A Life of Chromatic Shade:
S.Neil Fujita’s Visionary Fusion
Portrait of Fujita. Neil Fujita (1921-2010)Photograph: Conway Studios Corp., courtesy Kenji Fujita, KCET, and Japanese American National Museum.
“By accident, I happened to find a book in my high school library by a guy named S. Neil Fujita [...] it was called Aim for a Job in Graphic Design/Art. I opened the book up, and it was like receiving an instruction manual for my future career: it was all right there. I was about 15 at the time, and I thought, “This is what I want to do.” I didn’t know a single living graphic designer, and no one I knew did anything even resembling graphic design; but all of a sudden, I saw this path. To a certain degree, that was the last big decision I made about my life’s work.”
— Michael Bierut, Interview with Tina Essmaker, The Great Discontent
About
“I wanted to look for a job in graphic art because I knew that I had to make a living and that painting wasn’t going to do it. [...] I went down to Philadelphia, and Coiner (Charles Coiner, N. W. Ayer & Son) looked at my portfolio and offered me a job, but it wasn’t because of my commercial work—it was because of my paintings!”
— S. Neil Fujtia,Waxing Chromatic: An Interview with S. Neil Fujita By Steven Heller
Born on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, in 1921 as a Japanese-American Nisei, S.Neil Fujita’s journey to devoting himself to art and design started when he started his studies in art and design at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. That journey was not so easy, though. Like many other Japanese-Americans, his life was disrupted by World War 2 and the issue of Executive Order 9066. While these events do not look to overshadow his prolific portfolio, his works reflect Fujita’s resilience and fearlessness.
Flying out of Hawai‘i, studying in LA
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Incarceration in Wyoming, and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Born on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, in 1921 as a Japanese-American Nisei, S.Neil Fujita’s journey to devoting himself to art and design started when he started his studies in art and design at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. That journey was not so easy, though. Like many other Japanese-Americans, his life was disrupted by World War 2 and the issue of Executive Order 9066. While these events do not look to overshadow his prolific portfolio, his works reflect Fujita’s resilience and fearlessness.
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Coming Back from Frontline to Graphic Art
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