New tour posters and social media for musician Rob Noyes‘ upcoming Nordic tour.

The exhibition Tone in Tongue curated and organized by Radical Characters has traveled to Letterform Archive and is on view July 11–September 20.

We have a Risgraph print included in the exhibition.

Letterform Archive is a non-profit center, library, and museum in San Francisco, California, that houses over 100,000 items dedicated to lettering, typography, calligraphy, and graphic design history spanning thousands of years.

The Archive has also added our Risograph posters to its permanent collection.

Also, a large number of issues of Idea that I have essays and features in are on display.

Photos: Sherry Xu Chou, Letterform Archive.

More about the exhibition here: https://radicalcharacters.org/tone-in-tongue-press-release

I am very pleased to announce that we won two 2026 STA100 Awards! Award no. 1 was for the second “issue” of Two Way Tie for Last, our zine in long sleeve tee shirt form written, designed and edited in conjunction with fellow Tokyo designer Samuel Rhodes. Award no. 2 was for Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 1875–1975 , our exhibition dedicated to the history of Japanese graphic design. Thank you, STA!

I will be giving a public presentation at Temple University Japan for the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies on April 2nd.

This presentation examines the history of a few Japanese graphic designers whose enduring work has helped shape our notion of Japanese design and visual culture over the past century. It is also an oddly elliptical story that shows the historical connections between the posters in izakaya today that were originally designed in the 1920s to lifestyle magazines that help define Japanese pop culture today.

6:30pm Thursday, April 2, 2026
Location: Room 408
Temple University Japan Campus
Registration is required for this event.

I’m going to be presenting at the Design Museum in Chicago for the Society of Typographic Arts on Feb 20 from 7pm to 9pm CST!

History Backwards:
Collocating the Origins of Manga, Anime & Graphic Design
An origin story of three incredibly popular forms of cultural production in Japan, but just as much a stroll through Japanese history. Includes flying penguins, talking dogs, male pattern baldness, natural disasters, and giant catfishes. Action-packed!

Where:
Design Museum of Chicago
72 East Randolph Street Chicago, IL 60601
GET TICKETS HERE

How much?
$15 for STA Members
$25 for Non-Members
Free for Students

I wrote the first essay in the book, called “Uemura Shoen: The Pine that Stands Alone yet Which is One of Many”. The essay is a biography of Uemura Shōen 上村松園 (1875–1949), an artist, illustrator, and occasional graphic designer.

I am happy that my writing is included among design historians whose work I incredibly respect and enjoy, such as Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton, Margo Halverson, and Stephan Rosger. Women Graphic Designers was generously initiated and edited by designer, design educator, and design historian Elizabeth Resnick.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/women-graphic-designers-9781350349261/

Fracture was just written up over at the Slanted blog. Check it out here: https://www.slanted.de/slanted-fracture-japanese-graphic-design-1875-1975/

I was interviewed about the Fracture exhibition and book in Design Week. Read it here: https://www.designweek.co.uk/new-show-tells-a-more-inclusive-story-about-japanese-graphic-design/

A very sweet writeup of Fracture—both the book and exhibition—in Creative Bloq!

Read it here: https://www.creativebloq.com/design/graphic-design/im-dangerously-obsessed-with-this-japanese-graphic-design-book

Really lovely writeup of the Fracture book from @setmargins and exhibition at @ultrasupernew in @creativereview !!!

Read it here: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/fracture-japanese-graphic-design-ian-lynam/