Kawagoe is a Japanese city northwest of Tokyo. In the olden days it was known to have had strong cultural and economic ties to the city capital of Edo. It even earned the nickname Koedo, or small-Edo. Remnants of this past still remain, and to help tell its story, graphic design student Ayano Sunagawa created a series of stunning black and white posters for her graduation thesis project.
Sunagawa, who is graduating from Tama Art University with a degree in graphic design, made several trips up to Kawago to take pictures and make sketches. She then selected a number of main visuals – in her professor’s words, “lead actors” – and lovingly turned each one into an eye-catching icon. She dubbed these the “tone” of the city.
Her ambitious project “Koedo Tone” resulted in 20 different unofficial posters. You can see them all here.
Each year we like to review the many senior thesis exhibitions going on at art schools around Japan and feature exceptional student work. You can see past student work here.
