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Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Parallel Strokes

Parallel Strokes

My good friend Tokyo-based graphic designer Ian Lynam — he of my fancy shmancy new series of M31 logos — has just released his first book, PARALLEL STROKES. It’s a collection of interviews with “twenty-plus contemporary typeface designers, graffiti writers, and lettering artists around the world.” Here’s more on what to expect:

The book is introduced with a comprehensive essay charting the history of graffiti, its relation to type design, and how the two practices relate in the wider context of lettering. Interviews within include conversations with pan-European type design collective Underware, Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi, American graffiti writer and fine artist Barry McGee/Twist, German graffiti writers Daim and Seak, American lettering artist, graphic designer and design educator Ed Fella, among others. Parallel Strokes is an enquiry into the history, context, and development of lettering today, both culturally approved and illicit.

It promises to be a fascinating look at the intersection between graffiti and type design, and you just know it’s going to look good as well, with illustrations galore, including works that have never been published. You can find out more about the book in this post Ian wrote on the META no TAME blog, as well as visit the book’s official site (that includes this sample PDF), where you can order it for $25 (free shipping worldwide).

Category: Art, Books, Design

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12 Responses

  1. Ian says:

    Thanks Jean!

  2. Mattthew says:

    I had a website once. I put links on it.
    It was a cyber-entity that made me cool.
    Its color scheme was cool too. But not as cool as me. Facebook was my idea. That guy stole it from me. At the time I was too cool to care, but now I am hurtin’ a little. He is rich, and I am only Mattt.

  3. Roger says:

    Good point Jean.
    I think he said:
    “I had a website once. I put links on it.
    It was a cyber-entity that made me cool.
    Its color scheme was cool too. But not as cool as me. Facebook was my idea. That guy stole it from me. At the time I was too cool to care, but now I am hurtin’ a little. He is rich, and I am only Mattt,”

    but I would have to read it again to be sure…

  4. Marger says:

    Where are the links to the jeans?

  5. hart says:

    Where are the links to the jeans???

  6. Marger says:

    You want jeans too?

    Me too!

  7. Jean Snow says:

    Oh, Roger, thank you so much for clearing that up.

  8. Pisachio says:

    This doesn’t belong here.

  9. Roger says:

    Actually, still reading it again.
    If there is any hidden meaning there, I mean to find it!

    How much are the jeans, by the way?

  10. Fred says:

    Does this belong here? My dog bit me once.

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Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.
Jean Snow lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming in Tokyo -- sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for the following online/offline publications: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, and The Japan Times. He also manages the gallery space at Cafe Pause.

He writes a monthly column covering Japanese product design for The Japan Times, called "On Design." It appears on the fourth Thursday of every month, in both the print edition and online.

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I'm also a proud member of the Pecha Kucha Night family, working on various projects, including updating Pecha Kucha Daily, a blog that highlights the creativity coming out of PKN events worldwide.

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I serve as editor-at-large at Néojaponisme, a web journal covering social and cultural aspects of Japan. Read the manifesto, by founder and chief editor W. David Marx.

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The "Jean Snow" logo is made up of the Blackout open source typeface. The "M31" logo is by Ian Lynam, and is part of a series of 31 unique designs. The site's design is based on the Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan.

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