Tsutomu Nakai is a Japanese drum master, musician and educator who leads a Japanese drum group “Dragon Bear” in Hawaii. “Dancing Dragon” is his first CD. It contains his original music inspired by Hawaii’s dynamic nature.

I was fortunately given an opportunity to visit his studio to study his various drumming styles. He employs different size bachi (drum sticks) and drumming styles according to the size of Japanese drum. His drumming style is very powerful and dynamic, but also very graceful like a dragon.

The CD design is all about “stillness and motion.” Looking at the CD cover, you cannot tell at first that the CD contains Japanese drum music. But once you spread out all three panels, you will see his dynamic dragon-like, drumming motion. All drumming poses on the visual show him with different drums.

[Done while at Clarence Lee Design.]