Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2014

It’s hard not to draw parallels between the careers of Hicozoh Akamatsu and Saul Bass, the American designer who took the film title and elevated it to an artform with his work on Psycho and West Side Story among others. Akamatsu accomplished the same feat in Japan. And like Bass, his designs are examined divorced from the films they were created for  with an exhibition at The National Film Center. Akamatsu first garnered attention with the 1983 documentary Tokyo Trial on the WWII war crime tribunals, and his stark title design resembles a rubber-stamped “guilty.” The exhibition showcases his work to brand films through design and also delves into the early typography of Japanese silent films.

The National Film Center, Apr 15- Aug 10.