Issay Kitagawa, Japan

AGI member since 2001

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He graduated from University of Tsukuba, Japan in 1987, and is now principal designer and president of GRAPH. GRAPH specializes in visual communication by offering graphic design, brand consulting and printing. He is also a printing director and often immerses himself in the GRAPH printing factory. His graphic design work fuses this knowledge of printing with design. Subtle nuances are shown experimentally and exquisitely. His aim is to create printing matter “that will not be thrown away” and his approach to design is not only from a creative but also from a business point of view. His designs are also based upon his love of typography. Both English and Japanese typography are often a central part of his visual images.
He has been selected for the permanent collection at the Toyama MoMA and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, among others, and also chosen as one of the 15 designers to display works in “Tokyo Graphic Passport 2011” at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in autumn of 2011.

Design work by Issay Kitagawa


    Issay Kitagawa, Japan (2001)

    He graduated from University of Tsukuba, Japan in 1987, and is now principal designer and president of GRAPH. GRAPH specializes in visual communication by offering graphic design, brand consulting and...

    Read full biography
    Issay Kitagawa, Japan (2001)

    He graduated from University of Tsukuba, Japan in 1987, and is now principal designer and president of GRAPH. GRAPH specializes in visual communication by offering graphic design, brand consulting and printing. He is also a printing director and often immerses himself in the GRAPH printing factory. His graphic design work fuses this knowledge of printing with design. Subtle nuances are shown experimentally and exquisitely. His aim is to create printing matter “that will not be thrown away” and his approach to design is not only from a creative but also from a business point of view. His designs are also based upon his love of typography. Both English and Japanese typography are often a central part of his visual images.
    He has been selected for the permanent collection at the Toyama MoMA and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, among others, and also chosen as one of the 15 designers to display works in “Tokyo Graphic Passport 2011” at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in autumn of 2011.

    Publications

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    Kawarukachi

    (2008)

    • Issay Kitagawa

    Works Corporation Inc.

    For this book, Kitagawa visited Japan’s top designers and corporate managers in the graphical, fashion, and product design fields to discuss their philosophies and exchange stories about their design processes in order to seek out clues to the future of creation. This is not about design based in logic, but about uncovering greater value in design spun from disciplined eyes and hands – about discovering the creative possibilities in intuitive design through dialogue with a number of creators.

    Exhibitions

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    Issay Kitagawa

    2009

    ggg (ginza graphic gallery), Ginza

    This exhibition showcased Issay Kitagawa's own unique world view through his distinctive but at the same time somehow friendly objects, and his print expressions that were the result of his thorough pursuit of the finest nuance and ultimate in taste. He sounded the alarm about the decline in human performance that has been caused by the rationalization and conceptualization of things, and by the increasing dependence on computers in recent years.

    Salone del Mobile. Milano

    2006

    Salone del Mobile, Milano

    Milan Furniture Fair is an annual fair held in Milan, Italy, and is the largest trade fair of its kind in the world. Kitagawa was invited to take part in Global Edit 06, a booth curated by Wallpaper Magazine, and he exhibited the Fukunishiki sake barrel design he created, and the chopstick wrappers he designed for Fukunishiki’s flagship shop and restaurant, Fukukura.

    Lectures

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    Kuwasawa Design School/Visiting Professor

    (2008)

    • Kuwasawa Design School, Japan

    Kyoto Prefectual University/Visiting Professor

    (2009)

    • Kyoto Prefectual University, Japan

    Agencies

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    Awards

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    • 1996

    JAGDA New Designer Award
    • 2007

    Tokyo TDC
    • 2007

    New York Art Directors Club(NY ADC)
    • 2011

    JAGDA

    Other Professional Activities

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    • Director of Tokyo Type Directors Club (Tokyo TDC)

      2006 – present

    • Member of the Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc. (JAGDA)

      1995 – present