社団法人 日本グラフィックデザイナー協会 JAGDA

Message from the awardee

The first time I saw the works of Yusaku Kamekura first-hand was at an exhibition held several years ago at Creation Gallery G8. In those days I was feverishly striving to make things on small scale, but when I saw Mr. Kamekura’s works before me,
I was overwhelmed by their power, leaving me both amazed and disheartened. At the same time, however, I remember leaving the exhibition with an indefinable sense of hope toward the future. What I learned that day, I think, was, in addition to the profundity of design itself, the fact that engagement in design work inevitably gives rise to involvement with society.
I never imagined, though, that, so soon thereafter I would receive a major award such as this one.
In the creative process, we tend to focus on the details and often end up agonizing over them in solitude. Anguishing in a state completely shut off from society is akin to the ascetic training of a monk under a raging waterfall, and we tend to misconstrue design to be something that causes anguish.
By contrast, design born from involvement with society has something cheerful and powerful about it. And yet, at the same time such design works, I believe, in many cases are lacking in attention to detail, to the extent that we quickly become bored by them. In many of the works by Mr. Kamekura that I saw at the exhibition, I sensed both interest in detail and involvement with society, and I remember being shaken to the core as a result.
In my work for “THEATRE PRODUCTS,” the company’s intense feelings toward society have taken shape. To continue to make it on one’s own in the world of fashion demands hard work on unimaginable scale, and with the light shed on this work by receiving the Yusaku Kamekura Design Award I know for certain that this work is the end product of their sweat and tears.