Graphic design theory : readings from the field by
The titles in our best-selling Design Brief series are highly praised by graphic design students, educators, and professionals worldwide as invaluable resources. Each beautifully designed, affordable volume offers a concise overview of a design fundamentalthe hows of design. But as most seasoned designers will tell you, a comprehensive education also requires an understanding of the whys of design practice.Graphic Design Theory presents groundbreaking, primary texts from the most important historical and contemporary designthinkers. From Aleksandr Rodchenko's "Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group" to Kenya Hara's "Computer Technology and Design," this essential volume provides the necessary foundation for contemporary critical vocabulary and thought. Graphic Design Theory is organized in three sections: "Creating the Field" traces the evolution of graphic design over the course of the early 1900s, including influential avant-garde ideas of futurism, constructivism, and the Bauhaus; "Building on Success" covers the mid- to late twentieth century and considers the International Style, modernism, and postmodernism; and "Mapping the Future" opens at the end of the last century and includes current discussions on legibility, social responsibility, and new media.Striking color images illustrate each of the movements discussed and demonstrate the ongoing relationship between theory and practice. A brief commentary prefaces each text, providing a cultural and historical framework through which the work can be evaluated. Authors include such influential designers as Herbert Bayer, Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Karl Gerstner, Katherine McCoy, Michael Rock, Lev Manovich, Ellen Lupton, and Lorraine Wild. Additional features include a timeline, glossary, and bibliographyfor further reading. A must-have survey for graduate and undergraduate courses in design history, theory, and contemporary issues,Graphic Design Theory invites designers and interested readers of all levels to plunge into the world of design discourse.
Visual communication: from theory to practice by 
Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by 
Now You See It and Other Essays on Design by
"Design is a way to engage with real content, real experience," writes celebrated essayist Michael Bierut in this follow-up to his best-sellingSeventy-Nine Short Essays on Design (2007). In more than fifty smart and accessible short pieces from the past decade, Bierut engages with a fascinating and diverse array of subjects. Essays range across design history, practice, and process; urban design and architecture; design hoaxes; pop culture; Hydrox cookies, Peggy Noonan, baseball, The Sopranos; and an inside look at his experience creating the "forward" logo for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Other writings celebrate such legendary figures as Jerry della Femina, Alan Fletcher, Charley Harper, and his own mentor, Massimo Vignelli. Bierut's longtime work in the trenches of graphic design informs everything he writes, lending depth, insight, and humor to this important and engrossing collection.
Culture Is Not Always Popular by
A collection of writing about design from the influential, eclectic, and adventurous Design Observer. Founded in 2003, Design Observer inscribes its mission on its homepage: Writings about Design and Culture. Since its inception, the site has consistently embraced a broader, more interdisciplinary, and circumspect view of design's value in the world--one not limited by materialism, trends, or the slipperiness of style. Dedicated to the pursuit of originality, imagination, and close cultural analysis, Design Observer quickly became a lively forum for readers in the international design community. Fifteen years, 6,700 articles, 900 authors, and nearly 30,000 comments later, this book is a combination primer, celebration, survey, and salute to a certain moment in online culture. This collection includes reassessments that sharpen the lens or dislocate it; investigations into the power of design idioms; off-topic gems; discussions of design ethics; and experimental writing, new voices, hybrid observations, and other idiosyncratic texts. Since its founding, Design Observer has hosted conferences, launched a publishing imprint, hosted three podcasts, and attracted more than a million followers on social media. All of these enterprises are rooted in the original mission to engage a broader community by sharing ideas on ways that design shapes--and is shaped by--our lives. Contributors include Sean Adams, Allison Arieff, Ashleigh Axios, Eric Baker, Rachel Berger, Andrew Blauvelt, Liz Brown, John Cantwell, Mark Dery, Michael Erard, Stephen Eskilson, Bryan Finoki, Kenneth FitzGerald, John Foster, Steven Heller, Karrie Jacobs, Meena Kadri, Mark Lamster, Alexandra Lange, Francisco Laranjo, Adam Harrison Levy, Mimi Lipson, KT Meaney, Thomas de Monchaux, Randy Nakamura, Phil Patton, Maria Popova, Rick Poynor, Louise Sandhaus, Dmitri Siegel, Martha Scotford, Adrian Shaughnessy, Andrew Shea, John Thackara, Dori Tunstall, Alice Twemlow, Tom Vanderbilt, Véronique Vienne, Alissa Walker, Rob Walker, Lorraine Wild, Timothy Young
Design, Ecology, Politics by
