Yūsaku Kamekura (亀倉雄策, Kamekura Yūsaku; April 6, 1915 – May 11, 1997) was a Japanese graphic designer, the leading figure in post-World War II Japanese graphic design.[1][2] His stature in the field led to the nickname "Boss".[1]
In 1951, Kamekura helped found the first graphic designers' group, the Japan Advertising Artists Club. He hosted the World Design Conference in 1960 but was still a trifle ashamed of the level of Japanese design. Convinced that it needed a boost and funding, Kamekura gathered the presidents of powerful corporations to sponsor a cooperative house agency: Nippon Design Center (NDC). The companies included were Asahi Beer, Toyota, Nomura Securities, Japan Railways, and Toshiba. After managing the house for two years, he left to pursue an independent career.[7]
In addition to the Bauhaus, Kamekura was influenced by the work of Cassandre and Russian constructivism.[8] John Clifford writes that Kamekura's work "blended the functionality of these modern movements with the lyrical grace of traditional Japanese design," resulting in "a boldly minimal aesthetic that used color, light, geometry, and photography."[9]
He was art director or editor for a series of magazines: Nippon (starting in 1937), Kaupapu (in 1939), and Commerce Japan (in 1949).[8]
1964 Olympics
Yūsaku Kamekura's best known work is the logo and poster series he designed for the 1964 Summer Olympics,[9] reportedly created only a few hours before the design competition deadline.[10] Kamekura eschewed the classical imagery traditionally associated with the Olympics in favor of a stark, modernist aesthetic, featuring the Olympic rings in simple gold below a red circle.[9][11]
I drew a large red circle on top of the Olympic logo. People may have considered that this large red circle represented the hinomaru, but my actual intention was to express the sun. I wanted to create a fresh and vivid image through a balance between the large red circle and the five-ring Olympic mark. I thought that it would make the hinomaru look like a modern design.[12]
The most memorable of Kamekura's Olympic posters captured a group of runners immediately after the start of a race, against a stark black background. Kamekura was the first to employ photography for Olympic posters, and this poster required split-second photography which was technically difficult to accomplish at the time.[9][11] The photograph was made by Osamu Hayasaki, a commercial photographer inexperienced in sports photography; he took 80 exposures with a telephoto lens at 1/1000 of a second, and one was selected for Olympic poster.[13] It is considered "a classic of modern poster design".[14] Kamekura went on to design posters for many other events, including the 1972 Winter Olympics and the 1970 and 1989 World Design Expos.[8]
Graphic design
Kamekura created a number of distinctive corporate logos, including NTT, Nikon, Meiji, and TDK.[14] Kamekura designed a series of logos for Nikon and the distinctive pyramid-shaped viewfinder of the Nikon F.[15]
Yūsaku Kamekura was also a prolific author. One of his most notable works was an examination of what he considered the best logo designs, 1965's Trademarks and Symbols of the World, with a preface by Paul Rand.[9] Kamekura's body of work is surveyed in his 1983 book The Works of Yusaku Kamekura.[8]
In 1989 Kamekura founded the design magazine Creation. Bilingual in Japanese and English, Creation featured profiles and 20-page portfolios of international graphic designers, illustrators, and typographers selected by Kamekura. About seven designers were featured in each issue, and each issue was 168 pages in full color with no advertising. Creation ran for exactly twenty issues until 1993.[16]
