SHIGEO
FUKUDA
(1932 - 2009)
Shigeo Fukuda was born in Tokyo on February 4th, 1932.
His family specialized in the manufacture of the toys. How-
ever after World War II, a young Shigeo became interested in
graphic design. He was especially interested in the minimalism
displayed in the Swiss Style. He attended the Tokyo National
University of Fine Arts and Music, which he graduated from in
1956. He was first commissioned for the 1970 World’s Fair Expo
in Osaka.
Inspired by the Swiss Style, Shigeo employed similar techniques
in his posters while combining them with optical illusions. He
quickly developed a reputation for his political themed posters
which often emphasized anti-war and pro-environmental per-
spectives. His poster Victory 1945, depicting an artillery shell
returning into the barrel from which it was shot, earned him
the grand prize at the Warsaw Poster contest which supported
the Peace Fund Movement.
In 1980, he created a poster for Amnesty International depict-
ing a clenched fist of barbed wire. In 1982 his poster, 1982
Happy Earth Day, showed an axe with its head against the
ground and a branch sprouting from the end of the handle.
Later that year Fukuda published Visual Illusion, a book com-
prised of several optical illusions which gained him fame in the
United States. He was the first Japanese designer to be inducted
into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in New York City in
1987.
Shigeo once described his philosophy, “I believe that in design,
30 percent dignity, 20 percent beauty and 50 percent absurdity
are necessary.” In 1967, Paul Rand organized show in New York
at the IBM Gallery in his honor. Exhibitions at The Asian Art
Museum of San Francisco in 1987 and in 1999 were hosted by
the Japan Foundation in Toronto entitled, “Visual Prankster:
Shigeo Fukuda.”
Shigeo Fukuda suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage and died
on January 11, 2009.
Guess Who: Adolf Hitler 1982 Happy Earth Day

Amnesty International Poster. 1970 World’s Fair Expo Poster

Guess Who: Adolf Hitler Shigeo Fukuda Signature

[Right] Victory 1945.