Happy Earthday

Shigeo Fukuda’s Happy Earthday is an environmental poster from 1982. The design is very simple: a large black axe takes up most of the page against a bright red background. The handle of the axe is drawn like a tree trunk, and a small branch grows out from the top. This is what makes the image interesting, because an axe is something used to cut down trees, but Fukuda turns the axe itself into a tree. It creates a strange image that immediately connects human destruction with nature. There are almost no other details in the poster, so the axe is the first thing the viewer notices. The red background also makes the black shape feel more serious and urgent. At the bottom, the green words Happy Earthday stand out from the red and black. The poster was created for the theme “Green and People-Protect the Earth,” so the image directly connects to the idea of people being responsible for what happens to the environment.