HAPPENING

“HAPPENING,” an art book by graphic designer and art director Asuka Wakida.

This is a collection of works based on her master's thesis at Tokyo University of the Arts, featuring Wakida's own diary entries, photographs, and other actual records. It includes illustrations of people she met and events that occurred each day, presented on a two-page spread per day. New works from 2018 were added, and it was published by STAIRS PRESS in 2019.

As the title "HAPPENING" suggests, the book depicts not extraordinary events but rather the small happenings of everyday life. Conversations with friends, landscapes seen during travel, people encountered in the city, subtle shifts in emotion—such fragments are quietly rendered with soft lines and colors.

“Our daily lives are full of happenings.
Every seemingly insignificant day is wonderful and fateful.”

As these words convey, the book is underpinned by an outlook that meticulously observes daily life.

While an illustration collection, it also evokes the feeling of a diary, a drawing book, a design book, or even a personal novel, crystallizing Asuka Wakida's very sensibility towards life into a single volume.

The book design is by Hana Yazaki. The soft codex binding is also a charming feature.

Recipient of the Taito City Mayor's Encouragement Award in 2017.

[Title] HAPPENING
[Publisher] STAIRS PRESS
[Publication Date] October 2019
[Page Count] 216 pages
[Dimensions] Approx. 120×160×21mm
[Format] Board cover, codex binding, 4C
[Language] Japanese / English
[Title Reading] HAPPENING
[Author/Editor, etc.] Asuka Wakida / Author, Hana Yazaki / Book Design, Editing, Wan Chaofan / Editing, Maki Sato / Translation
[Printing] Inunick
[ISBN] 9784908851070
[Condition] New
[Accessories] Bookmark
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibition] 2020 "HAPPENING" (MIDORI.so2 Gallery OMOTESANDO)

Asuka Wakida (wakida asuka) 1993-

Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1993. Graphic designer, art director.

Graduated from the Department of Design at Tokyo University of the Arts and completed her master's degree at the same university. After working at Cozfish, she became independent.

While engaged in design across a wide range of fields including books, exhibitions, advertising, and fashion brands, she also continues to create her own artworks such as art books and scarves.

She has handled numerous art direction and graphic design projects for PARCO, LUMINE, HARUTA, ZUCCa, and the Doraemon 50th Anniversary Project, among others. Her designs are characterized by their ability to meticulously capture emotions and atmospheres found in daily life, along with a distinctive sense of color.

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