Japan Navigator

PingMag has an interesting article on the ingenious forms advertisements in Tokyo’s train stations can assume to attract the attention of commuters. Advertisements are everywhere in Japan and companies have to make an effort to get noticed. Ten types of ad-tricks are identified, from plastering over a whole station or train, to mega-stickers, give-away goodies that when taken off one by one reveal a new poster, product sculptures (the pillars of Shinjuku Station transformed into giant bottles), decorating the moving rails of escalators, and posters with something sticking out - such as plastic autumn leaves hanging from the ceiling of the train to promote a type of bottled tea. This is of course only possible in (still rather) well-mannered and safe Japan - in most other countries of the world nitwits would in no-time molest those beautiful advertisements.

[Large poster ad in Shiodome. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

What also strikes me is how beautiful the design of advertisements in Japan usually is. This is helped by the Japanese script which can be used in a very plastic way, much more so than our alphabet. But the basic point is that the artistic sense of color and form that you already find in classical Japanese art, its still alive and well also among the present generation.