Paper Planes

I had to make a trip downtown yesterday. Normally, library holds are all I need to watch and read everything I want, but today’s object-of-my-affection was a rare, 1971 catalog of Tadanori Yokoo’s design work, found only in Seattle Central Branch’s special collections wing or on Ebay for the better half of a grand. If there was ever an argument for public libraries, this sort of book was it, and for only $2.75 in bus fare, I had an hour audience with the Andy Warhol of Japan. Fans of pop-art, design, and the floating world will not be disappointed by Mr. Yokoo: His work is a loud, irreverent tour-de-force of offset printing and appropriated imagery - the kind of stuff I absolutely hated in college and have nothing but a gleeful admiration for now. The book design on the catalog is also something to look at: there’s a garish slipcase and it’s all printed on some kind of card stock (Printed by manga-giant Kodansha, no less!). Flipping through the book made me realize a huge caveat to some advice I gave a friend the other day: I seem to recall saying something like “You should never use black in a color composition because it overpowers everything”, and now I think I need to reconsider that in light of Mr. Yokoo’s design work. Anyway, check this guy out. He’s good stuff.