GRAPHIC JAPAN After WWII until Late 20th Century
GRAPHIC JAPAN After WWII until Late 20th Century
Lucia P. Lopez
With illustrations by significant Japanese designers of the 20th century.
CONTENTS Introduction: Post-war Era ......................................................... 2 Sixties ................................................................................. 4 Seventies ............................................................................. 6 Eighties ............................................................................... 9 Prominent Designers .............................................................. 10 Conclusion .......................................................................... 13 Bibliography ......................................................................... 14
Introduction Post-war Era During the 20th century, Japan’s industrial development grew rapidly, especially during the decades after World War II. In this postwar period, Japan rose and became a leader in technology and manufacturing. At the same time, the country emerged as a major graphic design center. Also, an awareness of Western social patterns and lifestyles started. This awareness changed Japanese graphic designers’ perspective. They now tried to maintain national traditions and, concurrently, incorporate international influences. Even though European constructivism became a major source for Japanese design, their design often uses a central placement method and has an organized space around a middle axis. This reflects the traditional composition of many Japanese arts and crafts, rather than using the asymmetrical balance used in European constructivism. One important inspiration for Japanese graphic designers is the mon, which is a traditional family symbol. Its design consists of “…a simplified design of flowers, birds, animals, plants, or household objects contained in a circle, which was applied to belongings and clothing.”1 After World War II, Japanese designers wanted to be recognized for their work on an international level. They thought that if Japanese graphic design became recognized, their work would appear in international publica2
1. Phillip Meggs, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, p. 1598.
tions such as in the International Poster Annual of 1950, which had no Japanese designs. It was not until the 1951’s annual that it contained seven posters and 32 in the 1953-54. Many of the posters published in international annuals had a “provincial” look, but this was not how the Japanese wanted to be perceived. Japanese wanted to be known for their modern technology. Therefore, designers started to use few graphic images, aside from kanji letterforms, but European models began to be favored over Asian. This led some major corporations to hire American designers in order to remove the “provincial” appearance in Japanese designs. Views of traditional Japanese art were less evident than abstract symbols representing modern technology, which continued as a trend for another twenty years until Japanese designers became more proud of their heritage. After Japanese designers started to get international recognition thanks to the annual of 1953-54, the first generation of successful designers staged the Graphic ’55 exhibition in Tokyo. The main aspect of this exhibition, different from any previous one, was its emphasis on printed works. Meanwhile, the main thing this group of designers wanted was their recognition as professional designers, not just as artists concerned with crafts.
Poster by Yusaku Kamekura to promote anti-war and anti-nuclear images for the Hiroshima Appeals competition.
3
60s Sixties
Then came the 1960’s, during which, thanks to the high economic growth of industries of the last decade, designers’ profession was suddenly in demand and conducted to the claim of an international design conference that would “…focus on the social role of graphic designers, interior designers, fashion designers, industrial designers and architects, and on their importance to Japan’s rising economy.”2 This gave way to Japan’s first collaboration between the different design professions and its first international design conference. This international design conference was known as WoDeCo, short for Tokyo World Design Conference. It was held from the eleventh to the sixteenth of May of 1960. The most important thing about it, for Japanese designers, was the attention they got from all around the world towards Japan’s design activity. Another major event for Japan during this decade was the Tokyo Olympics, held in 1964. The Olympics would be the first opportunity, after World War II, for Japan to have thousands of visitors. Because of this reason, the Design Committee was established years before in 1960 to arrange everything for this
4
2. Richard S. Thornton, The Graphic Spirit of Japan, p.93.
great event. The members of the Committee looked at this event as the opportunity to show everybody that Japan could overcome the war’s defeat and devastation and still go on. So they recruited 30 designers to design symbols for 34 facilities and 20 sports. These new and unique created pictograms were simple, broke racial and language barriers, and even worked as a set of easily recognized symbols that could be used as an international visual vocabulary. 3 Later, the copyright on the symbols was released so, in the future, they could be used at other international events. The next year, in 1965, the second generation of graphic designers emerged. As the first generation, they held an exhibition, called Exhibition of Graphic Design in Tokyo, 1965 Persona. This new generation of graphic designers was the one who formed Japan’s graphic design image for the last twenty years. This exhibition, known as Persona, represented designers who are now the most known among Americans and Europeans. The title “Persona” was introduced by Masaru Katzumie, “… who thought the exhibition would show the participants’ real personalities or characters and not a ‘mask.’”4 This exhibit ended up to be of great importance for Japanese graphic design history. The sixties became the decade in which Japanese graphic designers reached an international audience.
FAR LEFT: Pictograms used for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Made by the Design Committee of Japan. TOP: Symbol for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games by Yusaku Kamekura made in 1961. MIDDLE: Logo for Tokyo World Design Conference (WoDeCo) in 1964. LEFT: Poster for Persona, 1965, by Tanadori Yokoo.
