Museum Leaflets

Here’s a staple of museum leaflets, with a very Japanese design and many examples of a vertical typography. Visit also the websites:
• The Mizuno Museum of Art
• Miho Museum
• Nezu Museum
• Otsu City Museum of History
• Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts
• Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
• Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Hajime Namiki

Link: Website of Fuji Arts Japanese Prints …

Hajime Namiki is a master of Contemporary Arts, born in Tokyo in 1947. He was fascinated by trees and captured their majesty and beauty in a modern style with traditional methods. Here you see a small collection of his exciting woodblock-prints, which he began to create since 1978. The nature scenes were printed on gold or silver leaf laid over Torinoko paper. You'll find more artwork of Hajime Namiki on the website of Fuji Arts.

Tokyo Subway Route Map

Link at infomapjapan: PDF of Tokyo Subway Route Map

Japanese subway route maps show an interesting detail: each station has its own number. I didn’t see such system on any other subway map in Europe or USA, there are only station-names. I experienced, that numbers are really helpful for visitors, which are not familiar with the many names and maybe also can’t pronounce them well. It’s easier to memorize the number for to get off at the right moment. And with making a countdown (or ~up) from station to station you would quickly recognize, if you ride into the wrong direction. よくできました！

千年の宴 Menu Card

Link: Browse website of Monteroza …

Monte Rosa Inc. is a large chain of restaurants, shops and brands, all over Japan and also overseas in Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong. I brought this nice menu card from a 千年の宴 restaurant (‘Feast of Thousand Years’) located in 福井市 (Fukui). It shows the typical style of Japanese menu cards with many photos displaying perfectly arranged foods.

Doing business as foreign designer in Japan

Link: Article at PingMag

On the website of PingMag I an interesting interview with Parissa Haghirian from Austria, who is Associate Professor of International Management at Sophia University in Tokyo. She’s writing about business opportunities in Japan, the title of her book is “Markteintritt in Japan” (Market Entry in Japan). PingMag visited her at Sophia Uni for tips about how to bring your product to Japan, how to work there as foreigner and what kind of fundamental differences you might encounter.

Japanese Posters from DNP Archives

DNP (Dai Nippon Printing) is one of the largest and foremost printers in Japan with a rich heritage of graphic art and design. They have put on numerous exhibition in both Japan and abroad.

The outstanding role played by Japan’s culture of aesthetics in the birth of modern European art has continued through to this day in the unique development of Japanese graphic design - and in particular, through the genre of posters with their unmistakable aesthetic singularity, extraordinarily sophisticated printing techniques and immense power of expression.

Ikko Tanaka | 2

I had already posted some examples of Ikko Tanaka’s art work. Here’s a 2nd series of his unique design style.

Ikko Tanaka has been honored by many awards: JAAC Special Selection, Mainichi Industrial Design Award, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Tokyo ADC Members’ Grand Prize, Purple Ribbon Medal, New York ADC Hall of Fame Prize, Tokyo Art Directors Club, Japan Cultural Award, and many more. The Art Directors Club wrote:

Strong, clean, and impactful are the best descriptives you could use to describe Ikko Tanaka’s work. They are universal images, honed with a fastidious eye: finding the natural flow of photographs in a book spread, steadying the central point of a corporate symbol so the mind retains every detail, and enriching the typographic and illustrative forces of a poster into a pure, homogeneous form.

Graphic Design of the 1920s-30s | 2

Link: Website of ”pink tentacle“ ...

Source: Modernism on Paper | Japanese Graphic Design of the 1920s-30s (published 2003)

Graphic design of the 1920s-30s

Link: Website of ”pink tentacle“ ...

Source: Modernism on Paper | Japanese Graphic Design of the 1920s-30s (published 2003). Quote:

In the 1920s and 1930s, Japan embraced new forms of graphic design as waves of social change swept across the nation. This collection of posters, magazine covers and advertisements offer a glimpse at some of the prevailing tendencies in a society transformed by the growth of modern industry and technology, the popularity of Western art and culture, and the emergence of leftist political thought.

Museum Leaflets - The Mizuno Museum of Art, Nagano

Link: Browse the website …

Here’s another listing of colorful museum leaflets. In the collcetion of 2004 I noticed a little change of the footer design with the dark-red bar - it was made more consistent through all following publications. These well-designed leaflets are indeed inviting to visit the museum.

My favorites are: the 3rd and 5th from 2003 and I also like the last of 2007. Everyone is welcome to post a comment with your favorites ...