When I was co-author of Japanese Modern: Graphic Design Between the Wars, I had 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 was a hybrid of classic Japanese iconography and the New Typography — with a little whimsy too.
However, “When you photograph these,” he 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 on certain pages into the book. Still, I would have liked to have featured much more.
Letterform Archive‘s crack curators are always finding treasures that I either have or wish I had. 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 twenty-four. In fact, when comparing this current copy to the original, the printing is so precise it’s impossible to tell which is the old and which new. It comes with an informative introductory essay by Gennifer Weisenfeld that both explains the roll of Commercial Artist in Japanese commercial culture but explains the context given the rest of post-World War I Europe.
Original complete sets and individual copies of The Complete Commercial Artist are almost impossible to find (and expensive when they are), the Letterpress Archive reproduction now has a second printing and is available to all. A must for every design library.