Artist of the day: Artist of the day (Japan week) October 3: Ikko Tanaka, Japanese graphic designer

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Artist of the day (Japan week) October 3: Ikko Tanaka, Japanese graphic designer

Biography:

Born in Nara, Japan, Ikko Tanaka (1930-2002) created a style of graphic design that fused modernism principles and aesthetics with the Japanese tradition. As a child he studied art and as a young adult he was involved in modern drama and theatrical study groups. In 1963 he formed Tanaka Design Studio where he worked for corporations such as Mazda, Hanae Mori, Issey Miyake and the International Garden and Greenery Exhibition.

During the ‘50s, while he was employed as a textile designer with the Kanegafuchi Spinning Co. in Kyoto (1950–52) and after he moved to the Sankei Shinbun Press inTokyo (he worked here as graphic designer until 1957), Tanaka assimilated the Bauhaus design tradition.

In 1960 he co-founded the Nippon Design Centre in Tokyo with Yusaku Kamekura, and three years later he established his own studio, the Tanaka Design Atelier in Tokyo. The recipient of many awards, Tanaka became particularly famous for combining Japanese traditional motifs - such as landscapes, the Noh theatre, masks and calligraphy - with Western modernism and Western styles of typography. Throughout his career Tanaka designed a bit of everything from posters to logos and books.

Ikko Tanaka worked for fashion designers such as Hanae Mori and Issey Miyake, curating and designing exhibitions for various museums in Japan and for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

In the early ‘80s Tanaka developed with interior designer and founder of Tokyo-based design firm Super Potato Takashi Sugimoto and marketing consultant Kazuko Koike the concept behind the Mujirushi Ryohin company, better known as Muji (in Japanese this expression means “no-brand quality goods”) and selling minimalist pieces, from interior design objects to basic garments. Tanaka provided ideas and prototypes for Muji and also worked as its art director until 2001.

The exhibition – the second one dedicated to Tanaka in the last few years (the first one, organised in 2010, was a retrospective of works taken from the “Ikko Tanaka Archives” and mainly featured art and posters created between 1953 and 1979) includes Tanaka's works from 1980 until death in 2002.

As the years passed Tanaka became one of the most popular and recognised Japanese graphic artists designer in the Western world.