S. Neil Fujita

Sadamitsu Neil Fujita ( born May 16, 1921 in Waimea, Hawaii, † October 22, 2010 in Greenport, Long Iceland ) was an American graphic designer best known for his cover art of jazz albums and book covers.

Life and work

Sadamitsu Fujita's father worked on a sugar plantation in Hawaii; when he visited the school in Honolulu, he received the American name Neil. After his graduation, he attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles; However, his studies were interrupted in 1942 when he, as many other Japanese- immigrants interned. In 1943 he was recruited into the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and performed in Italy and France, his military service; after which he was employed as a translator for the military intelligence in the western Pacific. After his discharge from the army in 1947 he returned to Chouinard Institute back and studied graphic design.

As an employee of the Agency, he worked from 1949 in Philadelphia until 1954, the major label Columbia Records became aware of him. During this time he designed, inter alia, album covers of records by Miles Davis ( 'Round About Midnight and art Blakey The Jazz Messengers (1956 ) and 1959 Davis ' Kind of Blue, Charles Mingus ( Mingus Ah Um ) and Dave Brubeck ( Time Out, the design of these last two envelopes he leaned against the abstract Eypressionismus the following year he left Columbia to open his own agency, .. 1963 went to the advertising agency Ruder & Finn, to build a subdivision for design, which eventually evolved into Fujita Design Among his customers all book publishers. best known for his book illustrations of Truman Capote's historical novel In Cold Blood, the issue of Short Stories by John Updike ( Pigeon Feathers ) and Mario Puzo's novel the Godfather. additional work included the logo for the NBC Today television show. beside taught Fujita at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. 2008 he published his autobiography, Mouth of Reddish Water.