S. Neil Fujita

A successful mid-century commercial artist and graphic designer best known for his boldly graphic book and album cover art, Sadamitsu Neil Fujita (1921–2010) are credited with revolutionizing the record and publishing industry through his designs.

Fujita was born in Waimea on the island of Kaua'i on May 16, 1921. His father was a blacksmith for a sugar plantation, and the family lived in the plantation camps; as a young man, he also worked in the sugarcane fields. His last two years of high school in Honolulu exposed him to his first art learning experiences, and following graduation, he decided to travel to California to broaden his opportunities.

While working at a fruit and vegetable market in Los Angeles, Fujita decided to apply to the Chouinard Art Institute. He studied at the prestigious art college for two years while living with a customer of the fruit stand, exchanging housework for room and board. In 1942, Executive Order 9066 forced him to move to the Pomona Assembly Center and later to the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming. He served as the Heart Mountain Sentinel newspaper's art director and remained in camp until he joined the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team in 1943. After four years serving in Italy, France, and as a military intelligence infantryman in Japan, Fujita returned to Los Angeles in 1947 and resumed his fine arts studies at Chouinard under the guidance of teachers Millard Sheets and Rex Brandt. He joined the California Watercolor Society and exhibited with the group four times from 1948–1951. In his last year at Chouinard, Fujita met fellow student Aiko Tamaki. He also began to take graphic design courses, anticipating the need for practical commercial skills following graduation.

He taught throughout his career, first at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art and later at the Pratt Institute, the New School for Social Research, and the Parsons School of Design, where he taught for eleven years. His work is in the collections at the Atwater Kent Museum in Philadelphia, the Floyd Memorial Library, Greenport, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.