Visible Language + the Art of Letterforms
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Published:March 2025
Typographic design, the art of arranging and styling the appearance and printing of type, is a visual mode of communication that functions on an aesthetic metalevel. Distinct from text and content but intrinsically allied with them, the visible language of letterforms can mark subjectivity and ideology. Building on expressive native calligraphic traditions and a rich commercial print culture, Japanese designers rapidly expanded their lettering lexicon from the late nineteenth century as they encountered Western typefaces and international professional editorial design techniques. This chapter examines the emergence of modern Japanese lettering and typographic design as they developed in tandem with the professional sphere of advertising. Through close analysis of selected examples of Japanese scripts and types in specific promotional contexts, this story illuminates the multilayered and effective mode of visual communication constructed through printed text.
Sources
Too numerous to include here, articles from daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals and newspapers have not been listed in the bibliography but are indicated in the endnotes of each chapter.
Aidea (Idea)
Affiches (Posters)
Art and Industry
Asahi gurafu (Asahi Graph)
Cheinstoa kenkyū (Chainstore Research)
Commerce Japan
Commercial Art
Desegno
Far Eastern Review
Front
Gebrauchsgraphik (Commercial graphics)
Graphis
Gurafikku dezain (Graphic Design)
Hanbai undo (Sales Movement)
Japan Times and Mail
Kaō buretin (Kao Bulletin)
Kenchiku shinchō (New architecture)
Kōga
Kōgei jidai (Industrial Art News)
Kōkoku bijutsu (Japan Advertising Art)
Kōkokukai (Advertising World)
Kōkū asahi (Aviation Asahi)
Kokusai kenchiku (International architecture)
Life
Matsuda shinpō (Mazda News)
Matsushita Denki geppō (Matsushita Electric Monthly)
Mavo
Mitsukoshi (Mitsukoshi taimusu) (Mitsukoshi Times)
Mizue (Watercolor painting)
Modern Publicity
Morinaga berutorain (Morinaga Beltline)
Nagaseman (Nagase man)
New York Times
Nippon
Offset- Buch- und Werbekunst (Offset, book, and advertising)
Ōsaka asahi shinbun
Ōsaka mainichi shinbun
Sandē mainichi (Sunday Mainichi)
Shiseidō cheinstoa (Shiseido Chainstore)
Shiseido cheinstoa alma mater (Shiseido Chainstore Alma Mater)
Shiseido geppō (Shiseido Monthly)
Shiseido gurafu (Shiseido Graph)
Suītorando (Sweetland)
Tōkyō asahi shinbun
Tsūrisuto (Tourist)
Travel in Japan
Umi to sora (Sea and Sky)
Yomiuri shinbun