Exhibition Overview
The exhibits will center on Mr. Uehara’s posters, business cards and other items created as graphic tools for the THEATRE PRODUCTS fashion brand.

Yusaku Kamekura Design Award
The Yusaku Kamekura Design Award was established to honor the design achievements of the late Yusaku Kamekura (1915-1997), and to contribute to the ongoing development of the graphic design field. Made possible through a gift from the Kamekura family, the award program is operated by the Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc. (JAGDA), where Mr. Kamekura long served in the role of its founding president. Under this program, the “Yusaku Kamekura Design Award” is presented annually to the designer of the work or works deemed most outstanding among all entries included in the JAGDA yearbook, Graphic Design in Japan. In addition, every three years the “Yusaku Kamekura International Design Award” is bestowed on an internationally active non-Japanese designer in recognition of exceptionally outstanding work or works shown at the International Poster Triennial Toyama, held at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art.
Mr. Kamekura loathed being forever identified for his works created for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and until just before his untimely death he eagerly vied against the younger generations of designers with works vibrantly “set in the present.” Through his editorial work for his graphic design magazine “CREATION,” he pursued the artistry and true essence of graphic design. Respecting his wishes, the awards presented in his name honor graphic design that blends universal appeal with innovative creativity. Each award comes with a prize of JPY 500,000 and a plaque designed by Taku Satoh.

Previous Winners of the Yusaku Kamekura Design Award
Ikko Tanaka (1999), Kazumasa Nagai (2000), Kenya Hara (2001), Kashiwa Sato (2002), Masayoshi Nakajo (2003), Kazunari Hattori (2004), Mitsuo Katsui (2005), Shin Matsunaga (2007) and Taku Satoh (2008). (No work was judged worthy of the award in 2006.)

Message from the Award Winner
The first time I saw the works of Yusaku Kamekura first-hand was at an exhibition held several years ago at Creation Gallery G8. In those days I was feverishly striving to make things on small scale, but when I saw Mr. Kamekura’s works before me, I was overwhelmed by their power, leaving me both amazed and disheartened. At the same time, however, I remember leaving the exhibition with an indefinable sense of hope toward the future. What I learned that day, I think, was, in addition to the profundity of design, the fact that design work expresses involvement with society itself. I never imagined, though, that so soon thereafter I would receive a major award such as this one.

In the creative process, we tend to focus on details and often end up agonizing over them in solitude. Anguishing in a state completely shut off from society is akin to the ascetic training of a monk under a raging waterfall, and we tend to misconstrue design to be something that causes anguish. By contrast, design born from involvement with society has something cheerful and powerful about it. And yet, at the same time such design works, I believe, in many cases lack attention to detail, to the extent that we quickly become bored by them.

In many of the works by Mr. Kamekura that I saw at that exhibition, I sensed both interest in detail and involvement with society, and I remember being shaken to the core as a result.

The work I perform for THEATRE PRODUCTS gives shape to the company’s intense feelings toward society. To continue making it on one’s own in the world of fashion demands hard work on unimaginable scale, and I know for certain that my work for THEATRE PRODUCTS, on which a light has been shed by receiving the Yusaku Kamekura Design Award, owes to their sweat and tears.