When I was working as a co-author of Japanese Modern: Graphic Design Between the Wars, I borrowed the holy grail of graphic design artifacts representing the art deco, or Moderne, period. It was a stack of 24 volumes in pristine condition of what in English was titled The Complete Commercial Artist. My co-author, Dr. James Fraser, acquired this rarity while in Tokyo researching the Bauhaus influences—and European modernity in general—on pre-war Japanese commercial culture. In graphic terms it was a hybrid of classic Japanese iconography and the New Typography, with a little whimsy, too.
However, “When you photograph these,” Fraser sternly cautioned, “don’t break the spines.” That caveat made it difficult for me to mine these volumes for their riches, but to gently skim their pages was nonetheless an eye-opening pleasure. I kinda hinted that I’d be happy to take any duplicate copies off his hands, but he never heeded my yearning. We did, however, get a few of the examples into the book. Still, I would have liked to have featured much more.
The crack curators at Letterform Archive are always finding treasures that I either own or wish I did. With the recent publication of the Archives’ The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928–1930, the editors have sifted through the best pages of the 24. In fact, when comparing this new version to the original, the printing is so precise it’s impossible to tell which is which. The book comes with an informative introductory essay by Gennifer Weisenfeld that both explains the role of the commercial artist in Japanese culture and contextualizes graphic style in the critical post-World War I Europe era.
Complete sets and individual original copies of The Complete Commercial Artist are almost impossible to find (and expensive when you do), therefore, the Letterform Archive reproduction is available to all.
And is a must for every design library.
