Japan has been the birthplace of a significant amount of talent in the field of graphic design. From book covers to product packaging, their high-quality and imaginative designs have kept inspiring the world and, as a result, imprinted many names in design history. This innovative spirit may be particularly noticed in poster design. With fresh and ground-breaking aesthetics, the outcome quite often exceeds a mere tool of communication.

Ahead of the postponed TOKYO2020, the Japan Foundation will hold a special talk focusing on Japanese posters which were created for sports or sporting events since the time of the previous Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

With help from the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion which collects numerous graphic treasures, the inhouse curator, KITAZAWA Eishi, will talk about the significance in aesthetics and functionality of sports posters, introducing iconic names such as KAMEKURA Yusaku who played an important role as a post-war graphic designer in Japan, while discussing how such designs reflected the social and artistic developments at the time.

Following his talk there will be a discussion with Dr Sarah Teasley, a specialist in Japanese design and its histories.

About the speakers

KITAZAWA Eishi, born in Nagano prefecture in 1958, graduated from the Faculty of Literature at Keio University and joined Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd in 1980. Since 1991, he has been in charge of the ginza graphic gallery (ggg). In 2008, the activities promoting graphic design and graphic art have been taken over by the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion; since that time, as a member of the Foundation, Kitazawa has also been in charge of the kyoto ddd gallery. As a curator, he has planned and held more than 300 exhibitions introducing both domestic and international artists.

Sarah Teasley is a social historian who works at the interface of history and design research, and a specialist in histories of design in modern and contemporary Japan. Most recently, she was Reader in Design History and Theory and Head of Programme for History of Design at the Royal College of Art. She received her PhD from the Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies of the University of Tokyo. She has published extensively on design and making in Japan, including 'Design and Society in Modern Japan', a special issue of the Review of Japanese Culture and Society (2017).

This talk is made possible thanks to the help of the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion.

Image credits (left to right):
Victory 1976, Shigeo Fukuda, 1976
World Table Tennis Championships 2015, Yuri Uenishi, 2015

Please note that this session will be hosted on Zoom.

To book your place, please visit: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conjuring-a-sense-of-movement-japanese-graphic-designers-sports-posters-tickets-115182257232