Readymag Stories: Kazumasa Nagai

hand-made design

Kazumasa Nagai’s works are created by hand and usually silk-printed. This way, they are much closer to fine art than to pure design as usually understood.

Advertisement poster for Nikon camera. Geometrical shapes forming a tunnel with a word NIKKOREX

Poster for Nikon. Nine blue circles and a word Nikon on a black background

Poster for Nikon, 1960.

Advertisement poster for Nikon camera, 1960.

Poster for Good Design exhibition. A red shell and a blue crescent on a white background

Poster for exhibition “Good Design”, 1961.
© Museum of Design, Zurich.

Poster for Kazumasa Nagai One-Man Show at Ichibankan Gallery. A colored veil

Poster for Kazumasa Nagai One-Man Show at Ichibankan Gallery, 1968. © The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Poster for Kazumasa Nagai Exhibition at Imabashi Gallery. White dots on a red background

Poster for Kazumasa Nagai Exhibition at Imabashi Gallery, 1969. © The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Poster for exhibition Designs Today by Ryuichi Yamashiro and Kazumasa Nagai. Four white squares

Poster for exhibition “Designs Today” by Ryuichi Yamashiro and Kazumasa Nagai, 1960. © Museum of Design, Zurich.

Poster for exhibition Graphic Image, Tokyo Museum of Arts. A white shape on a yellow background

Poster for Lilycolor Co., Ltd., Tokyo. A road to horizon

Poster for exhibition “Graphic Image”, Tokyo Museum of Arts, 1973. © DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion.

Poster for Lilycolor Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 1974.
© DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion.

Poster for Lilycolor Co., Ltd., Tokyo. A dome flying above the Earth's surface

the aim was to create advertisements that served both as a design movement and actually improved the advertising culture. —kazumasa nagai

Indian wigwams with chimneys of different color floating in space

Poster for exhibition “World of Kazumasa Nagai”, 1980. © Ikeda Museum of the 20th Century Art.

logos for corporations

Now in his late 80s, Nagai has had a long career full of awards and official positions. He is the creator of the corporate logos of Japan Railways, Nissin, Mitsubishi UFJ and the now notorious TEPCO.

Logo for Japan Railways.

Logo for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG).

Logo for Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

Logo for Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd.

the decision to hold the exhibitions in department stores rather than art galleries was extremely important for establishing the social position of graphic design.
—kazumasa nagai

Poster for Museum of Modern Art, Toyama. A zebra on a red tree branch

olympic absurd

In 2015 Kazumasa Nagai was the head of the Tokyo Olympics Committee that chose the identity system designed by Kenjiro Sano—one of the most interesting of recent Olympic identities—that, sadly, was later abandoned due to absurd accusations of plagiarism.