Pick up a pen and paint on paper, on the wall, on the plane, this is the first form of everyone's contact with art. Whether it was the beginning or the present, no matter how complex the material appeared, how advanced the technical means developed, people are still widely using two-dimensional graphics to do artistic expression. Graphic design is in daily life, for example, casually walking on a street, posters on the wall, advertising on the office floor, receiving leaflets, and even warning signs on the street, they can all be classified as graphic design. Using "vision" as a way of communication and expression, through a variety of ways to create and combine symbols, pictures and words, so as to make a visual representation used to convey ideas or messages, graphic design majors seem to be flat and limited, but in fact, they are the most common and diverse.
ART
And Japan's graphic design is unique, has always been at the forefront of the world, even if you walk on the streets of Japan, you can always get some new and ingenious design. To say that the characteristics of Japanese graphic design may be that it inherits the core of the most Oriental traditional art, but also does not lose the learning and reference of Western art, Japan can always combine the east and the west well, and shape its own style of graphic design works. As a result, Japan's master designers are also emerging, and I think everyone can tell a few things: Kenya Hara, who is the artistic director of MUJI, Kazumasa Nagai, chairman of the Japan Design Center, Naoto Fukasawa, who has designed the brand for Apple, and so on.
If you are interested in learning more about these Japanese design artists and sweeping away the old and new artists, then I must recommend it to you JAGDA. Founded in 1978, the Japan Graphic Designers Association (JAGDA) is committed to the development of Japanese graphic design and the promotion of the social status of designers, and the organization annually selects the Japan Graphic Designers Association Award, the Newcomer Award, etc.
Known as the father of modern graphic design in Japan, JAGDA's founder, Yusa Kamekura, was the first generation of graphic designers to grow up in Japan after World War II. Every year, the agency selects the JAGDA Award, the JAGDA New Designer Award, and the Kamakura Yusaku Award. JAGDA is not only the only national graphic designer organization in Japan, but also the largest design group in Asia, so the annual JAGDA selection works are also considered to represent the highest level of graphic design in Japan. Kenya Hara, Shigeo Fukuda, Takuto Sato, and Kizuki Mizuno, all of whom are also counted around the world, all participated in the JAGDA audition that year.
After more than a month of judging more than 2,000 works, in February this year, the Japan Graphic Designers Association announced the winners of the 24th Kameikura Yusatsu Award, the 2022 JAGDA Award, and the 2022 JAGDA Newcomer Award. The judges who participated in the judging work included 29 senior designers, including Katsuya Aoki, Katsumi Asaba, and Tsubasa Inoue. The selected works will be collected into a book and edited into the "Graphic Design in Japan 2022" yearbook, and the works in the yearbook will also be exhibited in the form of a work exhibition.
This year, Takuya Osaka's work "HIROSHIMA APPEALS 2021" won this year's Kameikura Yusatsu Award, while the JAGDA Award was also won by Yuki Hayashi, Yuki Nagai, Hattori Atsumi, Atsushi Kikuchi, Hiroko Inoue, Haruka Mizawa, Tomohiro Takada, Tomohiro Okazaki, and Toshiro Okuma, and the Newcomer Award was given to Taku Sasaki, Mietsu Takeda, and Shoichi Maehara.
Among the many awardees' resumes, you'll always find some recurring names. Tokushi Okuma also graduated from the Graphic Design Department of Tama University of Fine Arts, Hiroaki Nagai is a professor of graphic design at Tokyo University of The Form, and Hattori Kazunari graduated from the Department of Design at Tokyo University of the Arts. Japan's well-known art academies almost cover a large number of japan's outstanding designers.
Design majors have always been popular majors for studying in Japan, and Tokyo University of the Arts, Tama University of Fine Arts, Musashino University of Fine Arts, Kyushu University, Tsukuba University, Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts, Kanazawa University of Arts and Crafts, Okinawa Prefectural University of arts and crafts, Kyoto University of Arts and Fibers, and Kobe University of Arts and Technology are all popular design schools.
It is necessary to grasp the admission requirements of Japanese colleges and universities, but also to understand the shortcomings of Chinese students. One of the biggest purposes of a designer is the feeling of the viewer and the user. Create ideas on top of that. But creative thinking is the most missing part of most Chinese students. Therefore, insisting on the improvement of techniques needs to be accompanied by the study of design, so that students can learn to create in the stimulation of the two at the beginning, so that students can fully understand what is the focus of Japanese design examinations, rather than simple technical training.
If you're also committed to becoming a designer, or one day you can participate in the JAGDA competition, then let's get started!