Tadashi Yamashita | |
|---|---|
山下正 | |
 | |
| Born | September 16, 1948 Kagawa, Japan |
| Occupation | Visual Artist |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Known for | Designer of Pac-Man |
| Awards | Tomi Contribution award（1996） Tomi President's Award（1997） Shizuoka City Chapter Design Excellence Award（2005） Iwata City Emblem Design Excellence Award(2006） 1st Sea Creatures Illustration Contest Grand Prix Award （2001） Hiltopia Art Square Award (2016) Myanmar Embassy Award (2017) Embassy of Bangladesh Award (2019) |
Tadashi Yamashita (山下 正, Tadashi Yamashita, born September 16, 1948) is a Japanese graphic designer, visual artist, painter and calligrapher. He is best known as the graphic designer for Pac-Man.
Early life
editYamashita was born in the countryside of Kagawa, Japan and spent most of his childhood in the surrounding mountains, sea and movie theaters. His art career is deeply influenced by Disney, Osamu Tezuka, and The Beatles.
Yamashita attended Takamastu Kougei High school where met wood block artist Taikei Akiyama as his homeroom teacher and visual artist Takumi Yokooka as a classmate.[1]
Career
editIn March 1970, he joined Nakamura Manufacturing Co. Ltd., the predecessor of Namco. During his time at Namco, Yamashita designed artwork, logos, and typefaces for more than 30 games including "Pac-Man" and "Galaxian".[2]
Yamashita’s design for Pac-Man, spearheaded its rise to become a global phenomenon. His Pac-Man character and representative work was widely seen in character design, logos, advertising, and pop culture.[3]
After leaving Namco in March 1988, he founded the design production company Clip Ltd. At Clip, he developed a wide range of design activities, including advertisements posters for Keikyu corporations, children's magazine cover design for the Asahi Newsparer, Tommy's board games, and amusement park rides.
Currently, he is a member of the Shingoku Art Association and continues to be an active painter.[4]
Works
editNamco arcade/video games
editFull face
FORMULA-X
F-1
CLAY CHAMP
Galaxian
Rally-X
Submarine
Gee Bee
Bomb Bee
Cutie Q
Pac-Man
Galaxian
Galaga
Xevious
Pole Position
Amusement Park Rides
editYomiuriland Rockin Roller
Arcade games
editKato Fancy Lifter series
Masago Bear's Telephone
Masago Toy train
Tomi Boardgames
editTomi Magical Brain Power
Tomi Magical Banana
Tomi Crossing America Ultra Quiz
Keikyu Posters
editStrawberry picking
Haneda Seven Lucky Gods Inari Tour
Setsubun
Cherry Blossom Festival
Asahi Newspaper
editKagakuru (Magazine cover）
Syakapon (Magazine cover）
Other design works
editFukui Prefecture Awara City emblem design Hasami town symbol Mark design Matsudo City Morino Hall 21 (Mark design, logotype) Toa Sales Co., Ltd. (Mark design)