Clockwork Orange (1972 Japanese Release)

Kiroku Higaki was the lead designer for Art Theatre Guild, a subdivision of Toho-Towa Productions. He was responsible for creating Japan’s most popular releases of Western, cult, and mainstream films for over 60 years.

The logo work he created for the poster Clockwork Orange is especially impressive. The Japanese translation, 時計じかけのオレンジ (Tōkeijikake no Orenji), was designed to resemble the shapes of the original title, as you can see near the bottom of the poster.

This is an impressive feat, as 時計じかけのオレンジ contains all three Japanese writing forms: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. By rounding the outer shape of the radical 日 in 時 into a circle, and shifting the inner shape to the right, Higaki was able to mimic the original logo, while keeping the readability of the Japanese text. 

Relatively early in his career, this logo remains one of the most complex logos in his portfolio, even to this day.

Quote by Leonel Martinez, Japanese culture, graphic design, and art writer for Sabukaru