1951 JAGDA Japanese graphic designer’s association was founded with Yusaku Kamekura as its president and Nippon Design Center was under director Kazumasa Nagai. They both developed in step with Japan’s flourishing economy.
By the 1960s, artists like Tadanori Yokoo were working within the psychedelic aesthetic typified by the works of such Western artists as Peter Max and Milton Glaser. The 1966 theater poster “Koshimaki-osen,” with its bold colors and electrified energy, wordlessly communicates the texture of both a specific theatrical event as well as the era’s zeitgeist. Yokoo adopted pop art and combined elements of Japanese popular imagery with other eclectic and unpredictable sources. He used collage technique.
1950
Ikko Tanaka’s “Noh Performance,” from 1958 was Influenced by the Swiss Neue Graphik movement. Superimposed a high-contrast photograph of a noh-theater mask over a checkered pattern of mostly subdued colors. A blend of traditional and contemporary elements, this poster marked Tanaka’s artistic debut and indicated the direction he would follow. His series for the Kanze Noh Theater began in the late 1950s and continued throughout.
Yoshio Hayakawa’s 1952 poster using offset lithograph for a dressmaking school illustrates the first tentative steps to synthesize a particularly Japanese sensibility with a Western aesthetic vocabulary.
Yusaku Kamekura and Ikko Tanaka posters for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 were the first examples of Japanese graphic design to receive international publicity. Kamekura was a master of modernist classicism. “Design” Magazine cover (1959) by Kamekura
1960 Yusaku Kamekura co-founded the Nippon Design Centre (Tokyo) in 1960 with Ikko Tanaka and as its director succeeded in bringing together graphic designers and industry at a period when Japanese business was deeply influenced by Western ideas.
Artist Makoto Nakamura and photographer Noriaki Yokosuka’s “Shiseido Perfume” poster from 1978 features the close-up eye of top international model Sayoko Yamaguchi and a part of a gold foil fan to present the Japanese ideal of feminine beauty from a new perspective. The poster for Shiseido Nail Enamel creates similar effect with the close-up photography. Makoto Nakamura revolutionized cosmetics advertising with his close-up photos for Shiseido.
1970
Makoto Saito has worked in fashion and media since the early 80s. His style was highly versatile and the main technique he used was photomontage, text free compositions without the aid of computer. He positively relished the accidental and unexpected.
“Hiroshima Appeals: 1983,” created by the Japan Graphic Designers Association for the Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation, speaks softly and powerfully to the memory of the victims of unspeakable horror: plummeting from the sky are iridescent butterflies, falling to earth, consumed in flames. Kamekura’s famous work for Expo ‘70 exhibition.
Yusaku Kamekura’s “Amnesty” from 1983, likewise overtly and successfully communicates — as does all effective art — by virtue of the simplicity of its concept, the clarity and brevity of its presentation, and its critical sense to know and understand their audience.
1980