Ikko Tanaka

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Born in 1930 in Nara, Ikko Tanaka studied art at the Kyoto City University of Arts, graduating in 1950 with a degree in ancient Japanese art.: 18  He began his professional career in the department of textile design at the Kanegafuchi Boseki (now Kracie Holdings) firm in Osaka, working under the direction of French-trained designer Katsujiro Kinoshita.: 18  Seeking a more print-focused design career, Tanaka started working at the Osaka-based Sankei Shimbun in 1952.: 18  Despite intending to take on a position in the Department of Graphic Design, he was relegated to performing clerical work in the office. Frustrated and listless, he began painting posters for performances at the newspaper’s theatre and pasted them in the lobby of the building. The renegade works caught the attention of avant-garde artist Jiro Yoshihara, who at the time was working on a fashion show for Sankei that was slated to tour the country as part of a publicity effort for the newspaper.: 18  Charmed by the designs, Yoshihara offered Tanaka a job designing the sets for the events, and upon completion of the successful tour, Tanaka was promoted to the Department of Graphic Design.: 18  Tanaka continued to work at Sankei through 1957, and in 1954 received the Mainichi Shimbun Industrial Design award.: 24

Inspired by the seminal "Graphic '55" exhibition held at the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo, which featured several leading first-generation graphic designers including Yusaku Kamekura, Yoshio Hayakawa, and Ryuichi Yamashiro, Tanaka moved to Tokyo in 1957 and took up a position at advertising agency Light Publicity. He established his eponymous studio in 1963 in Aoyama. With the support of critic Masaru Katsumi, who coordinated many large-scale domestic and international graphic design exhibitions, Tanaka gained access to important platforms such as the World Design Conference, and received widespread exposure after being selected as the cover artist for the inaugural issue of Graphic Design in 1958.: 21

In December 1960, took his first overseas trip to the United States and connected with several graphic design contemporaries including Saul Bass, Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin, Ivan Chermayeff, Lou Dorfsman, and Pieter Brattinga. Brattinga invited Tanaka to deliver a lecture at the Pratt Institute, where he taught, and in 1965 organized a solo exhibition of Tanaka's work at Steendrukkerij de Jong & Co. in Hilversum, the Netherlands. Tanaka quickly rose to prominence and received numerous awards including the Japan Advertising Arts Club (JAAC) Members' Prize in 1959 and the Gold Medal of the Tokyo Art Directors’ Club in 1960.: 21  Tanaka also played a vital role in the professionalization of graphic design in Japan, and worked for the newly founded Nippon Design Center in the 1960s, a house agency geared towards corporations that sought to establish higher standards for advertising design.: 24  He remained active in the design world until his death in 2002, producing an immense portfolio of work that spanned the private and public sectors, and engaged with numerous forms of media in varying scales and dimensions.

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