Graphic design magazine – japan 1965
Running with a Japanese theme today. Can’t stop thinking about those flicks I caught this past weekend. Great cover for a Japanese graphic design magazine from the sixties.
Also worth checking out, is this Japanese poster we posted.
1960s Japanese book cover designs
I don’t know much about the company that published the book on the right, but the book on the left was published by Kappa in 1963. Keep your eyes out for Kappa, they have other cool covers.
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Issues of Icographic magazine 1971-1978 produced by ICOGRADA
Icographic (The review of International Visual Communication Design) was founded by John Halas in 1971. It was designed / edited by Patrick Wallis Burke and released quarterly, well atleast for the first year. The journal addressed the broader areas of visual communication such as semiotics, communication theory, ergonomics of visual communication and the psychology of perception. Of the four issues I have, two deal with Pictorgrams, Isotypes and symbols. I’m fascinated by the work of Otto Neurath and Otl Aicher (both of which are featured within the Journal) so it was a real pleasure to stumble unto these issues. In addition to Neurath and Aicher, there are sections on signing systems designed by Yugoslav architect Radomir Vukovoc and Pictograms by Ian McLaren and Claude Braunstein.
The layout and content remind me of another design journal produced during the same general time period titled Dot Zero. I will be covering Dot Zero in a future post but, for now enjoy the Icographic slideshow above.
(t) Jazz/ Rock voicings for the contemporary keyboard player c1974
(b) Jazz Improvisation for keyboard players c1978
I picked up these two books over the weekend. They are part of an instructional jazz book series produced in the 1970s for Studio publications and recordings. I’m not sure who responsible for the cover design but, I like how he limited it to a few simple shapes and the type. Both books are written by Dan Haerle, but there are others in the series by Rufus Reid and Ramon Ricker.
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From the book – Jacqueline S Casey Thirty years of design at MIT
Beautiful work from graphic designer Jacqueline Casey. It mentions in the book she was inspired by Karl Gerstner, Kurt Wirth and Anton Stankowski.
“In the early 1950s, John Matill, a writer and editor, founded the MIT office of publications. He was joined in 1952 by Muriel Cooper. Cooper was among the first designers ever hired by a university to represent it graphically. She and Matill hired Jacqueline Casey to design summer session materials in 1955.” Casey continued to work for MIT until her retirement in 1989. (Taken from the introduction of the book.)
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The images above are from the introduction to The collected writings of graphic designer Alvin Lustig (c1958). When I first found out about this book, I was going nuts trying to find a copy. I wasn’t able to find one, so I had to settle for a photocopy of the one presently in the RISD library. A couple of years ago, I finally tracked one down. It was worth the wait. It’s a short book (only 95 pages), but it has some real nuggets. It contains interviews and articles on Alvin from Interiors magazine, AIGA Journal, Design Quarterly, Type Talks and a few other sources. Wonderful insight into his design thinking and process.
The Asian American Film Festival is in San Francisco now, so I had a chance to check out “Blood Brothers” which is one of the more recent films produced by John Woo. Anyone else seen this? Overall I thought it was pretty cheesy, but the ending wasn’t too bad. On the way to the theater I stopped by my friend Cool Chris’s record shop. Chris runs Groove Merchant which is notorious amongst beat diggers and record collectors as the place to go if you want to find rare jazz, funk and library lps. While I was there Chris hit me off with a copy of the record above.
The John Hawkins lp seen above is part of a series of 45s (the little records..7″) initiated by CAPAC (Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada Limited). I’m less concerned with the music on this album as I am with the design of the logo. The rounded letters take form as records with the lines of different weights creating the grooves. It wasn’t uncommon to see logo treatments like this in the 1970s and I think this is one of the better examples.
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Typographes d’Estienne 1950
It’s been a while since I’ve posted any type-related goodness, so I figured it was time to post the slab of paper above. The book includes 40 – 50 pages of modern San Serif specimens worked into menus, advertisements and letterheads. In addition, there are several tipped in brochures and posters you can flip through. Given the title, I would assume this is an annual and that there are other years available.
Stedelijk Museum program / poster c1970 – Wim Crouwel – designer
Total Design was responsible for designing many of the catalogs/ programs for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The program above was created by Wim Crouwel and Jolijn van de Wouw (of Total Design) for an exhibition in 1970. The program folds out to a full size poster that reveals a huge letter “A” and the number “7” which stands for Atelier 7. Atelier translates to “work shop” in English so, this might be referencing a gallery number or possibly the name of the exhibition. On the other side of the poster, it lists the artists and their artwork featured in the gallery.
I wish I could tell you more about this one. I pulled this out of a book I have on 70s + 80s Japanese graphic design. All the text is in Japanese so, I have no clue on who designed this. Anyone recognize this work? I have no idea why theres a gaggle of balloon animals chillin in a tree. If someone could translate the text below the animals, that would be great.
