Prof. Toshi Katayama’s Graphic Design Class at Harvard University

Toshi Katayama’s work and approach to teaching was so highly regarded in Japan that it was the focus of an exhibition at the Ginza Graphic Gallery in Tokyo in 1994. Around that same time he was preparing a book about the graphic design course he’s been teaching at Harvard since 1966. In 2009, that book was published by Kyoto University of Art and Design. This is that book. In it he shares his philosophy and approach—along with loads of hard-to-believe-it’s-the-work-of students work. Actually, that’s not true: Some of it definitely looks like student work. But it’s not bad student work. Anyway, this book interests us for two reasons. First, it’s an overlooked part of Boston and Harvard’s design history and we are New England navel-gazers. And, second, it’s a document that describes a way of thinking that comes from abroad as applied to the needs and expectations of people who use design (which is everyone) in the West. A rare item.