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 from Yonsei University’s Department of Korean Language and Literature and received his Ph.D. from the same graduate school. He was a researcher at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and is currently a university lecturer and translator. He is the author of The Renaissance Man Kim Seung-ok (co-author), and the translator of I Am a Cat , Kokoro , The Light of Illusion, Story of the Crusades, Cut Off, Those Praying Hands, The Birth of Form, We All Return Home,* and other books. …
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Nam Ho-jung
She graduated from Hongik University College of Fine Arts and Dong Graduate School of Visual Design and earned a PhD in visual design. Since then, She has worked at a design institute, planned and produced numerous corporate projects, served as the president of the Korea University Press Association, director of the Korea Industrial Artists Association, and director of the Gwangju Jeonnam Design Association. She is currently an associate professor of art at Chonnam National University College … -
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 … -
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 … -
Nat McCully
Nat McCully worked at Claris Corporation and Apple Computer in Japanese product development, specializing in text layout, from 1991 to 1998. He then joined Adobe Systems as the lead engineer for the Japanese version of InDesign, implementing text composition and Japanese publishing workflow features. He has worked on Flash, AIR, RMSDK, and advised the teams on Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe Text Engine (ATE). He now works with the Spark and the XD teams on worldwide extensibility and … -
Moon Su-min
She majored in Art Studies at Hongik University and, after completing the translation program at Geulbab Academy, has been working as a professional translator with Barun Translation. Her translated works include Starting a Designer Brand , Drawing Faces and Hands , Risk Judgment , Things Reunited with at Life’s End , Harsh Advice , The Road to Maui Island , One-Minute Negotiation Lesson , Chocolate Chocolate , Warren Buffett’s Great Legacy , Why Do Odd People Get Promoted at Companies? , A … -
Moon Eun-bae
he studied visual design and environmental design at the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University, as well as at its graduate school. In 1995, while working at the Korea Color Research Institute, he was first introduced to color. After serving as a senior researcher at the Color Design Research Institute at Ewha Womans University, he founded his own lab, Moon Eun-bae Color Design, immersing herself in color research. His major studies include specialized research projects such as the … -
Kim Kai-chun
He is an architect and designer, a professor at Kookmin University’s College of Architecture, and has specialized in architecture and Seon (Zen) philosophy. He has been working on architectural planning and design, painting and writing with ideas that cross over from Korean tradition and Seon thought to contemporary aesthetics. He has published books on Eastern architectural aesthetics such as “Architecture of Ming Ming” and “Lao Tzu and the Idea of Spatial Formation” and papers on the … -
Kim Huhn
Professor of Mechanical Systems Design at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. After joining LG Electronics in 2003, he worked in various mobile UX/UI development roles, serving as Group Head of Strategy and Planning at LG Electronics UI Development Center and Head of UX at SK Telecom UI Planning Team. In 2008, he led the UI development of SK Telecom’s smartphone OS with UI specialists such as Vinyl, DNA, and PXD, and since 2009, he has been working on various UX/UI … -
Jan V. White
Jan V. White (1928-2014) was an American designer, communication design consultant, and graphic design educator and writer. Czech by birth, he was educated in England at Leighton Park School and held degrees in architecture from Cornell University and Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. From 1951 to 1964 he worked on two of TIME’s architectural magazines: Architectural Forum (1951–56) as associate art director, and House & Home (1956-1964) as art … -
Kashiwagi Hiroshi
Design critic. Professor Emeritus at Musashino Art University and Honorary Fellow at the Royal College of Art. Born in Kobe in 1946. Graduated from Musashino Art University. After working as an editor, became an associate professor at Tokyo Zōkei University in 1983. Started at his current position in 1996. His works include Design no 20 seiki (The 20th Century of Design) (NHK Shuppan, 1992), Housework no seiji gaku (The Politics of Housework) (Seidosha, 1995), and Nichijitsu no bunka shi (The … -
ARTIST PROOF
‘Artist Proof’ is a print & design label run by an artist, Kyungjoo Choi. The artist, working based in Seoul, embodies multi-layered inner structures in layers of overlapped colours and refined symbols. By experimenting with images she created and crossing the boundaries of art genres, ‘Artist Proof’ has done various projects such as producing items, holding exhibitions, and collaborative art projects.