Since opening in 2007, the National Art Center, Tokyo has regularly organized exhibitions on design and architecture in line with its active policy to present a large variety of artistic expression and offer a fresh perspective on creativity in the arts. Embodying this policy, an exhibition on the work of Kashiwa Sato is planned.
Kashiwa Sato (b.1965) is best known as the creative director for many major industrial and non-industrial design projects. After having engaged in innovative advertising projects as an art director at Hakuhodo Inc. in the 1990s, he started his own independent business in 2000. Since then, he has been devising the organizational and visual identities and branding strategies for clients in a variety of fields: corporate, educational (including a kindergarten and a university), medical (a hospital), the arts (museums), entertainment, fashion, and local industry. His work has attracted local and international attention.
Sato’s unique methodology is to adapt a basic principle of visual design — clarifying the information to be conveyed, grasping its essence, and deriving visual language and signposts that are immediately accessible to a mass audience — and apply it to a wider, more diverse range of situations far exceeding the purview of visual design. His work has not only expanded and advanced the notion of design but also exerted influence on various aspects of society — cultural, economic, and the patina of our daily lives.
In a presentation curated by Sato himself — his largest private showing — the exhibition will span thirty years of endeavor and explore his activities from different angles. By experiencing his multifarious achievements as “artworks,” the viewer will be offered the opportunity to share the excitement and enjoy of their peerless creativity.