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H

ideki Nakajima was born in 1961, in the mostly agricultural Saitama region of Japan. The son of

a kimono tailor, he grew up in a home that was open to the arts where he quickly discovered

his love for drawing. An early visual influence came in the form of Ultraman, a 40-foot (12 m)-tall

silver robot in the mold of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, dressed in the brightly colored superhero fashions of

the day. Ultraman’s sleek, futuristic styling and metallic good looks became part of Nakajima’s aesthetic

foundation and a regular character in his drawings.

Nakajima continued honing his drafting skills throughout his teenage years, but a trip to the record store

soon turned him toward graphic design. He now describes it as the most dramatic event of his life,

a moment that changed his destiny. “When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an illustrator. But after seeing

the jacket of an OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) LP, designed by Peter Saville, I changed

my mind and decided to be a graphic designer.”

100

PIECES OF ART IN ONE YEAR On entering the professional world, he immediately

felt its artistic constraints. “My twenties were the darkest period in my life.

During those ten years, I changed design companies seven times. Maybe I was very

arrogant. My first design company fired me after just three months. At that time, I had strong pride,

but that pride had no reason. In the real world, my ideal design was nothing. I didn’t know how

to persuade financial sponsors. Also, I didn’t have the skill to make my ideas real. Somehow I decided

to accept that reality and gradually came to think that I would be an art director after thirty, and that

my twenties were training time.”

Still, Nakajima was frustrated by the lack of freedom he found in his first jobs. He decided to find

another outlet rather than let himself be stifled. “I decided that I would make 100 original works

within a year, on my own time, which meant I had to make at least one piece every three days.

In those days, we had no computers that could make artwork easily, so I made a lot of silk screens.”

The resulting pieces show Nakajima’s admiration for Saville’s album covers and modernist typography

but move beyond mimicry in their subtle use of type, color, and photography.

1987 1997

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NOW

HIDEKI 11

Finding his love for graphic design via Ultraman and the record sleeves

of Peter Saville, Hideki Nakajima has made a career of creating

subtly lavish and elegant designs that astound with every closer look.

NAKAJIMA

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Job no:81378-5 Title : RP_All Access (New PB Verdions) Client : Pro-vision

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175 Size : 203.2(w)254(h)mm Co : M6 (mac J)

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Included in this period of exploration are the first of what

Nakajima calls his “typographies,” three-dimensional

typographic collages. “I started making typographies

in 1987. I was just looking for something new but didn’t

think this could work well. Then I became the art director

for Cut magazine and started making them again.

This time I found great possibilities in this direction.”

The 100 pieces led Nakajima to a job with Masami

Shimizu, a man he admired and who would soon

become his mentor. “I tried to be the ultimate assistant

for him. I tried to do enjoyable works as much as

I could, though I knew those works were beyond my

capacity. I was working all night, every night, and

Composit, spread A 1993 spread for Composit

magazine shows an early example of Nakajima’s flair

for using typography as illustration.

Japan, magazine cover While fairly conservative

overall, the use of the small red 3 demonstrates

that Nakajima treated type and photography not as

separate layers, but as one continuous space.

H, magazine cover Already more free-

wheeling than the year before, Nakajima

amps up this cover for H with bold type

that accentuates the dramatic photograph.

1987

1993

32

1994

33

1995

34

“I WAS WORKING

ALL NIGHT, EVERY NIGHT,

AND NEVER CAME HOME.

THOSE THREE YEARS

WERE THE HARDEST

OF MY LIFE.

BUT I THINK THOSE INTENSE DAYS

WERE VERY IMPORTANT

AND MADE ME WHO I AM NOW.”

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