was a sculptor,

medallist A medalist (or medallist) is an artist who designs medals, plaquettes, badges, metal medallions, coins and similar small works in relief in metal. Historically, medalists were typically also involved in producing their designs, and were usually e ...

graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...

and

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

designer who created optical illusions. His art pieces usually portray deception, such as ''Lunch With a Helmet On'', a sculpture created entirely from forks, knives, and spoons, that casts a detailed shadow of a motorcycle. Fukuda was born on February 4, 1932, in Tokyo to a family that was involved in manufacturing toys. After the end of World War II, he became interested in the minimalist

Swiss Style The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design style that emerged in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 1920s and was further developed by designers in Switzerland during the 1950s. The Internatio ...

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

, and graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1956. '' The New York Times'' described how Fukuda's posters "distilled complex concepts into compelling images of logo-simplicity". His commercial work included his creation of the official poster for the

1970 World's Fair The or Expo 70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fair ...

in Osaka. A 1980 poster created for

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

features a clenched fist interwoven with barbed wire, with the letter "S" in the word "Amnesty" at the top of the poster formed from a linked shackle. "Victory 1945", one of his best-known works, features a projectile heading straight at the opening of the barrel of a cannon. A pair of posters created to celebrate

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 b ...

include a design showing the Earth as a seed opening against a solid sea-blue background and "1982 Happy Earth Day", which shows an axe with its head against the ground and a small branch sprouting upwards from its handle. In 1987, Fukuda was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in New York City, which described him as "Japan's consummate visual communicator", making him the first Japanese designer chosen for this recognition.1987 Hall of Fame: Shigeo Fukuda
New York Art Directors Club. Accessed January 21, 2009. The Art Directors Club noted the "bitingly satirical commentary on the senselessness of war" shown in "Victory 1945", which won him the grand prize at the 1975 Warsaw Poster Contest, a competition whose proceeds went to the Peace Fund Movement. His home outside Tokyo featured a front door that would appear far away from someone approaching the house. This door was a visual trick, with the actual entrance to the house being an unornamented white door designed to blend in seamlessly with the walls of the house. Fukuda died January 11, 2009, after suffering a

subarachnoid hemorrhage Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is bleeding into the subarachnoid space—the area between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater surrounding the brain. Symptoms may include a severe headache of rapid onset, vomiting, decreased level of consci ...

Portfolio

*''Mural at the Gymnasium of Taishido Junior High School, Tokyo'' *''Grapes'' *''Love Story'' (1973) *''Man'' (1974) *''Woman'' (1974) *''Cat/Mouse'' (1974) *''Encore'' (1976) *''Three-Dimensional Belvedere'' (1982) *''Underground Piano'' (1984) *''Venus in a Mirror'' (1984) *''Disappearing Pillar'' (1985) *''Three-Dimensional Model of Escher's Waterfall'' (1985) *''Lunch With a Helmet On'' (1987) *''Aquarium for Swimming Characters'' (1988)

References

External links

Works of Shigeo Fukuda

Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of workWorks by Shigeo Fukuda at the University of Michigan Museum of ArtWorks by Shigeo Fukuda at the Museum of Modern ArtWorks by Shigeo Fukuda at the Smithsonian Design Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fukuda, Shigeo 1932 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Japanese artists 20th-century Japanese sculptors Artists from Tokyo Deaths from subarachnoid hemorrhage Japanese graphic designers Medallists Op art Poster artists Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Tokyo University of the Arts alumni