Documenting the Life of Ray Komai

Doug Clouse

I became fascinated by the life and work of Japanese-American graphic and exhibition designer Ray Komai. Komai spent five months in a concentration camp in Manzanar, California during World War II, yet later in life was a designer for the U.S. Information Agency, promoting American culture around the world. Research into Komai led to a book, exhibition, and website.

Ray Komai, around 1955; photograph courtesy Art Center College of Design, Pasadena

Ray Komai’s father being fingerprinted by the FBI, 1940; photograph courtesy of Michael Komai and The Rafu Shimpo

Covers of Architectural Forum magazine designed by Ray Komai; photograph by Robert Wright

Supergraphics by Ray Komai in the USIS offices in Tokyo, 1972

My book on Komai

Exhibition at Fordham University

Website / virtual exhibition of Komai design