Japanese Poster Print - Present

Japanese poster art has become highly popular in society, the artwork can be seen in many different forms mainly it has been seen in fashion and alternative artwork for example the clothing company Terratag, they took The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai and altered it to fit into popular culture by adding Gundam’s into it. The company Terratag have created many t-shirts that link into Japanese culture with strong links to the different art styles such as the Gundams, Laughing Man from the Japanese Anime Ghost In The Shell and Afro Samurai.

This image was created by the company 'Terratag' in 2005 as a print  

 The art work has been taken other artists and the most popular redone version of the art would be the ‘Great Bunny Wave’ by artists ‘Kozyndan’. All of their work has been inspired by the original Japanese poster print style and they have put their own unique twist on the pieces. After looking into Kozyndan’s artwork I have seen that they have drawn a lot of inspiration from the Japanese Poster Print style but have put a modern style on it by digitalising the images in computer programs, they do still use traditional means but now they add the aid of digitalising. another example of this could be thier image called 'Whale Wars'.

This image was created by artists Kozyndan in 2003 for the cover of 'Giant Robot Magazine issue 28'.

Whale Wars

British based Artist/Musician Keaton Henson also draws inspiration for his work from Japanese prints, this is apparent more so in his work the ‘Gloaming - Book’ the work is featured on his website, he has worked with many successful bands and companies such as Topshop and Enter Shikari. Keeping alive the art style.

This image was created by artist 'Keaton Henson' in the year ... 

The artist mcbess can also be said to draw influence from Japanese Poster Print as his style, whilst being primarily in black and white still has some influence from the style as he uses simple shapes and a lot of obscure shading to give his images a lot more depth and make them stand out more. The image below is a good example of his work as it is a large piece and contains most of the aspectis I was just discussing. The artist has been featured in the men’s magazine Front many times which proves that the art style he uses is popular enough to include in a very popular magazine. In my opinion alternative magazines such as Front are a good place to find alternative art that is based upon older art styles thus keeping them alive in modern media and in the public eye. This artist links in well with Keaton Henson who I mentioned earlier as they have both worked on the magazine Front.

This image was created by 'matthieu bessudo' for his portfolio as mcbess in 2011 for his illustration folder.   

This is 'Keatons Hensons' image in Front issue 156 Pg 59

This is 'McBess's' cover fro Front Issue 163

Whilst in the student union I came across some posters that are in the style of Japanese poster prints, one of them was the iconic 'Great Wave' By Hokusai (1830-1833) image and another was an image cherry blossom, a very good piece of Japanes like piece draws inspiration from Japanese prints with its simple layout and extravagant use of colour, all of this shows that the art style is still popular in today's modern society.

The above photo's are part of the Atrium Poster Sales on November 8th 2011 the photos were taken by James Hyland.