Stylogeny combining Japanese Postwar Modernism × Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

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Style combination · Contrasts

Japanese Postwar Modernism × Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Postwar modernism swaps the decorative figure for emblems and empty fields; compare to see how much the figure and lettering carry.

From the research on Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Mix them and make something Japanese Postwar Modernism Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

IndexJapanese Postwar × Showa Modern1950 · 1925
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji, their arrangement from Japanese Postwar Modernism, the finish from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Japanese Postwar Modernism Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Type from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Japanese Postwar Modernism avoids ornamented display: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Colour from Japanese Postwar Modernism
Form from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji
Composition from Japanese Postwar Modernism
Surface from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

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The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Index

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Zuan-moji (図案文字), designed display lettering for kanji

Text · Japanese Postwar Modernism

Building on the New Typography that Hiromu Hara and the Nippon Kobo circle had absorbed in the 1930s, Japan's postwar graphic designers fused the grid, sans-serif and objective photography of European modernism with indigenous traditions of family crests (kamon), asymmetry and charged emptiness (ma). From the Graphic '55 exhibition and the Nippon Design Center to Yusaku Kamekura's Tokyo 1964 Olympic posters, it produced bold emblematic symbols, luminous flat colour fields and photography of startling precision.

Zen Kaku Gothic New; Japanese Postwar Modernism used Gothic and Mincho

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Japanese Postwar Modernism, with a counter-accent from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Japanese Postwar Modernism Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

  • #f4f1ea ground · 39%
  • #111111 ink · 15%
  • #d7261e accent · 20%
  • #e0a82e accent · 15%
  • #1d3c78 accent · 11%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f1ea;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #d7261e;
  --accent-2: #e0a82e;
  --accent-3: #1d3c78;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Kaku Gothic New", sans-serif;
}

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The two styles

A large red sun sits above and behind a black triangular mountain with a gold tip on an off-white background. Bold black characters reading “太陽” appear in the upper-left corner. 1950–1990 · East Asia Japanese Postwar Modernism Building on the New Typography that Hiromu Hara and the Nippon Kobo circle had absorbed in the 1930s, Japan's postwar graphic designers fused the grid, sans-serif and objective photography of European modernism with indigenous traditions of family crests (kamon), asymmetry and charged emptiness (ma). From the Graphic '55 exhibition and the Nippon Design Center to Yusaku Kamekura's Tokyo 1964 Olympic posters, it produced bold emblematic symbols, luminous flat colour fields and photography of startling precision. A stylised woman in a red swimsuit and wide-brimmed hat poses beside a blue sea beneath large Japanese lettering. A yellow sun, two birds, a lighthouse on a rocky shore, and a train crossing an arched viaduct complete the coastal scene. 1925–1940 · East Asia Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji The commercial graphic design of Japan's interwar modern-city years, when trained design workers (zuan-ka) made flat, stylised posters for department stores, subways and cosmetics. Kanji and kana were drawn as designed lettering (zuan-moji) beside stylised modern-girl figures and machine-age motifs. Sugiura's early work was Art Nouveau, and Yamana's Shiseido work was softer and more elegant, so the look is less rigid than the Art Deco of the West and less lyrical and pastel than Taisho Roman.

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