Ikko Tanaka was a Japanese graphic designer. Tanaka is widely recognized for his prolific body of interdisciplinary work, which includes graphic identity and visual matter for brands and corporations including Seibu Department Stores, Mazda, Issey Miyake, Hanae Mori, and Expo 85. He is credited with developing the foundational graphic identity for lifestyle brand Muji, emphasizing the “no brand” quality of their products through unadorned, charming line drawings paired with straightforward slogans. His use of bold, polychromatic geometries and his harnessing of the dynamic visual potential of typography are undergirded by a sensitivity towards traditional Japanese aesthetics. Though keenly sensitive to historical precedents and established conventions, Tanaka nevertheless maintained a degree of playfulness in his work, manipulating color, scale, and form to reconfigure familiar iconographies into fresh and accessible visual representations. Tanaka is also widely recognized for his posters designs for Noh productions and other performances and exhibitions staged in Japan and beyond. He was active in realms of typography, exhibition design, and book design as well, and his publication Japan Style was released in 1980 alongside the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition of the same name. As a leading figure in postwar Japanese design, Tanaka is also credited with playing a role in the professionalization and expansion of the discipline.
Authors
Tanaka Ikko
田中一光
다른 사람들
-
Yang Sunghee studied architecture in college. After studying publishing translation at GIbab Academy, she is currently a member of Barun Translation and a professional Japanese translator. The books she translated include Treasured Stories of Ryunosuke Akutagawa (co-translation) and Natural Interior Decorated with DIY.
-
Joachim Müller-Lancé
He graduated with honors from the Basel School of Design in Switzerland and studied art at the Cooper Union in New York, USA. He worked as a senior designer for The Understanding Business and Barclays Global Investors, and organized cultural exhibitions and publications for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. In 1993, he won a gold medal at the Morisawa Typeface Competition in Lancecerro. He is currently the head of Kame Design Studio, where he focuses on graphic design, type design, and … -
Yonsei HCI Lab
The Yonsei HCI Lab focuses on research in human-AI interaction, with a special emphasis on UX design for digital health systems that enhance well-being and treat diseases. The lab members, who are not just HCI experts but ‘Experience Engineers,’ are dedicated to developing innovative digital health products that help bring meaningful experiences through AI technology. -
Lee Suk-woo
Lee Suk-woo graduated from Hongik University, worked for Samsung Electronics in South Korea, Fuse Project and Teague in the US, and acted as a global creative leader and chief designer at Google-Motorola, Korea. Following the establishment of the industrial design office SWNA in 2011, he established his own object brand, The Liberal Office. In 2015, he was selected as one of the top 10 Global Design Studios in the design concept category at the Red Dot Awards and received the Minister of Trade, … -
Seo Yu-kyung
She is a lawyer, patent attorney, and legal designer. She received her B.A. in design and information culture from Seoul National University, her J.D. from Kyungpook National University College of Law, and her J.D. from Seoul National University, specializing in intellectual property law, with a thesis entitled A Study on the Intellectual Property Law System for Protecting the Form of Virtual Goods. While running the law firm Artis, he served as a lawyer for legal counseling for artists at the … -
William Bevington
He is on the executive team of the Parsons Institute for Information Mapping(PIIM) New School. He currently teaches at Parsons School of Design. He has worked at Rudolf de Harak & Associates, Peter Schmidt Studio(Hamburg, Germany), and the world-renowned Pushpin Group, and taught design and typography at Cooper Union for 15 years. He has also been a visiting lecturer at Columbia University and the State University of New York at Purchase. -
Akasegawa Genpei
Akasegawa Genpei was a pseudonym of Japanese artist Akasegawa Katsuhiko (赤瀬川克彦), born March 27, 1937 in Yokohama. He used another pseudonym, Otsuji Katsuhiko (尾辻克彦), for literary works. A member of the influential artist groups Neo-Dada Organizers and Hi-Red Center, Akasegawa went on to maintain a multi-disciplinary practice throughout his career as an individual artist. In 1986, Akasegawa and his collaborators, Terunobu Fujimori and Shinbo Minami, to announce the formation of a new group: … -
Yang Ok-kum
Yang Ok-kum studied Performance Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art in the UK, completed an MA in Art and Space (Curating) at Kingston University Graduate School, and completed a certificate program in Museum Studies at Harvard University. She began her career as an intern at the List Visual Arts Center at MIT, where she worked as a curator at Gallery SSamji, the Dean of Academic Affairs at Hansol Cultural Foundation (now Museum SAN), and Chief Curator at Hyundai Card, and is … -
MERRY-MJ
Born in 1983 in South Korea. He earned a master’s degree in graphic design from Tama Art University Graduate School of Art and completed the TOMSBOX Picture Book Workshop training program in 2009. In 2010, she won the Jury Prize from art director Morimoto Chie at the Illustrated Notes (Seibundo Shinkosha) Notes exhibition, and in 2014, she was selected as Illustrator of the Year at La Fiera del Libroper Ragazzi di Bologna (Bologna International Children’s Book Fair) in Italy. She … -
Choi Min-young
Graduated from the department of industrial design at KAIST, earned a master’s degree in industrial design from the same institution, and completed the doctoral coursework there. With practical experience in product design and interaction design, served as a senior designer at Daewoo Motors and as the head of the research institute at Decos Interactive. Currently, a professor specializing in Interaction Product Design in the Department of Industrial Design at Sungshin Women’s … -
Leonard Koren
Leonard Koren was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. While a teenager he designed and built a full-scale Japanese tea house out of scavenged materials. While an undergraduate student at UCLA, Koren was awarded a fellowship to pursue experiments in photographic process. He also worked as an exhibition installer at the university’s fine arts and ethnographic museums. In 1969 Koren quit school and co-founded the Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad, a trompe l’oeil mural painting group that … -
Fukasawa Naoto
Naoto Fukasawa was born in 1956 in Yamanashi, Japan. He graduated from Tama Art University in 1980 and began his career at Seiko Epson, where he worked on advanced designs for watches and other micro-electronic devices. In 1989, he joined ID Two, a San Francisco-based product design firm that later became IDEO. In 1996, Fukasawa returned to Japan to establish and oversee IDEO’s Tokyo office. In 2003, he founded Naoto Fukasawa Design . Since 2001, he has served as a design advisor for MUJI …