Born in Waimea, Hawaii, to Japanese immigrants, Fujita attended a boarding school

in Honolulu, where he adopted the name Neil. He enrolled in Chouinard Art

Institute, but his studies were interrupted by World War II and his forced
relocation in 1942 (following the signing of Executive Order 9066), first to the
Pomona Assembly Center outside Los Angeles and later to the Heart Mountain
Relocation Center in Wyoming.[2] During his confinement, he worked as the art
director of the camp newspaper, the Heart Mountain Sentinel.[3] He enlisted in the
United States Army on January 1, 1943, and served in an anti-tank unit with the
442nd Infantry Regiment, a segregated regiment of Japanese American volunteers and
draftees that became the most decorated unit in the war. He was assigned to combat
duty in Europe—seeing action in Italy and France, but eventually worked as a
translator in the Pacific theater in Okinawa. Fujita achieved the rank of Master
Sergeant. He completed his studies at Chouinard after the war on the G.I. Bill.[1]

Career
Fujita joined a prominent Philadelphia ad agency—N. W. Ayer & Son—after completing
his studies. He worked for Ayer for three years and during his tenure was awarded
an Art Directors Club gold medal for his Container Company of America ad. He
employed an avant-garde style and was noticed by William Golden at Columbia
Records. Columbia hired him in 1954 to lead the design department, building on the
work of Alex Steinweiss who established the practice of custom cover art. Fujita
was the first to commission painters, photographers and illustrators to create
cover art for Columbia's albums. Columbia felt a particular need to keep up with
the cover art of Blue Note Records. While at Columbia, Fujita designed close to 50
album covers, including numerous iconic jazz covers from the period for Dave
Brubeck, Miles Davis, the Jazz Messengers and Charles Mingus, among others. Fujita
used his own colorful abstract paintings for the covers of Brubeck's Time Out, Gigi
Gryce's Modern Jazz Perspective, and Mingus Ah Um.[4][1][5]

In 1957, Fujita left Columbia in order to broaden his portfolio. He rejoined the
company a year later but left for good in 1960 to start his own firm. In 1963 he
joined the public relations firm Ruder & Finn, creating a design division called
Ruder, Finn & Fujita (later Fujita Design) where he embarked on a long career of
book cover design. He designed the covers for In Cold Blood, The Godfather, and
Pigeon Feathers.[1] He taught design at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, the
Pratt Institute, and Parsons School of Design.[1] Near the time of retirement in
the late 1980s, he served on the Board of Designers of the Go For Broke Monument
near the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Death
A resident of Southold, New York, Fujita died at age 89 due to complications of a
stroke on October 23, 2010, in Greenport, New York. He was survived by a younger
brother, Hisao "Hy" Fujita, (also a graphic designer), three sons and six
grandchildren. His wife, Aiko Tamaki, whom he met while she was also a student at
Chouinard, died in 2006.[1]