The Complete Commercial Artist

A delightful, eye-opening journey through an ambitious periodical that helped shape graphic design in Japan, with introductory texts by arthistorian Gennifer Weisenfeild and colorful facsimile highlights from all 24 original volumes.Published in 24 volumes between 1928 and 1930, The Complete Commercial Artist was the most significant Japanese design periodical of its time. Launched under the editorship of six leading innovators, its later volumes were helmed by Hamada Masuji (1892--1938), a designer and theorist whose ideas gave shape to "commercial art" in Japan. Each 150-page volume of The Complete Commercial Artist features hundreds of colorful, playful, and daringly experimental designs arranged around theme such as artist writing, posters, shop windows, logos, signage, and packaging. Programmatic and educational essays in each volume offered fresh perspectives on contemporary practice and reappraised traditional Japanese styles and media. The result is an ambitious and richly textured vision of commercial life in transformation---from the grandest illuminated facade down to the smallest written character. Produced in dialogue with European artistic and design trends---most notably from the Bauhaus, the constructivists, and other avant-garde movements, as well as art deco advertising and poster styles of Germany, Vienna, and France---The Complete Commercial Artist is today recognized as a singular contribution to global modernism.