The ddd Gallery will hold “Shigeo Fukuda’s Visual Jumping,” the third in a series of exhibitions of works in the DNP Graphic Design Archives.

A year and a half has now passed since Shigeo Fukuda’s sudden death in January 2009. The news of the passing of this graphic designer of worldwide renown came as a great shock to people everywhere, and the loss felt by his absence is deep indeed. The works he left behind, however, have been garnering ever-higher acclaim as a cherished legacy in the realms of both design and art, giving Mr. Fukuda an unshakable place in history.

In August 2009 the family of Mr. Fukuda generously donated the entire body of posters found in his studio to the DNP Graphic Design Archives. This exhibition at the ddd Gallery, a special show in his memory and an event to commemorate the archiving of his posters, will introduce works selected from the nearly 1,200 posters Mr. Fukuda created during his lifetime.

It is said that whenever Mr. Fukuda would come up with what he thought was a brilliant idea, he would leap from his chair and shout, “That’s it!” The use of the words “Visual Jumping” in the exhibition title comes from the visual sequences indicative of this special feature of his vibrant creative activities.

The goal in holding this exhibition is to shed light on how internationally outstanding and persuasive his posters, each created in a flash of brilliance, are as a language shared by people worldwide. The appearance of “Victory 1945,” a masterpiece that will remain within the history of design, was revolutionary in the way it transfixed people not only in the design field but people in all fields. This poster, imbued with sophisticated humor and Mr. Fukuda’s inimitable wit backed by a cynic’s way of thinking, today continues to enthrall people around the world. But it will be only one of numerous outstanding works, many less familiar, on exhibit. Visitors will also be introduced to messages from overseas as well as rare interviews of Mr. Fukuda taken at his studio and at various art museums, all

As a graphic designer, Shigeo Fukuda was unique in the true sense of the word.

He was quoted as saying “I believe that design consists of 30% dignity, 20% beauty, and 50% absurdity.” Although this analogy is not necessarily true of graphic design in general, it almost always applies to Fukuda’s own works.

I think what Fukuda meant by “absurdity” is the requirement to be provocative and conceptually idealistic, both surprising viewers and making them think at the same time. That’s why even impossible visual images that could not conceivably exist in the normal world should appear totally commonsensical and, most of all, unforgettably linger in the viewer’s memory. He must have wanted to say something along these lines.

Fukuda’s very well-known work that illustrates a shell shot from an artillery gun heading back toward its muzzle exemplifies the strange, insightful, and provocative images that he frequently produced and published to the world.

Ivan Chermayeff
Graphic designer


Fukuda: A voice that will continue to resound in the poster world

With the passing of Shigeo Fukuda, the world lost one of its most important designers. His posters, which had been awarded numerous international prizes, did not just help to heighten the prestige of Japan as a world leader in posters. By their supreme artistic perfection, his works also contributed to the possibility of conveying messages with no scope for misunderstanding.

The secret of these posters’ success is that their pictogram language concisely and convincingly hits the mark. Influenced by the tradition represented by Takashi Kohno and Yusaku Kamekura, Fukuda scaled back form, favoring color planes with clear contours. In some of his works, negative and positive forms made a clear contrast and switched incessantly to create an exceptional effect.

Fukuda utilized the experience of representative pictorial symbols and the newest pictograms in the development of individualistic graphic symbols. These symbols surprised people with their originality, at the same time making progress toward universal understanding by transcending the barrier of words. The conjunction of lucid forms and intelligence, apparently simple but concealing a profound wit, was precisely constructed in Fukuda’s hands, making him a conspicuous figure on the poster scene. Even in scenes that were almost playful if anything, he never lost his perspective on what was essential. Although his posters are straightforward and self-explanatory, he always calculated with a second perspective in mind. It is no coincidence that his poster “Victory,” designed for the 30th anniversary of the end of World War II, became the most internationally famous of his numerous works. Through this work, Fukuda engraved a new anti-war metaphor on the symbolic world of that time. This masterpiece continued to be inseparable from his name. The reason why this poster has not lost its topicality even today is that Fukuda transformed its subject, which was important but could also be transitory, into pictorial form, using his genius to give it an eternal quality that transcends the times.

Anita Kühnel
Curator of the Graphic Design Collection, Kunstbibliothek, Berlin

* From messages received from around the world after the news of Shigeo Fukuda’s death in January 2009.