book talk: The Graphic Spirit of Japan

The Graphic Spirit of Japan by Richard Smith Thorton provides an extensive collection of Japanese graphic design from the design history from the Meiji period throughout to the 1980s. Numerous design examples can be seen in this book from Japanese designers such as Hisui Sugiura, Yusaku Kamekura, Ikko Tanaka, Mitsuo Katsui, to name just a few. The book also looks at European influence on Japanese design, typography, illustration, poster competitions, packaging design, advertising photography, and graphic design education. One particular example that caught my attention was a poster design by Ryuichi Yamashiro, named Trees. The character (ki) means ‘tree’, when two of the same characters are combined, the character (hayashi) means ‘wood’, and when three of the same characters are combined, the character (mori) means ‘forest’. The characters are laid out across the space as to represent trees among a snow-covered hillside (source: The Graphic Spirit of Japan, Richard Smith Thorton, page 82). There are plenty of inspirational examples in this book to be learned from.

The Graphic Spirit of Japan by Richard S. Thorton

Research on Japanese Modern Graphic Design, early 20th century

For my ART 5320: Art Criticism and Theory (History of Graphic Design) class, I decided to research on the influence of modernism on Japanese graphic design in the early 20th century. The paper outline included research on pioneer graphic designer Sugiura Hisui, a major influence to the contribution of modern graphic design development in Japan, and the influence of modernism on postcard design, matchbox cover design, and typography. Japanese artists and designers were inspired by European art movements such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Bauhaus during the early 20th century. Valuable references used in my paper were:

Art of the Japanese Postcard

Brown, K. H., Morse, A. N., & Rimer, J.T., Art of the Japanese Postcard: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (pp. 183-184). Boston, MA: MFA Publications.

Japanese Modern

Fraser, James, Heller, S., & Chwast, S. (1996). Japanese modern: Graphic design between the wars. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

In addition to a research paper, we were required to also design a booklet in the topic’s particular style. The book on Japanese Modern (Fraser, Heller, and Chwast) discuss the design of matchbox covers that were inspired by the Art Deco movement around the 1920s and 1930s. I decided to design my booklet to be held in a 5″x7″ matchbox cover, here are some images of the final product:

initial print out of the matchbox cover, because of the velvet paper texture a layer of ink remained on top

tried printing it again but on a different print setting, still a layer of ink so I decided to do a self-mini-print from the layer of ink

here is the ‘print’ from the layer of ink from the inkjet print

matchbox cover design with match illustration as the cover of the book

taking the book out of the matchbox

opening up the book to the title page

opening up the booklet, with the research paper and presentation underneath

submitting the final deliverables: research paper, presentation, matchbox cover with booklet, and CD containing all digital files