Recently, the Center for Contemporary Graphic Arts of Japan (CCGA) curated a solo exhibition of posters by Japanese designer Kaoru Kasai - "Kaoru Kasai, 1973 onwards". This exhibition allows the public to witness the silhouette of the times through Kaoru Kasai's works, and also reflects from one side how this "evergreen" in the Japanese advertising industry has turned his designs into one classic after another with his creativity.

Kaoru Kasai was born in 1949, and after graduating from high school, he went from his hometown of Sapporo, Hokkaido, to Tokyo to work at a printing factory in order to become a "type designer". Before arriving in Tokyo, he had always imagined Tokyo as a modern, orderly city and wanted to produce works with the same feeling. "I think that's probably how the earliest forays into art and design work started." He explains. The printer's experience, even if it was short (only five years), had made him more skilled than his peers and honed his acumen for typography.

After moving to SUN-AD Advertising in 1973, his advertising ideas had an emphasis on text design from the start. For example, the 1979 "Sony Transceiver "Roger"" featured a "lightning bolt" design that reflected a contemporary feel, reminiscent of rock bands such as Kiss or AC/DC. The copy reads, "Men smile like boys," targeting the male-dominated tech-controlled market and trying to attract users back to a more innocent childhood.

He then enlarged the words "I Love You" (using the English translation of I Love You) to appear in a 1983 ad for "The Year-End Gift is Suntory. Unlike others, the image of the bottle of wine "sold" in the ad was reduced to a tiny size, and the visuality was dominated by the text and the image of a man's hat. The two main techniques he likes to use today are the conversion between foreign and Japanese fonts and the setting of a "border". The most familiar example of the latter is Kenya Hara's "Horizon" series for MUJI in 2003, which perhaps proves that Kasai is the pioneer of this style.

"For me, a poster is just a part of the world, and while I'm making it, I imagine the vast space around it," he explains. He explains. Especially when it was fashionable in the 1970s to put the product visually "right in the middle" of the poster, he didn't want to show everything. "I want you to feel what you can't see based on what you can see. I want ads that make the viewer feel 'what's on the other side of the screen,'" he says. He says. And that "something on the other side of the screen" is something that the viewer will "imagine," even if the context of the ad has been described as "lonely" or "uninspiring" by Gussy. Even though this kind of advertising context has been evaluated as "lonely" or "uninspiring," it has managed to inspire the industry to follow it, and it is even suspected of proliferation so far.

However, he has no desire to "take credit" and continues to emphasize that he has "no strong sense of design and no personal style." He believes that the job of an art director or art director is to constantly ask, "How about this?" "What do you want the result to be?" and so on. In this way, the client's true intentions can be presented, and the ad person has more and more ideas to effectively select, organize, direct, and sort out the photos, illustrations, and text needed to make the combination. "The artistry of the art director is not the artistry of the artist, but the more original meaning of 'visual'. Therefore, it can be said to be the person in charge of the vision. The artist needs individuality, but the art director does not. So there is no such thing as style in my (works)."

Gradually, Kaoru Kasai's credentials under SUN-AD Advertising have turned from "ironclad" to "legendary. Since the agency is affiliated with Suntory Beverages, the design projects he worked on had to be not only "evergreen" but also "visionary". How does he ensure that each campaign is always new? Inviting different collaborators is the secret.

For example, for the 1997 United Arrows campaign, Italian illustrator Gianluigi Toccafondo created a series of surreal drawings, some of which even removed the text and kept only the brand logo. In the main visuals of the collection, he also used his expertise in "typography": he used the English alphabet to visualize the Japanese text, rewriting the common Japanese store welcome word "irasshaimase" as " irassyaimase" in an attempt to match the Italian accent of the illustrator.

Also, when designing the corporate identity of Toraya, he was faced with a bottleneck and asked industry leader Masayoshi Nakaji. "Since most of the customers are young, I asked him to write the word tiger 'randomly' when I asked him about the artwork on the walls of the store. Then Mr. Nakajo produced a draft in less than a minute. The moment they saw the artwork, the advertising team exclaimed 'wow' in amazement. From that moment on, it was like everyone turned on the power, starting with the product design and getting the whole project rolling and operating." He recalls, "He really saved me then."

Back in the "Since 1973" exhibit, the work that may be familiar to the nation is the Suntory oolong tea commercial that has been out since 1987. In 1993, he amplified the details of life - such as the pair of cups in "Double Happiness" or the simplicity of "Let's Fall in Love" - in what appears to be today's "fashion blockbusters. -The images that seem like today's "fashion blockbusters" are said to have been inspired by his encounter with Yoshihiko Ueda's photography exhibition. Of course, the latter was eventually incorporated into the advertising team and became his "official" photographer in the 1990s. The 1990 Ikebukuro Seibu Department Store "Super Young Island", which featured a dog, was also shot by him.

Ultimately, what does Kaoru Kasai think of his work as an advertising man over the years? "I am most happy that the products continue to be used by people. Even if the ad I produced ended, I would be even happier if everyone continued to use it. It means that the product has become the standard, whether they become a big hit or not." I believe that what is on the other side of this screen is what Kaoru Kasai had in mind when he designed it.

Artickle Source:艺术与设计

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