Design, Ecology, Politics links social and ecological theory to design theory and practice, critiquing the ways in which the design industry perpetuates unsustainable development. Boehnert argues that when design does engage with issues of sustainability, this engagement remains shallow, due to the narrow basis of analysis in design education and theory. The situation is made more severe by design cultures which claim to be apolitical. Where design education fails to recognise the historical roots of unsustainable practice, it reproduces old errors. New ecologically informed design methods and tools hold promise only when incorporated into a larger project of political change. Design, Ecology, Politics describes how ecological literacy challenges many central assumptions in design theory and practice. By bringing design, ecology and socio-political theory together, Boehnert describes how power is constructed, reproduced and obfuscated by design in ways which often cause environmental harms. She uses case studies to illustrate how communication design functions to either conceal or reveal the ecological and social impacts of current modes of production. The transformative potential of design is dependent on deep-reaching analysis of the problems design attempts to address. Ecologically literate and critically engaged design is a practice primed to facilitate the creation of viable, sustainable and just futures. With this approach, designers can make sustainability not only possible, but attractive.
Women in Graphic Design 1890-2012 by
Why do so few women feature in the history of design? Why is it still the case that so few women speak at conferences? How have previously celebrated female designers come to be "forgotten"? Are women judged today solely on the basis of their quality of work? In recent decades, female graphic designers have been working actively and successfully, but the longstanding identification of creative genius with masculinity has--with a few exceptions--prevented women from receiving recognition in the official annals of design history; even today, only a tiny percentage of active female designers enjoy public acclaim. This opulently illustrated volume sets out to repair this omission. Women in Graphic Design 1890-2012 presents the most significant female designers and traces their paths to professionalization and acclaim, through short biographies, essays and conversations with well-known contemporary female designers such as Irma Boom, Paula Scher, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Julia Hoffmann, "Swiss Miss" Tina Roth Eisenberg, Katja M. Becker, Anna Berkenbusch, Heike Grebin, Gisela Grosse, Miriam and Nina Lambert, Iris Utikal and Judith Grieshaber. Also included are key writings by contemporary and historical designers such as Paula Scher, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Natalia Goncharova, Ellen Lupton, Martha Scotford, Véronique Vienne, Astrid Stavro and Alissa Walker.
Visible Signs by
Basic semiotic theories are taught in most art schools as part of a contextual studies program, but many students find it difficult to understand how these ideas might impact on their own practice. Visible Signs tackles this problem by introducing key theories and concepts, such as signs and signifiers, and language and speech, within the framework of visual communication. Each chapter provides an overview of a particular facet of semiotic theory, with inspiring examples from graphic design, typography, illustration, advertising and art to illustrate the ideas discussed in the text. Creative exercises at the end of the book will help exemplify these ideas through practical application. The fourth edition of Visible Signs includes new imagery and updated exercises, as well as coverage of propaganda, diversity in 'neutral' communication (like emojis), and issues related to social media representation.
This Means This, This Means That by 
Graphic Design in Urban Environments by
Graphic Design in Urban Environments introduces the idea of a category of designed graphic objects that significantly contribute to the functioning of urban systems. These elements, smaller than buildings, are generally understood by urban designers to comprise such phenomena as sculpture, clock towers, banners, signs, large screens, the portrayal of images on buildings through smart screens, and other examples of what urban designers call urban objects.The graphic object as it is defined here also refers to a range of familiar things invariably named in the literature as maps, street numbers, route signs, bus placards, signs, architectural communication, commercial vernacular, outdoor publicity, lettering, banners, screens, traffic and direction signs and street furniture. One can also add markings of a sports pitch, lighting, bollards, even red carpets or well dressings. By looking at the environment, and design and deconstructing form and context relationships, the defining properties and configurational patterns that make up graphic objects are shown in this book to link the smallest graphic detail (e.g. the number 16) to larger symbolic statements (e.g. the Empire State Building). From a professional design practice perspective, a cross section through type, typographic, graphic and urban design will provide a framework for considering the design transition between alphabets, writing systems, images (in the broadest sense) and environments.
