Ian Lynam, who I met at the meeting with Christian Schwartz last month, send me his book named “Parallel Strokes.” He interviewed with Akira Kobayashi of Linotype for PingMag and I’ve been aware of who the interviewer is since I read that interview. I didn’t think he lives in Japan. I just said hello to him a little while before leaving the meeting, so I emailed him and got an appointment with him.

Ian compiled 19 interviews, which are for PM or several magazines, with various type designers and various graffiti artists in “Parallel Strokes.” I enjoyed to know various background how they started type designs and typographic graffiti at first. Some part of the inteview with Akira Kobayashi seemed to be edited in order to fit the PingMag’s page, but a lot of photos and some sketches, which were not included in PM, were added in Parallel Strokes. And PS includes some interviews with Underware or DIAM. DIAM is one of my favorite artists since I’d read that interview. I was able to know DIAM to read the article for FontShop magazine that Ian interviewed a few years ago.

Ian send me his book “Parralel Strokes” and some novelty goods

(Left above) Parallel Strokes Poster (Lower right) The DIAM’s photo reminded me of The FontShop catalogue Issue 005. DIAM’s work covered this issue.

Ian is not only a graphic dsigner but also a type designer. He digitized Cooper Black Italic Swash. And he also have his label WordShape.