Biography
Tamotsyu Yagi (b. Kobe Japan 1949) worked for seventeen years for a multidisciplinary design firm in Tokyo. In 1984 he moved to California and was personally head-hunted by Douglas Tompkins, the co-founder of the San Francisco-based apparel company Esprit. As Art Director at Esprit Yagi had the opportunity to lead and collaborate on all aspects of the brand’s identity from advertising, packaging and retail design. Collaborators included members of the Memphis Design Movement, notably Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata and Aldo Cibic. The development of the ‘ESPRIT Graphic Look’ under Yagi’s direction was internationally celebrated. It was at this early stage in Yagi's career that Steve Jobs became aware of his work, frequenting the Esprit campus and being profoundly inspired by Yagi's design principles. Yagi's groundbreaking work led Esprit to being named the first Westcoast company to receive the AIGA Leadership Award. Soon thereafter Yagi was one of the youngest inductees to the prestigious Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). In 1991 he founded Tamotsu Yagi Design in San Francisco with an eclectic international clientele. Some of his notable commissions include signage system and design for Yoshio Taniguchi and Kengo Kuma; logo design for Foundation Beyeler designed by Renzo Piano; product design for United Colors of Benetton; and design consulting for Pixar. In 2000 Yagi received a direct commission from Steve Jobs, defining the design concepts that would serve as the genesis for the company's future retail stores. His graphic and industrial design works are held in the permanent collection of SFMOMA, and he is currently working as Art Director for the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. Part of Yagi's collection was recently celebrated through an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2022 and No Detail is Small: Art & Design from the Tamotsi Yago Collection auction took place at Sotheby's, New York on 5 June 2024.