Published: 2025/6/10
Price: 3,300+tax jp yen

Order here – international shipping available!!

The digital version is also available

【Special Feature】
Shaping Fear: Visualizing Terror and Unease in Book Design

Direction by IDEA
In cooperation with Toshiaki Koga
Design by LABORATORIES （Kensaku Kato, Sae Kamata, Sakura Koizumi）
Photography by Satoshi Aoyagi

What is fear exactly? Is it the sum of related emotions— dread, anxiety, disgust, surprise, or even the irrational and outrageous—which can shake us to our very core? This issue’s feature provides an exploration of how fear is visualized and expressed through the media we know as books, or more precisely, their designs and covers.

The layout in a novel’s cover, the odd colors in a picture book, the weathered taste in a magazine, the sense of discomfort in the combination of comical and creepy oozing through the pages of a manga: a common trait with all media that deals in fear is the use of design in exposing us to something we cannot process within our scope of reason. These designs draw out their readers’ imaginations, and cause emotions to become unsettled even before pages are turned. Visual expression in scary books is not a mere ornamentation or marketing tool: it is a functioning device that, when coupled with content, can sway any reader’s emotions.

Especially today, the sense of fear is not limited to conventional expressions of terror; it has begun to take on more complex and multilayered meanings. It could include the unease felt around creepy things, threats that are impossible to explain, or the fear of social incompatibility or exclusion. Add some visual orchestration (not necessarily blood or violence) and these can really leave a strong impression. In recent years, a fresh challenge for designers has been finding ways to show fear in what we cannot see.

In this feature we will be looking at visual expression of fear across four genres: novels, picture books, manga & comics, and magazines. The issue also includes interviews with those actively working to express fear—designer Koichi Sakano (welle design), manga artist Junji Ito, game creators Chilla’s Art, and illustrator fracoco. There’s also an additional contribution from anthologist and literary critic Masao Higashi.

This feature is an attempt to reexamine the diversity behind this feeling of “fear” and how it is shaped in the modern day. We hope it offers an opportunity to verify exactly how deep the connections are between our emotions and memories, and fear as visual expression.

［Novels］

［Manga］

［Picture Books］

［Magazine］

［Essay］
“Thoughts on ‘The Long-Haired Person’ :
A Genealogy of Ghosts and Visual Culture”
Text by Masao Higashi

［Interview］
Balancing Fear: Designing the Right Amount of Scare
Koichi Sakano（welle design）
Interview by Idea　Text by Ryoichi Fujii　Photography by Shinzo Hirai

Unseen Forms of Horror: Junji Ito and the Proliferating Terror
Junji Ito
Interview & Text by Masato Takahatake　Photography by Takuji Onda

The Brother Duo Taking the Indie Horror Scene by Storm:
What Makes Chilla’s Art So Scary?
Chilla’s Art
Interview & Text by Takahiro Matsuda

Visual Expressions of Unease and Fear:
A Gaze Capturing the Subtle Disturbances Lurking in Everyday Life
fracoco
Interview by Idea

［Special］
ACID Cannes Posters: Designing for Independent Cinema
Collaboration by ACID Cannes　Design by Koji Terao　Translation by Fraze Craze Inc.

“The World’s Most Beautiful Books” Competition 2025 Report
Strictness and Intimacy
̶ A Story of Diving into a Quiet Sea of Books　
Text and composition: Shin Akiyama
Edited by: Madoka Nishi　Design: Nao Tsunoda (neucitora)

［Series］
Design Eccentric From the World Collectors’ Room
Vol. 10: The Design Reviewed Archive, part 2
East meets West & West meets East:
Captivated by the Beauty of Wahon (Traditional Japanese Books)
Text by Yuko Nakajima
Design by Kazuhiro Yamada + Akiko Takeo (nipponia)
Translation by Fraze Craze Inc.

［Exhibition Review］
Finding Beauty in Books and Typefaces: The Art of Black
̶ Gutenberg and the Culture of German Publishing and Printing
Text ＆ Design by Toshinobu Nagata

Book Design and Concept: Exploring The Calligraphic Quest
– The Legacy of Book Designer Lü Jingren
Interview｜Isao Mitobe　
Interview & Text & Design by Toshinobu Nagata