Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 1875–1975 is the most comprehensive English-language survey of Japanese graphic design history yet published, tracing a century of visual culture from the reopening to the West through to the threshold of the digital era.
About This Book
A century of Japanese graphic design is complex terrain — shaped by colonialism, rapid modernisation, shifting gender politics, and the constant negotiation between indigenous aesthetics and Western influence. Fracture moves through this terrain with clarity and intellectual purpose, grounded in a series of essays that treat graphic design not as a parade of styles but as a register of profound cultural change. Author Ian Lynam — designer, educator, critic, and historian — draws connections between the graphic arts and the broader forces of imperialism, commercialism, and sexuality that defined Japan's visual identity between 1875 and 1975. Essential reading for historians of graphic design, typography scholars, and practitioners with a serious interest in non-Western design modernism.
Key Features
- 448 pages of richly illustrated graphic design history spanning a full century of Japanese visual culture
- Written by Ian Lynam, designer, educator, critic, and historian
- Published by Set Margins, 2024
What You'll Discover
- How Japanese graphic design evolved from its roots in the traditional graphic arts through successive waves of Western influence and modernisation
- The role of imperialism and nationalism in shaping visual communication in Japan across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
- How gender, sexuality, and commercialism intersected with aesthetic development in Japanese print and graphic culture
- The cumulative cultural shifts that brought Japan's graphic design practice to the edge of the digital era by 1975
About the Author
Ian Lynam is a designer, educator, critic, and historian whose work focuses on graphic design history and culture. He is the author of Fracture, a survey that draws on his expertise across both practice and scholarship to situate Japanese graphic design within its broader historical and cultural contexts.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 448
- Dimensions: 19 x 26 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789083449845
- Publisher: Set Margins
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Graphic designers and typographers with a scholarly bent, design historians, students of visual culture, and anyone tracing the intersections of modernism, politics, and aesthetics in non-Western design traditions.