The Tokyo Art Directors Club (ADC) Exhibitions are regular events at Creation Gallery G8, occasions that always garner great attention within advertising and design circles. The Tokyo ADC, founded in 1952, currently has 77 members, art directors all ranking at the top of their profession. Together they serve as the judging panel for the annual Tokyo ADC open competition, and the awards they bestow each year draw attention both in Japan and abroad as prestigious indicators of the latest trends in Japanese advertising and graphic design.

This year’s competition attracted some 10,000 entries, all works making their first appearance, usage or publication in the 12-month period from May 2009 through April 2010. The year’s award-winning works and other outstanding works to be featured in the “Tokyo Art Directors Club Annual 2010” were chosen by the club members during rigorous judging sessions spanning four days.

Ahead of the publication of the new yearbook (to be released in November from Bijutsu Shuppan-sha), this year’s award-winning and outstanding works will be shown at Creation Gallery G8 (works by non-members) and ginza graphic gallery (works by Tokyo ADC members).

Put an Art Director Alongside Every President!

Amid the chorus of Japanese companies bewailing the current economic doldrums, rumors are going around that the few companies that continue to thrive in these times all have an art director working alongside their president. More than dozens of company officers or hundreds if not thousands of employees, the presence of one art director with good sense and good powers of judgment is perhaps of greater use. This Tokyo ADC Exhibition suggests that the number of corporate leaders in Japan recognizing this fact is increasing.

Tokyo Art Directors Club