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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An illustrator who believes in the comforting power of pictures. Starting with the magazine Madang in 1982, he has worked in various fields such as newspapers, magazines, books, picture books, and advertisements. He taught at Hongik University’s Visual Design Department and the Korea School of Illustration for many years. He illustrated the picture books Tiger , It’s raining , Boy , and Reading Poetry , and wrote and illustrated Blue Walk , I’m Big, You’re Small , and …
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Kwon Min-ho
Drawer, illustrator. He studied visual communication at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art (RCA) postgraduate program. His work is based on drawing and new media, blurring the boundaries between illustration and fine art painting. He has worked with Factum-Arte, Bompas & Parr, Jotta studio, and RA in London, and has won awards such as the Jerwood Drawing Prize, V&A Illustration Awards, and RCA Sustain, a London design festival. He has presented and curated exhibitions … -
John Hill
John Hill is an architect, freelance writer and editor, and published author. He grew up in Chicago, went to architecture school in Kansas, and then moved to New York City after working at an architecture firm in Chicago for ten years. Since the move to NYC in 2006 he has written seven books on architecture. The latest, Buildings in Print , surveys 100 seminal architecture books published since Le Corbusier’s Towards a New Architecture . -
Valentina Vergara
Valentina Vergara is a multidisciplinary designer and illustrator who’s interested in using design as a catalyst for change. She’s collaborated on projects addressing gender disparity in graphic design education and continues to explore ways in which she can dismantle oppressive design thinking and continue to advocate for and uplift marginalized perspectives. -
김재엽
홍익대학교 산업디자인학과 교수로, 지능형 인터랙션 디자인 연구실을 운영한다. 삼성, 마이크로소프트, 노키아 등 AI 산업 최전선에서 20년가량 활약해왔고, 현재 네이버 검색 디자인 설계 총괄 이사를 지내며 생성형 AI 검색 디자인 설계를 총괄한다. 뉴욕 파슨스스쿨오브디자인에서 커뮤니케이션 디자인을 전공했고 영국 왕립예술학교에서 디자인 인터랙션 석사 학위를 받았다. 생성형 AI가 가져올 검색 패러다임의 변화와, 기술과 인간의 조화로운 공존을 연구한다. AI와 디자인의 융합을 통한 자연스러운 사용자 경험 설계에 주력하며, AI 시대의 새로운 전문가상을 제시한 『패스트 무버』를 집필했다. -
Peter Jones
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 … -
Ahn Sung-jin
Ahn Sung-jin graduated from the Department of Theater and Film at Chung-Ang University in 1993. He has been photographing musicians’ record jackets since 1992 and has photographed more than 500 albums. He has photographed corporate advertisements for Samsung, LG, Motorola, Hyundai, Kia, and SKT, as well as launch ads for sports brands such as Puma, Adidas, and LeCap, beauty brands such as Laneige and The Face Shop, and most of Korea’s casual fashion brands. To this day, he is still … -
Park Kum-jun
He is a graphic designer, the CEO of 601bisang, and a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). He graduated from the Department of Visual Communication Design at the College of Fine Arts, Hongik University, in 1988 and from the Graduate School of Advertising and Public Relations at Hongik University in 1999. From 2002 to 2005, he served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Visual Communication Design at Hongik University’s College of Fine Arts. Previously, he worked as an … -
Woo Souyeon
Woo Souyeon is a museum education specialist who helped lay the foundation for museum education in Korea, drawing on extensive experience in international museum practice. She worked on digital projects at the Block Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, and led teacher education initiatives at Northwestern University’s Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools. In 2004, Woo became the first education specialist at the National Museum of Korea, where she planned the museum’s … -
Jeon Nina
She graduated from the Department of Fiber Arts at Ewha Womans University and studied Motion Pictures at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, USA. She earned a master’s degree in Computer Art from the Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco and completed a doctoral coursework in Media Design at the Cross Media Creative Lab in the Department of Digital Media at Ewha Womans University. Currently, she serves as a professor in the Department of Visual Design at Kaywon University of Art and … -
권민성
학부에서 미술 이론을 공부하며 전시 기획자를 꿈꿨으나, 작품 보존에 흥미를 느끼게 되면서 한국전통문화대학교 석사 과정에 진학했다. 대학원에서 지류 및 회화 보존을 전공한 후 도쿄예술대학원 문화재보존학 연구실에서 특별 연구생으로 활동했다. 이후 서울대학교 규장각 한국학 연구원과 간송미술관의 소장품 수리 사업에 참여했고, 국가유산수리기술자(보존과학) 제1994호 자격을 취득했다. 2022년에 한국 장황의 새로운 가능성을 열고자 정혜선과 함께 SOKO를 설립했으며, 현재는 SOKO를 운영하며 국가유산 수리 업체 운산에서 소장으로 재직 중이다. -
Yamamoto Riken
Riken Yamamoto, born 1945 in Beijing, China is a Japanese architect. In 2024, he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered to be the most prestigious award in architecture, becoming the 9th Japanese architect to receive such honor.