Katsumi Komagata (1953) is a graphic designer born in Japan in the Shizuoka region. After having been the assistant to the poster designer Kazumasa Nagaï, he left to work in the United States for CBS in New York from 1977. In 1981, he won the silver medal from the New York Art Directors Club. In 1983, Katsumi Komagata returned to Japan and worked on visual identity and in fashion, for Comme des Garçons, Zucca, and artistic director for the photo magazine Deja Vu.
In 1986 he founded his own graphic design studio, One Strok], which would also become his publishing house.
Following the birth of her daughter Aï in 1989, Komagata designed her first children's books.
In 1992, he exhibited his books for the first time at the Niigata museum, then the complete series in Osaka in 1993, and in France in Villeurbanne in 1994 then toured in Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, New Caledonia, Reunion Island, Korea, France and Japan.
Since 1993, he has been an active member of the Tokyo City Council for Environmental Improvement for Children.
In 2003-2004, he collaborated with the association Les Doigts qui rêve, les Trois Ourses and the Center Pompidou, and designed books for visually impaired children.
In 2005-2006, he designed the interior design and signage for the pediatric department of the new Kyushu hospital in Japan.
It was during his stay in New York that Katsumi Komagata discovered books by Bruno Munari and Leo Lionni. His growing interest in children's books will be experienced at the birth of his daughter Aï in 1990, for which he designs cards on which he inscribes games of shapes and colors, folds and cuts that will continue his sensitive and intellectual development. These cards will become in edited form ten booklets entitled Little Eyes.
Katsumi Komagata designs his first books from personal observation and experimentation with her daughter Aï. The books follow each other in order of progression, and accompany the intellectual and sensitive development of the child. Through his books he wishes to transmit to children the pleasure of reading but above all to make them independent.
For him, a children's book does not necessarily have to be a thick book, which must be adapted to the child so that it does not damage it. On the contrary, he wants the child to become aware of the fragility of the paper, to pay attention to it or to damage it, observe, repair, accept. For him, life is made up of wear and tear and that is why a book must be damaged to be consulted3.
It is also a way for him to question the book in itself, in its form and its narrative potential, that he wishes to deconstruct it: “A normal book has a beginning, a development and an end. But in normal life, there are unforeseen events. So I wanted to destroy the traditional form of the book."
In this material conception of the book exists in physical experimentation, looking, touching, feeling, the movement is then created by the reader who turns the pages of the book, circulates a current of air. He declares on this subject "I would like to carry out drawings to make feel the air, time and space.
Katsumi Komagata also made toys and mobiles. Block'N Block is a wooden game that divides several faces on 4 sides, similar to the toys of Fredun Shapur and Enzo Mari.
He also makes cut-out paper mobiles that he edits for the French children's toy company Djeco.
© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Katsumi Komagata. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Mr. Katsumi Komagata |
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| From the "LITTLE EYES" series 1990-92 |
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| From the "LITTLE EYES" series 1990-92 |
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| A Cloud 2007 |
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| A Cloud 2007 |
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| A Cloud 2007 |
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| Little tree (petit arbre) 2008 |
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| Little tree (petit arbre) 2008 |
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| Little tree (petit arbre) 2008 |
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| Color puzzles 2013 |
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| Oscar 2014 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015, Storyboard |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015, cover |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| When the Sun Rises book for impair color vision 2015 |
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| 「Ichigu」 2015 |
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| 「Ichigu」 2015 |
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| 「Ichigu」 2015 |
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| 「Ichigu」 2015 |
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| 「Ichigu」 2015 |
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| Go around 2016 |
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| Sound Carried By the Wind 2017 |
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| Play with colors |
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