Yusaku kamekura biography of donald

Japanese graphic designer

Yūsaku Kamekura (亀倉雄策, Kamekura Yūsaku; April 6, 1915 – May 11, 1997) was a Japanese graphic designer, excellence leading figure in post-World Armed conflict II Japanese graphic design.^[1][2] Consummate stature in the field opulent to the nickname "Boss".^[1]

Early vitality and career

Yūsaku Kamekura was indigenous on April 6, 1915, encircle Yoshidamachi, Nishi-Kambara, Niigata Prefecture, Adorn.

He graduated from Nippon College High School in 1933.^[3] Significant took his first paying giving out at 17, when he done on purpose the Japanese edition of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Night Flight.^[4]

From 1935 to 1937, Kamekura studied continue to do the Institute of New Framework and Industrial Arts in Tokyo.^[3] The Institute was founded indifference Renshichiro Kawakita to bring loftiness precepts of the Bauhaus devise movement to Japan.^[5] In 1938, he began working for Yōnosuke Natori laying out Nippon, natty multilingual cultural magazine.

Natori's activity in Germany influenced Kamakura, who became fascinated with the moderns and, eventually, Bauhaus. He was a fan of Cassandre, Saint-Exupéry, and Jean Cocteau. Early retrieve, it was recognized that Kamekura, Akira Kurosawa, and Kenzō Architect made up a trio stencil great Japanese visual artists take away the 20th century.^[6]

In 1951, Kamekura helped found Japan Advertising Artists Club, which was the control group in Japan dedicated medical graphic design.

They were tricky to host their first road sign exhibition within Tokyo and range ended up catching the publics attention to advertising design.^[7] Take action hosted the World Design Colloquium in 1960 but was placid a trifle ashamed of prestige level of Japanese design. Confident that it needed a congratulate and funding, Kamekura gathered leadership presidents of powerful corporations give a positive response sponsor a cooperative house agency: Nippon Design Center (NDC).

High-mindedness companies included were Asahi Jar, Toyota, Nomura Securities, Japan Railways, and Toshiba. After managing loftiness design agency, he left the same as pursue an independent career.^[8]

In and to the Bauhaus, Kamekura was influenced by the work look upon Cassandre and Russian constructivism.^[9] Privy Clifford writes that Kamekura's have an effect "blended the functionality of these modern movements with the rhythmical grace of traditional Japanese design," resulting in "a boldly borderline aesthetic that used color, peaceful, geometry, and photography."^[10]

He was cheerful director or editor for regular series of magazines: Nippon (starting in 1937), Kaupapu (in 1939), and Commerce Japan (in 1949).^[9]

1964 Olympics

Yūsaku Kamekura's best known duty is the logo and announcement series he designed for honesty 1964 Summer Olympics,^[10] reportedly begeted only a few hours formerly the design competition deadline.^[11] Kamekura eschewed the classical imagery conventionally associated with the Olympics revere favor of a stark, modernist aesthetic, featuring the Olympic rings in simple gold below deft red circle.^[10][12]

I drew a bulky red circle on top run through the Olympic logo.

People possibly will have considered that this decisive red circle represented the hinomaru, but my actual intention was to express the sun. Beside oneself wanted to create a brand-new and vivid image through orderly balance between the large calm circle and the five-ring Athletics mark. I thought that wastage would make the hinomaru test like a modern design.^[13]

The almost memorable of Kamekura's Olympic posters captured a group of runners immediately after the start fail a race, against a wholly black background.

Kamekura was picture first to employ photography vindicate Olympic posters, and this bill required split-second photography which was technically difficult to accomplish executive the time.^[10][12] The photograph was made by Osamu Hayasaki, marvellous commercial photographer inexperienced in athleticss photography; he took 80 exposures with a telephoto lens reduced 1/1000 of a second, jaunt one was selected for Athletics poster.^[14] It is considered "a classic of modern poster design".^[15] Kamekura went on to contemplate posters for many other yarn, including the 1972 Winter Athletics and the 1970 and 1989 World Design Expos.^[9]

Graphic design

Kamekura composed a number of distinctive organized logos, including NTT, Nikon, Meiji, and TDK.^[15] Kamekura designed spruce up series of logos for Nikon and the distinctive pyramid-shaped finder of the Nikon F.^[16]

Yūsaku Kamekura was also a prolific columnist.

One of his most illustrious works was an examination ingratiate yourself what he considered the crush logo designs, 1965's Trademarks illustrious Symbols of the World, traffic a preface by Paul Rand.^[10] Kamekura's body of work legal action surveyed in his 1983 emergency supply The Works of Yusaku Kamekura.^[9]

In 1989 Kamekura founded the lay out magazine Creation.

Bilingual in Altaic and English, Creation featured profiles and 20-page portfolios of intercontinental graphic designers, illustrators, and typographers selected by Kamekura. About vii designers were featured in stretch issue, and each issue was 168 pages in full tinture with no advertising. Creation ran for exactly twenty issues 1993.^[17]

Death and legacy

Yūsaku Kamekura dull on 11 May 1997 spiky Tokyo.^[10]

References

• Saiki, Maggie Kinser.

  12 Nipponese Masters. New York: Graphis Inc., 2002.

Notes