First Page of the Shiseido 資生堂 Home Calendar 1931 - Designed by Yamana Ayao 山名文夫

This graphic design piece was created by Yamana Ayao 山名文夫 for the Shiseido 資生堂 1931 Home Calendar. This piece is the first page of the calendar.  

The company Shiseido 資生堂 was established in 1872 as a Western-style dispensing pharmacy in Japan. Then, from 1916 to 1926, the company shifted from pharmacy to cosmetics (Shiseido Company Information), which explains why this image shows a woman posing with makeup on rather than pharmacy products.

Yamana Ayao 山名文夫 was an illustrator and graphic designer in Japan. He was born in Hiroshima in 1897 and joined Shiseido 資生堂 in 1929 and left in 1932, a year after creating this illustration for the company. However, this was not the end of his time with Shiseido 資生堂. He returned in 1936- 43 and again in 1943 as an Advertising and Culture Department consultant. In 1959, he became an advisor to Shiseido 資生堂.  Before he died in 1980, Yamana 山名 established the News Technology Research Society in 1940 and the Japan Advertising Art Association 日本広告業協会 in 1951 (PLAT). 

Sources:

Fraser, James, Steven Heller, and Seymour Chwast. Japanese Modern: Graphic Design between the Wars. Chronicle Books, 1996. 

Fumio Yamana | NPO Architectural Thinking Platform PLAT | PLAT

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