The Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc. (JAGDA), established in 1978, is Japan’s largest design organization, its membership currently standing at some 2,600 designers. JAGDA undertakes a wide variety of activities aimed at enhancing our lives and culture through design. These include organization of exhibitions and seminars, and publication of works such as the JAGDA yearbook Graphic Design in Japan and VISUAL DESIGN, a textbook on design
Each year, from among the works selected for inclusion in Graphic Design in Japan JAGDA presents the “JAGDA New Designer Awards” to promising young designers (up to age 39) who have produced high-quality works of outstanding freshness. Regarded as a gateway to success as a designer, the awards have been bestowed on 79 designers since 1983, all now active at the very forefront of their profession. Today the JAGDA New Designer Awards and the award winners garner much attention among members of both the design and advertising fields.
This year, after a rigorous selection process evaluating 203 eligible candidates, the 27th JAGDA New Designer Awards were presented to Yoshiaki Irobe, Rika Eguchi, Yoshinori Okada and Ryota Sakae. This exhibition will introduce their winning and recent works, with a focus on posters and small graphics.
Yoshiaki Irobe
Left: Publicity posters for home interior design firm’s exhibition (client: Living Design Center)
Right: VI and signage for art museum (client: Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art)
Rika Eguchi
Left: Train poster and advertising space for tea beverage (client: Suntory)
Right: Publicity posters for art exhibition (client: NTT DOCOMO)
Yoshinori Okada
Typeface (independently produced)
Ryota Sakae
Left: Posters for bar (client: Number)
Right: Posters for stained glass company (client: Omni Glass)
News!
During the exhibition, notebooks specially designed by the four award-winning designers will be on sale in the gallery. They will be offered as a set (800 yen, tax included), in a limited quantity of 400 sets*. Shown below are the covers and inside pages designed respectively, left to right, by Okada, Irobe, Sakae and Eguchi. * All available sets have now been sold.
Yoshiaki Irobe was born in Chiba Prefecture in 1974. He completed the Master’s program at Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai). He is a Director on the board of Nippon Design Center, Inc., where he presides over the Irobe Design Institute, and also a part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts. With graphic design at the core, he engages in diverse areas including two- and three-dimensional graphics, spatial design and video. His major works in recent years include branding for the Ichihara Lakeside Museum, National Parks of Japan, and the Sukagawa Civic Center “tette”; signage planning for the Tenri Station Plaza “CoFuFun”; and package design for “Liquitex” and “naturaglacé.” Mr. Irobe has won numerous design awards both in Japan and abroad, including a Good Design Award, awards from the Japan Sign Design Association (SDA), Japan Graphic Designers Association (JAGDA), and Tokyo Art Directors Club (ADC), plus Design and Art Direction (D&AD) and One Show Design awards. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), Tokyo ADC and JAGDA.
Artist / Art Director. Creator of the picture book “Pan no osama” [King of Bread] (Shogakkan). Active in diverse fields including advertising, art, products, fashion, etc. In 2011, she was in charge of wardrobe design for top figure skater Daisuke Takahashi. She has won numerous prizes, including the JAGDA New Designer Award, “Hitotsubo Exhibition” Grand Prix, Taro Okamoto Contemporary Art Award (Excellent Award), D&AD Gold Award, Spikes Asia Gold Award, and 3rd prize in the picture book category as selected by the nation’s bookshops.
Born in Obihiro, Hokkaido, in 1974. In 1995, on graduating from Professional Training College Sapporo Designers Gakuin, he joined Sapporo Daido Printing Co., where he continues to work today. Okada aspires to create designs that touch people’s hearts with their ideas and humor. In addition to the JAGDA New Designer Award, he has won a Sapporo ADC Grand Prize (2008), Sapporo ADC Runner-up Prize (2009), and Tokyo ADC Award(2008).
Born in Tokyo in 1979. In 2004, he graduated from Musashino Art University, Department of Industrial, Interior and Craft Design, with a concentration in Textile Design. That year he joined Hakuhodo. He was a finalist in the 28th and 29th “Hitotsubo” exhibitions and, besides the JAGDA New Designer Award, has received a Tokyo ADC Award and New York ADC Bronze Award.
Exhibition Profile
The exhibition will feature the four winners’ award-winning and recent works, with a focus on their posters and small graphics.
Awards Ceremony
June 12 (Fri), 2009 in Tokyo Midtown Hall, at JAGDA’s regular annual general meeting (2009)
Traveling Exhibition
The exhibition is scheduled to travel to Osaka (July), Shiga (August), Toyama (September), Aichi (October), and Niigata (October).
Publication Featuring the Award-winning Works
The award-winning works will be featured in the opening pages of Graphic Design in Japan 2009, slated for publication this summer. This annually produced collection of JAGDA members’ works was launched in 1981 to introduce Japan’s multitude of high-quality graphic design works worldwide. It contains outstanding works created by JAGDA members during the preceding year, selected in an open call for entries. (Editor: Kei Matsushita / Book design: Masahiro Kakinokihara / Publisher: Rikuyosha Co., Ltd. / Price: JPY 15,750, tax included)
