Author: Commercial Art.
Title: An album or sample book of Japanese packaging, labels, brochures and suchlike.
Description: c.1960-70. Oblong quarto by size (185x260mm); 81 double folded leaves fastened together with a pin system, of which 59 leaves are crowded, both sides, with mounted labels, packaging, brochures, leaflets, etc. ¶ Quite recent but nonetheless a very attractive gathering of Japanese commercial graphics and printing of the sixties and maybe early seventies (the only dated piece is for Expo 70. The album itself has been made up by someone in the trade: the double folded leaves are all from multiple copies of the blank back side of a magazine cover or poster - it features a Japanese baseball player by the look of it - but this is as close as I can get to claiming that this is a sample book put together by the printer of its contents. Still, I'm pretty sure it is. The materials range from the cardboard of packaging to cellophane to rice paper, just as the styles range from classical subtlety to the raucus and crass.

Keywords: graphic commercial art advertising c20th Japan Asia design printing specimens sample