Graphic Design History Past Present A
Graphic Design History:
Past, Present, and Future
Teal Triggs
1
2
3
4
5
The past few years have seen an invigorating plethora of textbooks designed primarily for an undergraduate readership, which take as their starting point the idea that history can be told as a narrative. Phrases from some of the books’ titles provide a clue as to their authorial viewpoint: The Story of… (Cramsie, 2010); …A Critical Guide
(Drucker and McVarish, 2009); …A New
History (Eskilson, 2007); …From Antiquity to the Present (Jubert, 2006). These tomes join the bookshelf with the wellworn pages of graphic design history’s earlier benchmarks: …A Concise
History (Hollis, 1994) and A History of…
(Meggs, 1983). Such accounts inevitably raise questions about “whose history?” and “written by whom?.”
Barbara Hodik and Roger Remington,
The First Symposium on the History of
Graphic Design: The Coming of Age
(Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983),
5.
Ibid.
Victor Margolin, “The Scope and
Methodology of Design History,” in
Barbara Hodik and Roger Remington,
The First Symposium on the History of
Graphic Design: The Coming of Age
(Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983),
26.
“Summary and Future Projections,” in
Barbara Hodik and Roger Remington,
The First Symposium on the History of
Graphic Design: The Coming of Age
(Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983),
57.
Graphic design, it seems, is still searching for its past. Other design disciplines, such as fashion and industrial design, have an established tradition of archiving, documenting, critically writing, and publishing history, as well as engaging with social, cultural, and political contexts. Such histories have, for example, focused on the study of designed objects as well as design movements; celebrated
“named” designers and the profession’s history; and explored design in relationship to other areas, such as material culture. This is not to say that graphic design has not had its share of commentators who have been defining
Past, Present, and Future
Teal Triggs
1
2
3
4
5
The past few years have seen an invigorating plethora of textbooks designed primarily for an undergraduate readership, which take as their starting point the idea that history can be told as a narrative. Phrases from some of the books’ titles provide a clue as to their authorial viewpoint: The Story of… (Cramsie, 2010); …A Critical Guide
(Drucker and McVarish, 2009); …A New
History (Eskilson, 2007); …From Antiquity to the Present (Jubert, 2006). These tomes join the bookshelf with the wellworn pages of graphic design history’s earlier benchmarks: …A Concise
History (Hollis, 1994) and A History of…
(Meggs, 1983). Such accounts inevitably raise questions about “whose history?” and “written by whom?.”
Barbara Hodik and Roger Remington,
The First Symposium on the History of
Graphic Design: The Coming of Age
(Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983),
5.
Ibid.
Victor Margolin, “The Scope and
Methodology of Design History,” in
Barbara Hodik and Roger Remington,
The First Symposium on the History of
Graphic Design: The Coming of Age
(Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983),
26.
“Summary and Future Projections,” in
Barbara Hodik and Roger Remington,
The First Symposium on the History of
Graphic Design: The Coming of Age
(Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983),
57.
Graphic design, it seems, is still searching for its past. Other design disciplines, such as fashion and industrial design, have an established tradition of archiving, documenting, critically writing, and publishing history, as well as engaging with social, cultural, and political contexts. Such histories have, for example, focused on the study of designed objects as well as design movements; celebrated
“named” designers and the profession’s history; and explored design in relationship to other areas, such as material culture. This is not to say that graphic design has not had its share of commentators who have been defining