A delightful and revelatory journey through the most important Japanese design publication of its time.
In the boom years of the 1920s, Japanese designers developed a radical new vision for their profession. Engaging modernist and avant-garde trends from abroad, refashioning local graphic and calligraphic forms, and using the latest tools and techniques, they poured fresh colours and expressive forms into all facets of consumer life, from streetscapes to the printed page.
The Complete Commercial Artist, a twenty-four–volume compendium released between 1928 and 1930, is the most important—and most visually dazzling—document of this still underappreciated moment in global design history. In this book from Letterform Archive, art historian Gennifer Weisenfeld takes readers inside The Complete Commercial Artist, contextualising hundreds of full-color reproductions spanning every volume, with an extensive historical introduction and volume-by-volume walk-throughs.
Brimming with designs for constructivist storefronts and shop windows, Bauhaus-inspired photo collages, art deco letterforms, manga advertisements, startlingly contemporary posters, and much more, The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928–1930 also includes a translated excerpt from editor Hamada Masuji’s utopian essay, which appears in the final volume.
Specifications
- 200 × 273 mm (7.9 × 10.8 in)
- Softcover, 432 pages
- 1 kg (35 oz)
- ISBN: 978-1-7368633-4-3
- Published 2024
Reviews
“An encyclopedic view of the period. The book frames The Complete Commercial Artist's function as not just a document, but an argument for designs' future... reintroducing an underappreciated moment in global design history.” — Creative Review
“As visually pleasing as it is informative, with displays of burgeoning modernist and avant-garde styles alongside detailed historical analysis.” — It's Nice That
"The holy grail of graphic design artifacts representing the art deco, or Moderne, period.... When comparing this new version to the original, the printing is so precise it’s impossible to tell which is which.... An informative introductory essay by Gennifer Weisenfeld both explains the role of the commercial artist in Japanese culture and contextualizes graphic style in the critical post-World War I Europe era.... A must for every design library." — Steven Heller, PRINT magazine
Note for EU Customers
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