PARCO Poster by Masatoshi Toda 

Poster, Shibuya PARCO PART3 Opening (Green), designed by Masatoshi Toda｜1981

Poster commissioned to promote the opening of the third section of the Shibuya PARCO department store in 1981. This advertisement is emblematic of graphic design's role as cultural signifier— through bold and experimental visuals like this one, PARCO aimed to position itself as a cultural incubator rather than a traditional department store.

This was unlike other traditional department store models at the time, which were filled with internally sourced merchandise. PARCO took to “embracing a fashion building model: leasing space to emerging tenants, while creating its own cultural value through creative advertising, incubatory projects, and public events.” (Yokogao, “Japan, PARCO, and the Art of Staying Ahead,”).

Masatoshi Toda (born April 10, 1948) is a Japanese art director from Fukui Prefecture and a member of both the Tokyo Art Directors Club (ADC) and JAGDA. Inspired by his high school teacher Tadahiro Ono, he pursued a career in advertising, working at Takashimaya and the Nippon Design Center before founding the Toda Office in 1976. In the early 1980s, he gained widespread recognition for co-creating the "Papipu Penguins" for Suntory’s CAN Beer commercials. (https://artsofjapan.com/en/profiles/toda-masatoshi/)