Mobilizing a Retail Workforce
Shiseido Chain Store, 1935–1940

The pioneering entrepreneurial spirit exemplified by Shiseido, particularly beginning in the 1920s, also found expression in a run of periodicals aimed primarily at the company’s employees. Initiated in 1927 under the English title Chain Store, this publication underwent a stunning sea change between July 1935 and April 1938, when the title became The Chain Store Research and an entirely new level of visuals inspired by the ground-breaking graphic design of European designers such as those working at the Bauhaus in Germany. Bold commercial artwork, often utilizing photography and integrative photographic techniques such as photomontage, accompanied contemporary technological and cultural developments.