga?



For example, phrases whispered are written in speech bubbles with broken lines yeah? Ohbayashi didn't understand those.










The highly anticipated sequel, Symbols and Abduction!


Abduction was the first thing that came to mind when I was looking for things other than affordance that were important. Abduction refers to a theory based on experience. However, I had to rack my brains to think of a plot..... It was then I thought of using semiology to express myself. Both abduction and semiology are concepts thought of by a philosopher called Peirce. Under my understanding, Peirce sees these two fields as related.

It was pretty tough trying to understand symbols and abduction. I think I kind of got the hang of it as I was drawing...probably? I had many simple references when drawing for Affordance, but not so much for Symbols and Abduction, making it harder......


Symbols and Abduction, print version now on sale via the online shop!
Ideology and philosophy, these complicated sounding concepts may having you running away. However, just the slightest bit of new information can change the way you see things, and the way you think about things, giving you an edge in your creative career.
Symbols and Abduction is (probably) the world's first educational manga about the complicated concepts of semilology and abduction. You can read it online on the website ÉKRITS that Ohbayashi runs, or find stores that sell it via the ÉKRITS STORE.
▶ Read online here
▶ Buy online here
▶ Find out where to buy here