hard to find, too expensive — but worth it.

It took until December for me to get the November issue of Idea magazine. Ordering this Japanese imported mag online proved difficult. I was thrilled when I found it at Kinokuniya last week. But $45 dollars is probably the most I’ve paid for a magazine. Though I consider this a purchase of an art/design book, not a magazine which in a few years I may choose to dispose. Also there are no advertisements throughout the issue (unless its in Japanese and I have mistaken it for beautiful design).

issue contents for:
IDEA NO. 325: A Natural History of Printers’ Flowers
Special Feature: A Natural History of Printers’ Flowers

Column [Japanese Only]
Taro Yamamoto “Fournier’s Ornaments” Yoshihisa Shirai “On Printers’ Flowers”

[Japanese Translation]
“Printers’ Flowers and Arabesques” Francis Meynell, Stanley Morison [Notes on this article by Mitsuo Kono]

Feature II: Various Aspects of Contemporary Ornaments and Patterns

Zuzana Licko, The Pattern Foundry, Andrea Tinnes, Kapitza, Marian Bantjes, House Industries, Typographic Masonry

When Flying Pigs Design vol. 38 Text by Kyoichi Tsuzuki
“Bangkok-Japanese, 1963: Japanese posters made in Thailand”

Critical eyes for Japanese typeface vol.3 by Mitsuo Fukawa, Toshiaki Maeda

**Special Supplement: The Treasury of Printers’ Flowers

3,333 JP Y