Red & Black – A Symphony of Art, Grit, and Urban Wit
Client: Nepenthes USA, Engineered Garments
Art Direction, Design, Illustration: Manabu Gaku Inada
Year: 2018
Updated: Feb 19, 2025
The Fall/Winter 2018 collection marks another chapter in the ongoing creative dialogue between Daiki Suzuki and artist Manabu Gaku Inada — this time centered on the "Red & Black" aesthetic, a palette that carries the weight of creative urgency and revolutionary energy.
Drawing from a carefully assembled cultural archive, Inada pulled from the emotive color fields of Mark Rothko, the subversive typography of Barbara Kruger, and the rhythmic tension of Talking Heads. To hold the space between rugged outdoor functionality and metropolitan edge, he worked deliberately in low-fi nib pens, brushes, and markers — letting the hand show, letting the texture breathe.
The results range from self-referential "Decoy" motifs to punk-inflected typography concealed within campfire smoke: outdoor iconography rewritten with urban wit and a sharp conceptual hand. This is not a tribute to the past. It is a manifesto on what happens when heritage and avant-garde are pressed together until something new ignites.
Client: Nepenthes USA, Engineered Garments
Art Direction, Design, Illustration: Manabu Gaku Inada
Year: 2018
Updated: Feb 19, 2025
Beneath the surface of these seemingly playful duck illustrations lies a hidden narrative of deception. The inclusion of subtle hooks transforms the "cute" animals into functional decoys. The addition of the text "DECOY" to the graphic itself creates self-referential irony, challenging the viewer to question the true nature of what they are seeing.
A majestic deer stands atop a rugged, rocky peak, serving as the sentinel for the Fall/Winter 2018 collection. Integrated into the stone’s texture, the words "The Red and the Black" are arranged like naturally occurring patterns, blurring the line between typography and terrain. This piece masterfully evokes the nostalgic soul of the American wilderness, standing as a definitive emblem of the season’s aesthetic.
The collection expanded beyond T-shirts and hoodies to include a signature tote bag. The graphic’s outdoor origins are artfully subverted by the bold red-and-black colorway, resulting in a piece that feels distinctly urban and sophisticated. This juxtaposition encapsulates Gaku’s design philosophy: translating traditional nature-inspired imagery into a modern, stylish context.
This visual narrative explores the intersection of wilderness and street culture. The rising smoke from a campfire meal serves as a canvas for the word "ADVENTURE," rendered in a gritty, punk-style typeface. This stylistic juxtaposition brings a sophisticated urban edge to the classic camping motif, celebrating the spirit of exploration with a rebellious, modern twist.
The vision brought to life: The "Red & Black" collection on display at the Nepenthes Manhattan flagship. A space where the rugged spirit of the outdoors and urban sophistication converge through a singular, potent color palette.
Gaku deconstructs the traditional outdoor instructional aesthetic by pairing a fly fishing motif with subversive annotations. Although the diagram mimics a technical manual, the labels on the lines are deliberately inaccurate. By replacing knot specifications with words like "loneliness" and "fatigue," the artwork injects a sense of existential irony into the "Field Expedient" narrative, blending urban cynicism with the serenity of nature.
This is where the vision begins to crystallize. In these preliminary sketches, fleeting thoughts are captured on paper, marking the definitive starting point of the creative journey from abstract concept to tangible form.
