Graphiscape: Tokyo: Street Graphics of the World's Great Cities

Graphiscape: Tokyo is a guide to the graphic blood that flows in the visual arteries of Tokyo. Graffiti, posters, neon lighting, street art, color schemes, perspectives and forms are just some of the graphic elements collated as inspiration in these hip sourcebooks for graphic designers and visual creatives.

The book is organized around structure, communication, problem solving and originality - all problems that drive design itself - but with the raw edge of organic development. Design is site specific; the flavor of each city is tasted through the vast variety of its visual elements that can be called graphic design in its widest sense.

With its partner volume on New York (ISBN 2880467675), this fascinating book emphasizes the site-specific nature of design as a city's lifeblood, contrasting east and west.

Ivan Vartanian is a native New Yorker with a passion for urban life and a finely tuned sensibility that sees art in hand written food price tickets as much as in art deco bronze reliefs. He has created many books on the visual arts, including a forthcoming volume on the drawings of Egon Schiele. He lives and works in Tokyo.