Whimsical Covers for a Political Magazine | Makoto Wada
Whimsical Covers for a Political Magazine
-The Incredible Legacy of Makoto Wada
Makoto Wada (10 April 1936 – 7 October 2019) was a Japanese Illustrator, Graphic Designer, Writer and Film Director.
His creativity knew no end - it would be impossible to cover his creative career in one blog post. I will focus on his Illustration and Graphic Design work here.
SHUKAN BUNSHUN
Wada’s most impressive feat (of many!) in my opinion, is his work for weekly magazine, Shukan Bunshun. To summarise quickly, this popular publication is like a hybrid of a political newspaper and a celebrity gossip mag. In 1977, then editor, Kengo Tanaka wanted to completely rebrand the aesthetic of the magazine and reached out to Makoto Wada.
Until that point, the magazine covers featured movie stars and tv celebrities. Wada was given an open brief for the direction of the illustrations. As us creatives know, a completely open brief isn’t necessarily as liberating and easy as it sounds. Wada asked Tanaka about his vision, and Tanaka, still keen for Wada to take control kept it pretty vague - “Fairy tales of city life”.
Wada’s response to the brief, a bird carrying an airmail letter. The succeeding illustrations often featured cats, many, many cats. (much like Kazunari Hattori’s series for Gekkan Hyakka!) An amazing Graphic Designer as well as an Illustrator he illustrated and designed each weekly cover for the next 40 years! He only gave up the gig because he could no longer draw comfortably due to old age, he’d created an astonishing 2000 issues!
Wada, also re-designed the logo. He went for a classic typeface with a modern feel, something that wouldn’t date. A huge improvement I think!
Shukan Bunshun before and after Makoto Wada’s rebrand
MURAKAMI COLLABORATION
Wada often drew for legendary novelist, Haruki Murakami too.
A recommended book for Haruki Murakami and Wada fans is “Portrait in Jazz”. For this series Wada drew portraits of his favourite Jazz musicians, and Murakami wrote stories to go with them.
An incredible legacy
I’m going to have to keep the rest of his career highlights for a future blog post. The image below provides huge amounts of inspiration! A creative can achieve so much and spread much joy in a lifetime. To think this is but a tiny fraction of Wada’s creative output! Unattainable for us mere mortals perhaps, but something to aspire to!
About Natalie Ex Design Studio
Hello, my name is Nat. I’m a qualified and experienced Illustrator and Graphic Designer in Melbourne. I have a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design and over 18 years of industry experience in illustration, graphic design and digital marketing.
The trademark Natalie Ex aesthetic is a playful and polished clean line style, inspired by my half Japanese upbringing.