The best of Japanese graphic poster design, from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to the Issey Miyake logo This book brings together the best of Japanese graphic poster design--from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to the creation of the Issey Miyake logo, and from the Osaka Expo to the official poster for the Pan-Pacific Design Congress. Japanese contemporary posters are considered to have started in the mid-'50s, after World War II and following a period of depression, post-militarism and post-autarchy. This new expressive mode was fueled by stimuli from abroad, but it was also a chance to reinterpret traditional themes and colors, bringing them into modernity in refreshing and fruitful ways. In the maze of expressive forms that flourished in Japan during the postwar period, graphic design stands out as a precious tool for following the thread of national creativity and the intense permanence of traditional aesthetic sensibility through these new forms. Over half a century after the inception of graphics and with the coming Olympic Games taking place in 2021, this volume takes a wide view of the trends and aesthetic shifts that can be traced in the development of graphic design in Japan. Contemporary Japanese Graphic Designersincludes 85 graphic designers and 756 posters. It is the most complete volume on the subject in any language.

During America's Gilded Age (dates), the country was swept by a mania for all things Japanese. It spread from coast to coast, enticed everyone from robber barons to street vendors with its allure, and touched every aspect of life from patent medicines to wallpaper. Americans of the time found in Japanese art every design language: modernism or tradition, abstraction or realism, technical virtuosity or unfettered naturalism, craft or art, romance or functionalism. The art of Japan had a huge influence on American art and design. Title compares juxtapositions of American glass, silver and metal arts, ceramics, textiles, furniture, jewelry, advertising, and packaging with a spectrum of Japanese material ranging from expensive one-of-a-kind art crafts to mass-produced ephemera. Beginning in the Aesthetic movement, this book continues through the Arts & Crafts era and ends in Frank Lloyd Wright's vision, showing the reader how that model became transformed from Japanese to American in design and concept. Hannah Sigur is an art historian, writer, and editor with eight years' residence and study in East and Southeast Asia. She has a master's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is completing a PhD in the arts of Japan. Her writings include co-authoring A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (Timber Press, 2002), which is listed in "The Best Books of 2002" by The Christian Science Monitor and is now in its second edition; and "The Golden Ideal: Chinese Landscape Themes in Japanese Art," in Lotus Leaves, A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (2001). She lives in Berkeley.

"Within graphic design, the concept of systems is profoundly rooted in form. Starting from a series of design research residencies in the context of the Porto Design Biennale, this volume proposes a variety of perspectives--social, cultural, political--to challenge this deeply engrained tradition."--Publisher's description.

From the kitsch cuteness of Hello Kitty to the cult of manga and anime, Japanese design has long paved the way for the West to follow. Graphic Japan goes beyond this well-known territory to reveal the myriad styles of design produced in Japan today, from packaging to posters, and typography to new media. Contemporary Japanese graphic design is a unique collision of traditional cultural influences and a focused thrust toward modernization on global terms, and the book reflects this marriage of tradition and hypermodernity. Essays on today's innovators are beautifully printed in a simple, elegant manner that is typical of traditional Japanese work, and are combined with bold and colorful visual material which reflects the brash, global commerciality of much new material. This book is an inspirational "must" for designers in the West.

The Museum of Modern Art and 5 Continents Editions recently launched this series of books dedicated to industrial and graphic design. Each volume offers an overview of a single country's design achievements and illustrates its particular design history and aesthetic by showcasing renowned architects and designers through exemplary works drawn from The Museum of Modern Art's unmatched collection. This season, they take on Japan. Japanese designers' special ability to combine aesthetic tradition with contemporary visual culture and material innovation has created a distinctive and exceptionally successful design industry in Japan, which has produced such divergent icons of Modern design as Sori Yanagi's Butterfly Stool, the Sony Walkman, the Honey-Pop Armchair by Tokujin Yoshioka and the Toyota Prius. This volume traces the development of Japanese design from the country's craft revival in the early twentieth century to the extraordinary objects of high technology that have been a specialty of Japanese designers since the middle of the century. Antonelli's lively introduction provides an overview of Japan's design culture, while an essay and timeline by Penny Sparke illuminate the masterpieces of Modern Japanese design that are superbly reproduced in this volume's plate section.