# 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.

- Period: 1925–1940
- Where: East Asia
- Origin: Tokyo and Osaka. Department stores (Mitsukoshi), railways (Tokyo Underground Railway), cosmetics makers (Shiseido) and magazines commissioned poster and packaging designers (zuan-ka) who combined Art Deco geometry with Japanese lettering.
- Branch: Rational modernism
- Also known as: Shōwa modanizumu, Shōgyō bijutsu, Japanese Art Deco poster, Zuan moji (design lettering)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/showa-modern-zuan-moji/

## How it works

- Draw every headline as designed lettering rather than setting stock type.
- Compose the poster on a diagonal or stepped axis where it suits, and let flat shapes overlap in layers.
- Reduce the modern girl or product to a flat, stylised silhouette with few contour lines, elegant rather than harsh.
- Limit the ink to a few flat, clean colours on a light ground, as lithography or offset can print them.
- Include one machine-age or urban motif, such as a train, a skyline or a wheel, to signal modernity.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (characteristic)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (characteristic)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (defining)
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Geometric sans](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-sans/) (characteristic)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (occasional)
- [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (defining)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic)
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (defining)
- [Hard offset shadow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hard-offset-shadow/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (occasional)
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Flat vector illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-vector-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Icons & pictograms](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/icons-and-pictograms/) (occasional)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (characteristic)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Technological & futurist](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/technological-and-futurist/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional)
- [Luxurious & glamorous](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/luxurious-and-glamorous/) (occasional)
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (occasional)

Avoids: Abundant decoration, Floral & vegetal, Whiplash line, Jewel & metallic, Pastel, Straight photography, Skeuomorphic material, Rebellious & subversive

Palette: #f1e8d4, #1b1b1b, #c8281e, #1f4e79, #e0a82e

Typefaces: Zuan-moji (図案文字), designed display lettering for kanji, Zuan-moji (図案文字), designed display lettering for kana

Known for: Sugiura Hisui, poster for the opening of the Tokyo Underground Railway (Ueno-Asakusa, December 1927); Sugiura Hisui, Mitsukoshi department store posters (his Mitsukoshi work from 1910 was Art Nouveau; the 1927 Tokyo Underground Railway poster marks the modern turn); Sugiura Hisui, Hisui Sōsaku Zuan-shū (creative design collection, 1926 per ja Wikipedia; en Wikipedia gives 1930); Sugiura Hisui, Affiche (monthly poster-study magazine, 1927); Yamana Ayao, Shiseido advertising (joined the design department in 1929); Shiseido Monthly (1924), renamed The Shiseido Graph (1933) and Hanatsubaki (1937)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Art Deco](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-deco.md) (1910–1939)
- Influenced by: [Art Nouveau](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-nouveau.md) (1890–1910)
- Alike in its design choices: [Thaw Modernism (Soviet and Czechoslovak)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/thaw-modernism.md) (1956–1968), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Bengali Modernist Book Cover (Prachchhad)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bengali-book-cover.md) (1943–present), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Vocaloid Fan Illustration (Hatsune Miku Culture)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/vocaloid-illustration.md) (2007–present), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Stenberg Brothers Constructivist Film Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/stenberg-film-poster.md) (1924–1933), 59% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Turkish Modernist Poster & Graphic Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/turkish-modernist-graphics.md) (1959–2000), 58% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [WPA Silkscreen Posters](https://stylogeny.com/styles/wpa-poster.md) (1935–1943), 58% alike

## Sources

- Wikipedia (ja), Sugiura Hisui: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/杉浦非水
- Wikipedia (en), Hisui Sugiura: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisui_Sugiura
- Wikipedia (ja), Yamana Ayao: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/山名文夫
- Wikipedia (ja), Showa Modern: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/昭和モダン
- Wikipedia (en), Ginza Line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginza_Line
- Wikipedia (en), Shiseido: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiseido

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/showa-modern-zuan-moji/