Remembering designer, sculptor and illusionist Shigeo Fukuda who passed on January 11 2009, at the age of 76 years.

One had the pleasure of meeting Fukuda, as a fellow speaker, at the 2005 AGIdeas conference in Melbourne. Fukuda was a man of little English, yet he was a master of the international language of charm, wit, celebration, playfulness and humour.

In 2005, Fukuda was the first speaker on the first day of the three day conference. Under any circumstance Fukuda is an impressive act to follow, with a reputation to have the audience in stitches, or standing in ovation. I was scheduled to follow Fukuda, yet at the last minute, to my relief, David Pidgeon switched places with me.

In 2005 Fukuda was the product of a designer in the mature stages of his career. His presentation explored his earlier work, the presentation transcended commercial drivers and flourished into expressive and playful large scale sculptural works which resembled art, rather than traditional graphic design. Fukuda was without a translator, and he made the very best of his awkward lack of English. It was a presentation rich with playful gestures, one liners in English, punctuated with perfectly timed and rewarding image transitions.

Fukuda was not one to go to bed early. His renowned, spontaneous, one man shows kept countless dinner engagements lively — armed with as little as wine glasses, a napkin, even a wig, Fukuda had fellow guests in fits of laughter. One of my favourite memories of Fukuda was the dinner for the student committee at AGIdeas 2005, and at an AGI congress dinner at a small hall in Berlin. While most speakers and guests sat on their personalities, Fukuda held court, downing drinks, making faces and doing little gigs and tricks. He was pure kook, forever young, silly at times, and always lovable.

Born in 1932, Fukuda lived through many changing times in Japan — peace, war, destruction, rebuilding, supression, endeavour, success. In light of this, Fukuda negotiated a vast body of diverse work, complex with meaning and executed with symbol like simplicity.

Rest in peace Mr Fukuda.

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