Reading Graphic Design History

Abstract

Reading Graphic Design History uses a series of key texts from the history of print culture to address issues of class, race, and gender. It encourages the reader to look at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction, and typography aesthetically but also critically. David Raizman’s innovative approach intentionally challenges the canon of graphic design history and various traditional understandings of graphic design that have privileged certain schools or movements. He re-examines “icons” of graphic design in light of their local contexts, avoiding generalisation to explore underlying attitudes about various social issues. He encourages new ways of reading graphic design that take into account a broader context for graphic design activity, rather than generalisations that discourage the understanding of difference and the means by which graphic design communicates cultural values.