Ikko Tanaka and On Type

I rushed to a last minute visit to the exhibition of a Japanese graphic designer Ikko Tanaka.
You may not know his name but his works are know internationally; he worked with Issey Miyake and he was the first art director for Muji.
His works coincide with the times when Japan was on the rise; full of vivid colors and optimism. His works resembled the paper cut works of Matisse for their colors and simplicity. The use of his colors are indeed very colorful but underlying principle of his work is the notion of subtraction, which led to the concept of Muji.

Above is the screenshot of google image search for Ikko Tanaka.

Not much point promoting the exhibition at the 21_21 Design Sight as it ends tomorrow, but it certainly was a joyful visit.

He designed this typeface Kocho, which was inspired by Tanaka's favorite typeface Bodoni.

It is a beautiful typeface, and it may be my favorite Japanese typeface of all. Even if you don't know how to read Japanese, Bodoni reference is clear; the high contrast of thick and the thins in the strokes. But then again, that is only mainly true for Kanji (Chinese) characters. Hiragana and Katakana are not Bodoni-like at all.
This made me think about how weird Hiragana and Katakana are like. Is it so that Hiragana and Katakana cannot have contrast within the strokes? It's interesting to look at Japanese characters now.


Since we are in the talks of typefaces, I recently came across fonts that Kate Moross sales online. They are rather lovely.

Bellow is her typeface FIN and you can purchase them here.


What else? I'm totally in love with the works of Louise Fili.
I don't want to repeatedly say beautiful but Fili's works are simply gorgeous. Warm but very sophisticated typography and lettering. I adore her logo for herself on her website.
Please visit her website to see more of her beautiful creations: louisefili.com
Her new book, Elegantissima: The Design and Typography of Louise Fili looks so delicious I would love to own a copy.

Last but not least, I'll briefly mention Marion Deuchars. Her works are recognizable for most Londoners as they are literally everywhere in London. Cass Art is the widely known one among many others.
Since people's handwriting has been an interest of mine in past few months and she is an illustrator that embraces the quality of handwriting very well; they seem to tell some personality.
Her website is mariondeuchars.com and you can find more works there.