
Documenting The Complete Commercial Artist
A design history feature for Idea!

“Documenting The Complete Commercial Artist” is a feature in Idea no. 407 about the groundbreaking 1923/1924 twenty-four volume commercial art journal Gendai Shōgyō Bijutsu Zenshu 現代商業美術全 (The Complete Commercial Artist) and the recent fantastic book on the journal by The Letterform Archive.

The 16-page feature expands on Gennifer Weisenfeld’s tremendous writing in the book, adding further context and explains the CCA’s precursors in the field of historic Japanese design publishing.

The feature is heavily illustrated with both images of the new book and historical imagery.

Copies of Idea no. 407 are available from Wordshape here: https://wordshape.com/idea-407-towards-a-future-bound-to-print-media/

“Documenting The Complete Commercial Artist” was translated into Japanese by Mami Yamamoto.

This feature was the last completed under the supervision of Idea Editor-in-chief Madoka Nishi before she finished her tenure at Seibundo Shinkosha.

Giant thanks to Nishi-san for her years of hard work at Idea.
