Ikko Tanaka Was born at Nara city, Japan on 13 of January 1930. He graduated from Kyoto Municipal College of Arts and Crafts in 1950 and joined Kenefafuchi Spinning Mills as a textile designer. In 1952, he started his career as a graphic designer with Sankei Press and became an Art Director at Nippon Design Center. He established his own studio, Tanaka Design Studio in 1963.
His style of marrying a Japanese tradition graphic and international style became an icon of Tanaka’s work. The famous poster Nihon Buyo for UCLA Asian Performing arts Institute 1981 is unforgettable. The sense of Japanese color and the simplicity of the geometric and typography treatment makes this poster usable for various purposes.
1 comment
Ross Edghill says:
Jan 25, 2012
Probably the most influential designer for me in pursuing a career as a graphic designer myself. I was thinking about dedicating a blog post about Tanaka’s body of work myself!
This is a really nice site to reference bios of important designers.