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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Koo Bohnchang is one of Korea’s most renowned photographers, celebrated for his exploration of experimental qualities of photography. After earning his degree in Business Administration from Yonsei University, he studied photography design at the HFBK University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany, where he received his diploma (Diploma Fotodesign). Since the beginning of his career in 1987 with Alexio, he has photographed brand catalogs for Esquire and Non-no and produced fashion spreads for …
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Florencia Colombo
Florencia Colombo, a Switzerland-based architect, designs cultural projects with a creative focus. She works across architecture, contemporary art, and design, developing interdisciplinary academic exhibitions and publications for various international institutions. -
Lee Soon-jong
Lee Soon-jong graduated from Seoul National University College of Fine Arts and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Graduate School of Design. He has served as a professor at Kookmin University’s Department of Industrial Design and Seoul National University’s Department of Design. He also founded the International Association of Societies for Design Research (IASDR), served as president of the Korean Design Association, and was the first design director of the Gwangju Design … -
Adolf Loos
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known critic of the Art Nouveau movement. His controversial views and literary contributions sparked the establishment of the Vienna Secession movement and postmodernism. -
Martin Salisbury
He is a professor in the Illustration department at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, striving to raise awareness of the artistry of picture book and children’s book illustrators. His published works include Play Pen and Illustrating Children’s Books , among others. -
Doeun Park
She is a PhD candidate in the HCI Lab at Yonsei University. She is currently collaborating with HAII, a company specializing in digital therapeutics, to develop a voice agent that enhances executive functions in children with ADHD. Her research focuses on how children form relationships with computers and the resulting behaviors and emotions that emerge during this process. She has published in journals such as the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction and has presented at … -
Kim Hee-young
She graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Arts and Humanities with a B.A. in English Literature and received her M.A. in Fine Arts from the same graduate school. She earned an MA in art history from the University of Chicago and a PhD in art history from the University of Iowa. She is currently a professor in the Department of Art at Kookmin University College of Art. She is the author of Korean Abstract Painting: A Formation of Korean Avant-Garde (2013), The Vestige of … -
Kim Seong-won
Director of the Play AT Institute. He teaches young people at the Kurikindi center. He is the author of “An Earthbag House with Neighbors , The Return of the Fire Pit , The Age of the Woodstove , and “My Hands Are Tired . -
Korea Craft & Design Foundation
The Korea Craft & Design Foundation (KCDF) is a public organization affiliated to the Korean Ministry of Sports, Culture and Tourism. The objective of the organization is to promote Korea’s craft, design and hanbok both in Korea and internationally. It is our responsibility to promote the field in order to create opportunities for young makers, artists and related groups. We focus on preserving our own cultural heritage by re-interpreting tradition, research on craft materials/skills and … -
Jaeyong Park
He is a writer, translator, and curator primarily based in Seoul, South Korea. A bibliophile, he founded and operates Seoul Reading Room (@seoulreadingroom), a contemporary art and theory library. He is also a frontman of the research band NHRB (@nhrb.space) alongside Heo Youngkyun, and co-runs the stand-up comedy group Seochon Comedy Club (@westvillagecomedyclub) with Jung Sung-eun and Kim Su-ji. His translated works include There Is No Last Revolution: Art and Political Imagination Since 1980 … -
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. -
Nigel Cross
Professor of Design Studies and Head of the Department of Design and Innovation in the Faculty of Technology at the Open University, UK. He has been a faculty member of the Open University’s leading multimedia distance education program since 1970 and teaches a wide range of courses on design and technology. He has an international reputation for design research, particularly in the areas of design methodology and design perception. He is also the editor-in-chief of Design Studies , an …