Dana Tanamachi

Artist

Dana Tanamachi is an American typographer and artist.[1] She is a designer of fonts. She has designed for Nike, Michelle Obama, Google, Instagram, Target, O The Oprah Magazine, Ralph Lauren, and Time Magazine.[2][3] She designed postage stamps for the United States Postal Service.[4] HOW Magazine says she is a "Young Creative to Watch" and she won the Art Director's Club Young Gun award.[1][5] Print Magazine named her "queen of hipster graphic design."[6]

Tanamachi is famous for using chalk to make her designs and fonts.[6][7]

Early life

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Tanamachi was born in Houston in 1985.[1] Her grandmother was put in an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. She did a lot of art while she was in the camp and Tanamachi loved her artworks.[1]

Tanamachi took drawing and design classes in college.[8] She graduated from University of North Texas in 2007 with a design degree.[8] She moved to New York a few months after graduation.[8]

Career

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She started working for SpotCo, an advertising company.[8] There, Tanamachi designed logos, posters, and billboards for Broadway shows.[8]

One day, she was at a friend's house and drew a picture on their chalkboard. Many people took pictures of it. She started drawing on that chalkboard for every party her friends had. People liked her drawings so much that Desiron, a furniture store in New York City, hired her to draw a design for them.[8] Her next job was designing for Google.[8] In 2010, she went to work for Louise Fili Ltd.[6] There, she designed for Ralph Lauren.[6]

Tanamachi left Louise Fili Ltd. to start Tanamachi Studio.[8] In 2013, she designed the logo for the Nike women's marathon in San Francisco.[2] She also designed logos for the Nike “Youthful Authentic, Celebration, We Run”.[2] She has also designed for West Elm,[3] Tanamachi collaborated with MiiR to create a line of reusable mugs that celebrated the world being strong enough to overcome COVID-19.[9] She also worked for Michelle Obama.[4]

Tanamachi worked with two very famous designers, Louise Fili and Steven Heller, to write the book Scripts: Elegant Lettering From Design's Golden Age.[8] She also was the judge for Print Magazine's Typography & Lettering Awards.[10][11]

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Taketa, K. (2018, December 14). Honoring Creativity - Using her grandmother as inspiration, award-winning artist/ designer Dana Tanamachi is ready to make her 'mark' on the world.. Pacific Citizen (Los Angeles, CA), p. 16. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Gardner, Bill; Potts, Emily (2015-11-30). LogoLounge 9: 2,000 International Identities by Leading Designers. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4403-4065-9.
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Chalk it Up to Talent | North Texan". northtexan.unt.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Dana Tanamachi's Putting Her Stamp on the USPS". Houstonia Magazine. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  5. "Young Guns - Archive of Winner Profiles | The One ClubDana Tanamachi | Tanamachi Studio". www.oneclub.org. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 PrintMag (2012-03-12). "Chalk Talk". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  7. Wall Street Journal Video Center. Professional Chalk Artist Draws Old-School Designs, retrieved 2024-04-11
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 Wolff, Rachel (2010-03-20). "REVIEW --- Creating: Dana Tanamachi, Chalk Letterer: Evoking the Past With Dusty Letters". Wall Street Journal. pp. C11.
  9. Petit, Zachary (2020-06-29). "MiiR x Dana Tanamachi". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  10. Petit, Zachary (2016-10-05). "6 Award-Winning Typefaces". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  11. PrintMag (2016-10-22). "4 Brilliant Student Typographic Designs". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-11.