デザイン批評 The Design Review

This is the cover for Magazine デザイン批評 The Design Review No.12. Designed by Hiroshi Hara and Akira Irinouchi. It was an avant-garde design and thought magazine published in Japan from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. This is a special issue focusing on Beyond the Abandoned/Obsolete Language Spaces (廃語空間を超えて), with a discussion titled “Toward What Are We Free?” (われわれは何に向って自由なのか).

The title and the issue of the magazine are placed on the top of the cover. In the middle,  a Japanese flag depicted vertically but cut in half with top part moved toward right and bottom part moved toward left. The gaps on both side are filled with Japanese Mon (家紋), they are Imperial Chrysanthemum seal (菊花御紋).