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
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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 …
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Lee Kyu-chul
Lee Kyu-chul (1948-1994, Incheon) graduated from Hongik University in 1974, majoring in sculpture. In 1975, he left for Saudi Arabia, where he worked as an administrator and videographer for the Vinnell Company in the United States. In 1983, he entered graduate school at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, but returned home after three semesters. He had his first solo exhibition, Space and Visual Perception (Kwanhoon Museum of Art, 1988), which he spent time researching alone, and … -
Yu Hye-young
She graduated from Sookmyung Women’s University in 1994 with a degree in Industrial Design and completed her MFA at Elisaba Design School in 2000. He has exhibited at Sol Ferino , Seoul Design Festival Milan (Milan, 2007), Seoul Design Olympics, Design is Air (Seoul, 2008), Spanish Kitchen at Samji Gallery, Insadong (Seoul, 2009), and Casas Marcs Illustration Group (Barcelona, 2010). Since 2003, he has been a design exhibition commissioner and curator, organizing various exhibitions, and … -
Kim Jin-sub
A pilgrim who travels around the country in search of book-making tools and machines, a collector who collects books handmade by senior craftsmen, a connector who is networked with professionals in the publishing and printing industry, a squirrelly teacher who can’t throw away anything once he gets his hands on it and hides it here and there like an acorn, a cranky old man who finds happiness in the things he collects, but sometimes struggles with insomnia, and the owner of the tools … -
Ogawa Naho
Ogawa Naho is a unique and whimsical sensibility who draws with elegant and delicate lines and brings her own playfulness to her paintings. She studied at Parsons School of Design in New York City, which gives her drawings a distinctly New York style. She has traveled and worked with luxury brands, fashion magazines, and famous department stores in the world’s biggest cities, including Anna Sui, Vogue , Elle , Newsweek , Wall Street Journal , The New Yorker , Ja Cosmetics , Hong Kong … -
Han Myoung-sik
Graduated with a degree in Interior Design from the École Municipale des Beaux-Arts Appliqués in Lyon, France, and worked as an interior designer at LG Chem. Currently, teaches and explores architectural spaces with students in the Department of Interior Architecture at Daegu Haany University. -
Kelly M. Choi
Studied visual design and typography at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and The Basel School of Design. Currently runs the brand Once Type, exploring the visual potential of letters. -
Yongrak Park
He is the Creative Director of Fontworks Inc., a font design company he co-founded in 2005. With over 25 years of experience, he is recognized as one of South Korea’s leading type designers. He has developed corporate fonts for Samsung, Kakao, Naver, Hyundai Card, Nexon, the Korea Publishers Association, MBC, KBS, YTN News, Dong-A Ilbo, Lotte Mart, Daishin Securities, and LINE Japan, among others. His work includes commercial typefaces such as Yoon Gothic and Yoon Myungjo, Rix Gothic and … -
손용학
1970년에 동산방에 들어가 박주환 선생에게 표구를 배웠으며, 1986년에 낙원표구사로 옮긴 후 2002년에 묵호당을 열어 현재까지 표구업에 몸담고 있는 50년 이상 경력의 표구 장인이다. 2014년부터 2019년까지 한국표구협회 회장을 지냈으며, 문화재수리기능자 제1365호 자격을 보유하고 있으며, 고용노동부 선정 숙련기술전수자(배첩기능) 제2021-3호로 지정되었다. 2024년에는 이화여자대학교에서 표구를 가르쳤다. -
Park Hey-kyung
She studied Western painting at Seoul National University College of Fine Arts and its graduate school. She received a master’s degree in interior design from Drexel University in the United States and a doctorate in architectural planning from Kyungpook National University’s Graduate School of Engineering. She is currently a professor at Inje University’s Department of Design. -
Josh A. Halstead
Josh Halstead is an epistemic activist working at the intersection of critical disability studies, design pedagogy, and community organizing. A recognized contributor to disability design discourse, they seek to unsettle and rupture normative systems of thought by centering marginalized perspectives. Halstead has been an invited lecturer in academic and industry settings—from Stanford to Google—and is co-author of the forthcoming book Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Non-Binary … -
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: …