3. Richard S. Thornton, The Graphic Spirit of Japan, p.100. 4. Ibid.
5
70s
Seventies
In the seventies, graphic design changed. Ikko Tanaka believed this happened because Japan’s younger generations of graphic designers, instead of imitating foreign cultures, had new trends that they shared with designers from other countries. There were several events held, locally and internationally, that showed the progress Japanese graphic designers had made. These events and designs reflected the social concerns of the decade. What some consider to be Japan’s greatest event happened in this decade. It was its first world exposition, known as Expo ’70. For eight months, Expo ’70 was held outside Osaka. Japanese reactions towards this expo were mixed, because preparations needed a lot of work. The expo’s success resulted in more recognition for some designers from a local to an international level. The expo’s futuristic style and multimedia presentations 6
to deliver information for the visitors showed foreigners that Japan was becoming a major economic power. Even though Japan started to be recognized internationally during the early seventies, designers’ new interest was to re-examine their cultural origins, causing a change of direction in Japanese design. This change happened in a period of six to eight years, and was highly promoted by influential designers. This search for their roots was promoted by a poster campaign by Japan National Railway in 1973 to encourage people to rediscover their heritage. These posters, or transport posters, project was called “Discover Japan.” They were placed in the urban train and subway. The campaign’s success promoted the use of posters in trains and subways as a way to advertise. The term “transport posters” is the translation of the Japanese word nakazuri,
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: Poster for Expo ‘70, 1968, by Eiko Ishioka. Symbol for Expo ‘70, 1967, by Takeshi Ohtaka. Manga with storyboards. TOP RIGHT: “Transport poster” or nakazuri.
naka meaning “center” and zuri being “hanging,” since these posters were actually hung in the center of trains and subways where they would be more easily seen. During this decade manga, or comic-books, also appeared as we now know them. The word manga was initially used to refer to rough sketches on woodblock prints of fantasy and everyday life from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. But once European and American cultures were brought to Japan in the late nineteenth century, comic-books were influenced by these other cultures and changed to a form where they now contained story panels. Nowadays, manga is actually the most popular reading medium in Japan. These comic-books were meant for people of all ages. One comic-book contains several stories and storylines, and it is read by following traditional Japanese directions, “…from the top right-hand side of the page, down columns sequentially, top to bottom across the gutter to the left-hand page, continuing to the bottom left.”5 Thanks to the popularity of manga, illustrators were now encouraged to experiment with other styles and themes. Japanese illustrators also had great influence by Western illustrative styles. Illustration also started to gain more popularity during this decade, since in the sixties photography in advertising started to decline. This small decline of advertising photography happened because some
5. Richard S. Thornton, The Graphic Spirit of Japan, p.137.
7
art directors started to prefer the personal expression of illustration. And also because, now that Japan had international attention, independent art directors wanted to change the direction of Japanese advertising concepts. Aside from advertising photography and illustration, there were also many designers creating packaging design. Japanese packaging design was simple and sober with no extravagant decorations in order to avoid superficial luxury and portray beauty in a modest way. By the end of the seventies Japan was in second place worldwide for industrial production. And its increase was mainly because of exports. The late seventies and early eighties was an influential decade for industrial designers, who were influenced by Italian designers’ new functionalism. Fashion designers also got recognition until the eighties. In this new decade, foreign exposure of Japanese graphic designers continued at the same level as in the seventies.
8
ABOVE: Illustration by Makoto Wada for the poster of Edward’s men’s boutique, 1973. LEFT: Can label for Summit Foods, 1978. by Takenobu Igarashi.
80s Eighties
Cover for Ginka magazine, 1983, by Kohei Sugiura.
UCLA festival poster, 1981, by Kiyoshi Awazu
The eighties gave way to Japan’s new generation of graphic designers. This “third” generation, also called the new generation, consisted of graphic designers born in the last years of World War II, or a few years later after it. During this decade we can also see Japan’s contemporary graphic design. The attraction of the contemporary Japanese designs is considered to be because of their mystical spirit, the way it treats space, color, the technique used, and its Asian content. There are three
Official poster for Expo ‘85, 1982, by Takenobu Igarashi.
characteristics that appear in most works produced. The first is the non-objective emotional content; then, the relationship they had with the product or service promoted by the client; and thirdly, its ambiguous and evocative imagery that displays the traditional Japanese qualities of their attention to detail, color, the way they manage space, and the abstraction. The contemporary Japanese graphic design works emphasize on aesthetics in order to reinforce and extend the client’s message. 9
Prominent Designer: Yusaku Kamekura
Poster for the Hiroshima Appeals, 1988.
Portrait of Yusaku Kamekura.
