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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Dr. Peter Jones is Distinguished University Professor of Systemic Design at Tec de Monterrey, and an associate professor at Toronto’s OCAD University. He is a cofounder of the Systemic Design Association (systemic. design) and the RSD Symposia series, and is Editor in Chief of the SDA journal Contexts. Peter is the founder of Redesign Network, an innovation research firm, leading systemic and platform design and research in healthcare, informatics and media, and public sector strategy. He has …
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Chae Hee-joon
Specialized in Korean typography at Kaywon University of Art and Design. Focused on font production, he is an active member of the design studio FORMULA. He has released typefaces such as Cheongwol, Cheongjo, Choseol, Goyo, Shinsegae, Tal, Classic, Giha, and Omin. Passionate about creating typefaces, he enjoys the process of detecting and studying subtle differences in letterforms. -
Kang Sung-joong
After graduating from Hanyang University with a degree in precision mechanical engineering, he worked as an engineer at Ssangyong Engineering before graduating from Seoul National University with a degree in industrial design. He then completed a master’s degree in industrial design at Seoul National University, a master’s degree in interaction design at Carnegie Mellon University, and a doctorate in design at Seoul National University. He has trained designers at Hanyang University … -
Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold also known as Iwan Tschichold or Ivan Tschichold, was a German calligrapher, typographer and book designer. He played a significant role in the development of graphic design in the 20th century – first, by developing and promoting principles of typographic modernism, and subsequently idealizing conservative typographic structures. His direction of the visual identity of Penguin Books in the decade following World War II served as a model for the burgeoning design practice of … -
Oh Byung-keun
His teaching and research focuses on visualization for information and knowledge transfer. He is also interested in design-centered and interdisciplinary approaches for desirable interactions between humans and information, humans and media, and humans and space. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. in design from Seoul National University and his M.F.A. from New York University Graduate Center, and is currently a professor of visual design at Yonsei University, College of Design and Art. His books … -
Lee Ju-yeon
An architectural critic, journalist, and architectural culture planner. Former editor-in-chief of the architecture and design magazine 《SPACE》, and currently a contributing editor for the architectural critique journal 《(WIDE AR)》. Focuses on the social and public aspects of architecture, as well as its relationship with civil society and urban communities. -
Kim Yu-yeong
She is a Ph.D. candidate at Yonsei University’s HCI Lab. She is currently working with HAII (a company specializing in digital therapeutics) on the planning, development, and clinical trials of a digital therapeutic for language therapy targeting stroke patients. She has directly experienced the A to Z of creating digital therapeutics and researches how patients can better and continuously benefit from digital therapy. She co-authored The Digital Therapeutics Revolution: Everything About … -
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 … -
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. -
Fujimori Terunobu
Fujimori Terunobu is a Japanese architect and architectural historian. He studied at Tōhoku University before entering graduate school at the University of Tokyo. Whilst writing his thesis in the 1970s Fujimori formed the Architecture Detectives. In this group he and his colleagues searched the city to find and photograph early Western-style buildings. During the 1970s and 1980s he made studies of the city about early Western buildings and unusual occurrences, and did not turn to architecture … -
Ahn Young-joo
Ahn Young-joo graduated from Hongik University, Department of Art, and received her doctorate from the same university with a thesis titled “Critical Discourse on Vernacular Design and Political Possibilities.” She has lectured on various design cultural theories such as design and material culture, design history, and craft theory at Hongik University and Konkuk University, and is currently an adjunct professor at Konkuk University’s Department of Industrial Design. Her publications include … -
Yoon Hei-jeong
Yoon Hei-jeong has been at the forefront of culture and art since the 1990s, writing about the work, philosophy, and lives of contemporary artists. She began her editorial career as a founding member of the film magazine Film 2.0, then worked as a feature director for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue , and in 2009 founded Bazaar Art , a publication that explores the coexistence of fashion and art. She is the author of Life, Art (2022), a book about contemporary art as experienced in everyday …