Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 1875–1975

Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 1875–1975

Ian Lynam • Set Margins' Publications

ISBN-10: 908344984X · ISBN-13: 978‑9083449845 · 2025

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By Ian Lynam A profusely illustrated, dynamically designed, and easy-to-read survey of the history of Japanese graphic design. Designer, educator, critic, and historian Ian Lynam explores graphic design in Japan from its foundations in the graphic arts to the immediate pre-digital design era. Fracture is grounded by a number of essays that help readers understand the tremendous cultural shifts that have happened in Japan since it re-opened to the West, exploring modernity, imperialism, gender, commercialism, sexuality, and aesthetics. “Eschewing the shortsighted practical nature of much graphic design-oriented writing, Lynam focuses on demythologizing contemporary graphic design – opening up a new horizon of discourse both East and West.” —Kiyonori Muroga, author of Helmut Schmid Typography and Graphic Waves “Japanese graphic design has long been admired and fetishized in the West. This book, filled with beautiful and inspiring designs from Japan, is sure to deepen our infatuation. What sets this compendium apart is Ian Lynam, our “outsider on the inside,” who helps us understand exactly what we’re looking at. Beginning with the work and the designers behind it, Lynam explains their historical, social, and aesthetic contexts within the larger narrative of the modernization of graphic design in Japan. Fracture is a thoughtfully curated collection that deserves a place in every designer’s library.” —Mr.

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