The background of Kamekura's mark designs is his boldness in eliminating all the waste, combining simplification derived from Japanese traditional family crests and Western intellectual mechanics of formation with a sharp modern sense of composition.
A total of 24 posters were created for the campaign during 1964, using the arrow symbol as a key features, representing power, motion and speed. The handmade lithographs use up to 19 colours, which were individually printed at large scale. The posters also utilise the brand colours red and yellow from Shells corporate identity.
Yoshio Hayakawa is one of Japan’s most influential post-war poster designers. His work represents a fusion of traditional Japanese art and European modernism often using soft, poetic brushstrokes and refined colour palettes and capturing the elegance of Japanese aesthetics while integrating the clean lines and bold visual language of Western design.
