While browsing through sites of famous designers for my project on design history within the past 50 years, I stumbled upon Tadanori Yokoo. As an enthusiast for '60s psychedelic rock posters, Yokoo's numerous bright theater posters instantly caught my eye, as did the above commentary on LBJ's overseas military strategy.
Another thing that stuck out to me about Yokoo, apart from his actual skill, was that despite his wide success in commercial art, his client was always secondary to his own artistic satisfaction. Today in the design world seems to be all about customer satisfaction; if a client isn't getting the design they want, the designer probably isn't doing their job right. To know that one of design's biggest name valued his own artistic integrity over customer approval and still kept business is extremely interesting. But it would seem that the furthering constraints on expressive freedom may have finally got to him; he made his "Painting Declaration," turning to fine arts in 1981, and has been doing exhibitions mostly of his paintings since.
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