The book that I am reviewing for the second half of the semester is The Graphic Design of Yusaku Kamekura. The Forward is by Herbert Bayer, The Essay is by Masaru Katsumi and the comments on the images reproduced in the book are by Kamekura himself. The Forward and The Essay give some information about Yusaku Kamekura but The Forward is short and The Essay is more of a friend’s commentary than actual information. The valuable aspect of this book lies in the assortment of images. The book is divided into sections including Posters, Marks, Packaging, Book Covers, Neon Signs, Miscellaneous Graphics and Covers for Design Magazine. This is particularly helpful for this assignment where we are mainly interested in looking at posters. The only problem with the way the book is set up is that the information about the images is located in the back of the book. This makes it very difficult to view an image and read about it at the same time.

At first glance Kamekura’s posters appear to be uncomplicated. The majority of the posters do not have much text and a lot of of the time the images are rather simple. However, when more closely observed it becomes apparent that the posters are very complex. The message is usually crystal clear, even if the poster happens to be in a different language. This is achieved through the seemingly simplistic imagery and the small amount of text and the way everything is painstakingly organized on the poster. Most of Kamekura’s other work seems to be the same way, utilizing simple yet memorable imagery. I believe that our class will benefit best from this book by looking at the images and observing how Yusaku Kamekura is able to convey such clear messages so successfully using straightforward imagery and limited text.