Ikko Style: East Meets West. Selvedge Magazine.

Lauren Barfoot, founder and designer of Holland Street, brings her distinctive voice to the pages of Selvedge Magazine.

Ikko Style: East Meets West

By Lauren Barfoot, Designer at Holland Street

“Crisp, abstract imagery, meticulous sense of colour and elimination of all inconsequential details”—with these three phrases, Grove Art Online captures the essence of Japanese graphic designer Ikko Tanaka (1930–2002).

Tanaka created a style that fused modernist principles with the Japanese pictorial tradition of ukiyo‑e (“pictures of the floating world”). His geometric blocks of pure colour—whether a geisha, a mountain, or a flower—remain instantly recognisable, often paired with Western typography. This dialogue between East and West captivated me, and his simple, timeless aesthetic continues to inspire.

Beginning as a textile designer, Tanaka co‑founded the Nippon Design Centre in 1960 and established the Ikko Tanaka Design Studio in Tokyo three years later. Within a decade, his reputation as designer, art director, and editor was secure. He published extensively on Japanese culture, was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1994, and later shaped the Muji brand identity as art director until 2001.

As a designer, it is impossible not to be influenced by Tanaka’s confident use of colour, shape, and space. His flower prints resonate deeply with me: he distilled the softness of petals into bold, abstract forms. Like Tanaka, I work with block colours—often black or white—composing shapes from smooth curves and straight lines. While he used paper, I respond to the tactile qualities of silk through digital and screen printing. My current work transforms paper‑cut roses, geraniums, and peonies into collars, cuffs, and belts, digitally printed in pastel pinks and greys against intense cerulean and cobalt.

My Sakura Collection of robes takes stylised inspiration from traditional Japanese dress. The kimono, with its expanse of fabric, offers the perfect canvas to showcase these prints. It is my own fusion of East and West: British craftsmanship inspired by the legacy of a supremely talented Japanese designer.

Find Lauren Barfoot's robes and kimonos at Holland Street, www.hollandstreet.co
Ikko Style: The Graphic Art of Ikko Tanaka, until August 2nd, Pacific Asia Museum, California, www.pacificasiamuseum.org.

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