To judge from the staid design work he churns out for many of Japan's labor and environment public-service advertisements, you'd never guess that Tsuyoshi Suzuki is a spiky-haired hipster with a collection of 1950s American crockery.
Now, though, Suzuki is being revealed in all his stylishly eccentric glory — along with many others — as the JAGDA Calendar Salone 2011, a rare "trade fair" for graphic designers, kicks off at Midtown in the upscale Roppongi district of Tokyo.
Organized by the Japan Graphic Designers Association, the event aims to help the group's 2,600 members promote themselves. As JAGDA Vice President Masuteru Aoba explained to The Japan Times last week: "For a long time, when the economy was good, Japan's graphic designers didn't really have to sell themselves. Jobs would come to them."