S. Neil Fujita, 89, noted graphic artist from Southold, dies

S. Neil Fujita of Southold, a highly regarded graphic artist and painter who designed the covers for books including Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" and Mario Puzo's "The Godfather," had recently turned his attention to portraits of North Fork residents.

Fujita, who created the "Today" show logo, the Shubert Theater's logo and the graphic typeface for Billboard Magazine, "used his painting to become part of the community," said his son Kenji, of upstate Staatsburg.

Fujita, 89, died Saturday at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport after suffering a stroke a day earlier.

Before moving 14 years ago to Southold, where his son David already lived, Fujita and his wife were already familiar with the area, having spent summers starting in the 1960s on Shelter Island where they built their own house. They sold it in the late 1980s when they moved from New York City to Los Angeles.

Sadamitsu Neil Fujita was born in Kauai, Hawaii. He grew up on a sugar plantation in Waimea, where his father worked as a blacksmith. He was given the name Neil at his boarding school in Honolulu. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 and studied at Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts). There he married fellow student Aiko Tamaki, who died in 2006.

Fujita's studies were interrupted by World War II, when he was forced into an internment camp in Wyoming. In 1943, he volunteered for the mostly Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team and saw action in Italy and France. He also served as an intelligence translator in the Pacific.

After the war, Fujita began working as a graphic designer, first in Philadelphia for the N.W. Ayer advertising agency and then in New York as head of the art department for Columbia Records.

"When I got to Columbia, there was the beginning of some idea of album cover art, but it was still just type and maybe a photo of the artist and some shapes arranged in an interesting way," Fujita said in a 2007 interview. "I think that I was the first to use painters, photographers and illustrators to do artwork on album covers."

He designed album covers that incorporated works by artists such as Ben Shahn and Andy Warhol with bold typography. His own paintings were featured on albums such as Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" and Charles Mingus' "Mingus Ah Um."

Wanting to spread out to new areas of design, Fujita left Columbia in 1957, returned a year later, and quit again in 1960 to start his own firm that served clients such as General Mills and General Foods.

He taught for many years at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan.

Besides Kenji and David, he is survived by son Martin of Southold; six grandchildren, and a brother, Hisao, of Hemet, Calif.

Fujita was cremated and the family will hold a private service.