The spread of computers and ubiquitous use of the Internet have clearly caused vast changes in our everyday lives, especially in the way we communicate. Ongoing advances in media technology have also expanded the realms of design and art, and myriad changes continue to occur each day.

The “Illuminating Graphics” exhibition was planned as a venue to show works by the leading graphic designers, digital creators and artists of today – and tomorrow. All works will be shown on a display of uniform size. We are very pleased to have had Ryoji Tanaka of Semitransparent Design take part in the planning of this very first exhibition of “illuminating” graphics: an exhibition where creative artists of different generations will share the limelight through works that transcend media and technological parameters such as analog vs. digital, or paper vs. the Web.

In recent years more people are perhaps viewing graphics on a screen than on paper. Designing for a screen – a digital medium – involves developing unique modes of expression different from those employed with paper graphics, owing in large part to the special traits of digital media. Until recently, it also seems that each development in digital media design, by corresponding to a development in related technology, was tantamount to a new phase of expression. Today, however, as people become accustomed to things so quickly and information is so rapidly shared via networks, the value attached to being new itself is becoming passé, and I now sense a mood where designers are searching for values different from newness. I feel this way because in recent years I have come to find artists who diverge from digital creative trends but who nevertheless create attractive works of design. I planned this exhibition believing that the attitude of such artists toward creation is closely akin to that of graphic designers. We invited both graphic designers and digital media designers (creative artists) and asked them to create works on the common format of illuminating graphics. Rather than a confrontation between analog and digital, we hope the exhibition will be a venue where the visitor can sense the diversity in how designers think.

Ryoji Tanaka (Semitransparent Design)