Ikko Tanaka

Ikko Tanaka was a Japanese graphic designer.

Botn in 1933 in Nara City, Ikko Tonaka studied art at the Kyoto City University of Arts. Ikka Tanaka worked at the Sankei Shinbun, Nippon Design Center, and subsequently established his first design studio in Tokyo, the Ikko Tanaka Design Studio, in 1963. Tanaka was ranked the freshest Japanese designer of the 20th century by GQ in 2001.

Ikko Tanaka's work includes the design of the symbols for Expo '85 in Tsikuba and Wrld City Expo Tokyo '96. Amongst others he has worked for the Seibu Saison Group, The International Garden and Greenery Exposition, Hanae Mori, Issey Miyake, and the Mazda Corporation. Tanaka has curated and designed exhibitions for the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) and throughout Japan. He has also designed the main logo of Osaka University.

Ikko Tanaka published several books, including "Design, no Zengo Sayu." and an autobiography, "Tanaka Ikko: graphic master".Ikko Tanaka is credited with developing the Muji together with Kazuko Koike (marketing consultant), and Takashi Sugimoto (interior designer). Tanaka articulated the Muji vision and appearance, and he provided ideas and prototypes that visualized the design strategy. He worked as Muji's art director until 2001.

In September 2012 there was a retrospective of his work at 21 21 Design Sight in Tokyo, curated by one of his closest collaborators Kazuko Koike.

His work is held in the permanent collections of many museums worldwide, including the USC Pacific Asia Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Cooper Hewitt, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, the British Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Artizon Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023