From the Series
Tokyo-based graphic designer, Tomoyuki Kurosawa, publicly known as Nemury, is an art director at the Japanese creative studio, Prints21. However, it is his personal projects, particularly the ones composed with an iPhone drawing app, which have garnered him attention on an international scale.
Nemury’s graphic drawings are underscored by his signature style, called MINIMUMix. The style is a mixture of picture and typography work, which is defined by the use of minimum lines and colours.
The graphic artist’s portfolio is largely comprised of his minimalist interpretation of popular culture subjects and includes collections based on fairy tales, famous artworks, Andy Warhol and iconic public figures.
Nemury began creating pieces on his iPhone out of neccesity. Between his long business hours and family life, he couldn’t find the time to work on personal projects until he started to create artworks on the iOS app, #patchwork, during his daily commute on the train.
Developed by Andrew Gluschenko, #patchwork is an easy-to-use illustration application that allows a user three basic shapes to draw with. This limited toolset had a profound influence over Nemury’s graphic style. He says that when he first started drawing, he felt inclined to go into detail, but this quickly changed after he realised that less is more.
“Ludwig Mies van der Rohe says ‘less is more’. It’s completely true. In the beginning, I drew characters with eyes. But when I drew characters without eyes and drew simpler, my artworks became more imaginative, abstract and iconic,” writes Nemury.
