Katsumi Komagata

“A pioneer in children’s publishing.”

Katsumi Komagata was born on October 17, 1953, in Shizuoka, Japan. “At the age of ten, my teacher thought it was likely that I had abnormal color vision because I had painted a white school building garish pink,” he said. “So I had to take a color vision test. The results indicated that I was normal; but from then on, I developed a complex related to color. I believe that even the fact that I chose the profession of a designer was because I was so determined to get over this complex.”

After studying graphic design—and presumably getting over his color complex—at Tokyo’s Nippon Design Center in the 1970s, Komagata turned his attention to New York City.

As a newly-minted New Yorker, Komagata worked in graphic design (with a focus on corporate identity) for several companies, including the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). It didn’t take long for his work to make an impression. In 1981, Komagata earned a silver medal from the venerable Art Directors Club of New York. Two years later, he returned to Tokyo.

After the birth of his daughter, Ai, in 1990, Komagata fashioned activities for her, using color and shape. “I made a set of cards to test how much my girl could see,” he said. “She reacted immediately to a black circle.”

The black circle was a central component of Komagata’s first—of ten—Little Eyes booklets. At first, the booklets were a form of experimentation. A way of engaging and interacting with his infant daughter.

As is usually the case with “personal projects,” thus began Komagata’s prolific publishing career.