Name: Pictograms: Iconic Japanese Designs gallery tour
Start: 2025-10-01T15:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-10-01T15:45:00+01:00
Location: 101-111 Kensington High Street, W8 5SA London, United Kingdom

Pictograms: Iconic Japanese Designs gallery tour

Discover the evolution of pictograms and Japan’s role in visual communication today in this gallery tour led by Japan House London Director of Programming Simon Wright.
The tour explores the history of visual communication, from prehistoric cave paintings and Shang dynasty oracle bones to emoji and ubiquitous public signs. Japanese graphic designers have been central to the development of pictograms. The coordinated designs for the sports and facilities pictograms for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games paved the way for all subsequent major international sporting events. The tour also looks at the winning designs from the My London Pictogram competition, where representations of London drawn by young people aged seven to 16 were refined into pictograms by the Nippon Design Center.
Simon Wright explores how pictograms in Japan have developed as a form of universal language, and how artistic principles shape the design of the signs and symbols that guide us through public spaces without words. Questions are encouraged.
Booking Essential | Admission Free