As the decades passed by, many Japanese graphic designers became well known locally and internationally, although some more than others. Certainly one of the most prominent is Yusaku Kamekura. Kamekura was one of the main graphic designers of the late 20th century in Japan, even though he emerged in Japan’s recovery during the postwar period as an influential design leader. Kamekura was born in 1915. After high school, he attended the New Architecture and Industrial Arts School, or Shin Kenchiku Kogei Gakuin in Japanese, which was a Japanese version of the Bauhaus. Kamekura won several awards, the first was in 1953 for the Japanese Industrial De10
Poster for Daido Worsted Mills, 1954.
sign Association symbol. By 1972, he had won almost every possible Japanese arts award. Then, in 1985, he was the only graphic designer to be awarded with the Third Class Order of the Sacred Treasure* by the Japanese Government. He received international recognition for his contribution for the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, among other great contributions. Kamekura is also recognized as “… one of the first designers to use geometric composition and trade traditional Japanese expressions for an international recognized use of image and concept.”6
6. Richard S. Thornton, The Graphic Spirit of Japan, p.78. *Award given to those who have made distinguished achievements in research fields, business industries, healthcare, social work, state/local government fields or the improvement of life for impaired persons.
Prominent Designer: Koichi Sato
Poster for a musical, 1989.
“New Music Media” poster for the May Corporation, 1974.
Another prominent designer is Koichi Sato. Sato is considered to be a philosophical designer. He was born in 1944, and graduated from Tokyo University of Art and Music. He has created his own identity because he tends to use delicate motifs of rimpa half-moons and a glowing aura that surrounds simple shapes. He is certainly considered to have a unique way of designing and creating his work based on Japanese tradition. Japanese understanding of nonverbal communication partially comes from Zen Buddhism, which “…teaches the use of all five senses in receiving communication, and even states, ‘silence is communication.’”7 Koichi Sato obviously worked under this tradition
Poster for the International Design Center.
by creating poetic designs with delicate color motifs and metaphysical forms. Sato’s designs portray opposites: traditional/futuristic; organic/mechanical; light/dark, etc. They also show multiple meanings and express deep emotion within this traditional form. His designs are so poetic that sometimes they even reach a metaphysical appearance.
7. Phillip Meggs, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, p.1602.
11
Prominent Designer: Ikko Tanaka
UCLA festival poster, 1981.
Poster for the World Design Exhibition, 1959.
There is also Ikko Tanaka, who is well known internationally and had great influence. His posters for Noh drama and some other popular books designs, such as Japan Color (1980), and series for The Compact Culture, are familiar to foreigners. He was born in Nara in 1930. He graduated in 1950 from Kyoto City College of Fine Arts. He has worked as a textile and graphic designer. He had certain influence of the Bauhaus theories, which provided a foundation for the way he structured his work. Tanaka’s designs can be briefly described as being based in a grid system, containing 12
Poster for the Fifth Sankei, 1958.
shapes, planes and vibrant colors. He mostly uses traditional Japanese imagery, including masks, ukiyo-e prints, rimpa motifs, calligraphy and Japanese colors. All these, being images that foreigners would expect, may be the reason for their popularity in the United States and Europe. Tanaka has worked with type design, in the creation of symbol marks, package design, environmental graphics, exterior and interior signs, and book design, making him stand out because of the wide range of his work.
Conclusion: Japanese Graphic Design
Aside from all of the changes Japanese graphic design has gone through, now, contemporary graphic designers rely on posters to establish their reputation more than any other graphic design form. Their work has to be noticed first in design publications. Then, when they have the attention, they have to stage an exhibition in Tokyo. Afterwards, if it is successful, the exhibition’s poster would be reproduced in the Japan Graphic Design Association annual. If the designer attracts clients, then he or she is invited to participate in more exhibitions and to design posters for special events. That 8. Richard S. Thornton, The Graphic Spirit of Japan, p.232. 9. Ibid.
could be said to be the end of the process to gain recognition. 8 Japanese graphic designers’ main goal since the beginning was to introduce Japan to a modern world rather than to imitate European and American designs. In Graphis magazine publication of 1968, Kamekura wrote that Japanese designers should use their tradition to strive for the Japanese spirit essence of katachi, which roughly means “perfect form,” and which conveys an impression of environmental art in combination with spiritual serenity. 9 13
Bibliography Meggs, Phillip B. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012. Thornton, Richard S. The Graphic Spirit of Japan. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991.
Image Credits All images used in this catalog were taken from the book titled The Graphic Spirit of Japan by Richard S. Thornton.
Colophon Catalog created and designed by graphic designer Lucia P. Lopez. The type Franklin Gothic Book Regular 11 pt. was used for the text, as well as Franklin Gothic Book Italic 11 pt. to distinguish foreign words. For the titles and subtitles the type Minion Pro Regular and Bold was used. For the footnotes the type Minion Pro Regular 8 pt. was used. The images’ notes are set on type Minion Pro Regular 8 pt.
14
Catalog of Japanese Design, 2014. Designed by Lucia P. Lopez.