Writing and Research for Graphic Designers by
For designers, writing and research skills are more necessary than ever before, from the basic business compositions to critical writing. In this competitive climate, designers are routinely called upon to make words about the images and designs they create for clients. Writing about design is not just "trade" writing, but should be accessible to everyone with an interest in design. This book is a complete, introductory guide to various forms of research and writing in design--and how they explain visuals and can be visualized. These pages address communication on various levels and to all audiences: - Designers to Designers - Designers to Clients - Designers to the Design-literate - Designers to the Design-agnostic Being able to express the issues and concerns of the design practice demands facts, data, and research. With Writing and Research for Graphic Designers, you'll learn how to turn information into a valuable asset-- one of the key talents of the design researcher.
Graphic Design Rants and Raves by
Design is everywhere. Graphic design enters into everything. This is the scope of designer Steven Heller's latest essay anthology that covers the spectrum of graphic design and related art and culture. Looking at design as practice, language, culture, and power, each of the forty-plus essays is a self-contained story. Heller pours out his ideas--criticisms and celebrations--on such topics as: A history of our modern Hindu-Arabic numerals, and a look at the letter K Brand design utilized by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump early in the 2016 Presidential race The tumultuous relationship between design and sex The Charlie Hebdo massacre and the principles of free expression Icons revisited, including Paul Rand (not to be confused with the politician Rand Paul), Ralph Ginzburg, Frank Zachary, George Lois, and Print magazine Food packaging, the design of milk, and USPS stamps The obsessive use of cuteness, and the sad and happy history of the ubiquitous happy face From commercial advertising to government institutions to cultural revolution, from the objects that push design forward to those that seep into the everyday, Graphic Design Rants and Raves is an exploration of how visual design has arrived in the twenty-first century. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.
CULT-URE by
Culture is your local consensus reality; your clothing, cuisine and hairstyle, the music you listen to, the films you see; your values, ideas, beliefs and prejudices. Culture, unlike race, is not a compulsory accident of birth, but an intellectual position. Today culture has a powerful new vector: the internet. Ideas - from a YouTube video to a viral marketing phenomenon or a fundamentalist religion - are travelling further and faster, and changing the cultural landscape like never before. In a new electronic democracy of ideas, cultural power is devolving to the creative individual. We will soon all have the means to create; we just have to decide whether it be art or bombs. In our symbol-drenched lives we desperately need a way of decoding the messages that bombard us. Written and designed by Rian Hughes, CULT-URE is the culmination of a decade's research into why and how we communicate. CULT-URE provides a thought-provoking exploration into media convergence within our digital age and an insider's guide into the changing nature of communications, perceptions and identities. Set to become a cult publication for the digital generation, CULT-URE is the 21st century answer to Marshall McLuhan's seminal The Medium is the Message. CULT-URE is your thought-provoking guide to surviving the new media revolution, and a potent inoculation against infection by dangerous ideas.
Graphic Design Discourse by
If the aim of graphic design is to communicate meaning clearly, there's an irony that the field itself has struggled between two contradictory opposites: rote design resulting from a rigorous, fixed set of rules, and eccentric design that expresses the hand of the artist but fails to communicate with its audience. But what if designers focused on process and critical analysis over visual outcome? Through a carefully selected collection of more than seventy-five seminal texts spanning centuries and bridging the disciplines of art, architecture, design history, philosophy, and cultural theory, Graphic Design Discourse: Evolving Theories, Ideologies, and Processes of Visual Communicationestablishes a new paradigm for graphic design methodologies for the twenty-first century. This illuminating anthology is essential reading for practicing designers, educators, and students trying to understand how to design in a singular, expressive way without forgoingnclear and concise visual communication.
GOOD: an Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design by
Consider this simple conundrum- is it possible to be a bad good designer or a good bad designer for that matter? If the answer is yes then which is preferable and what does this reveal about the relationship between ethics and design practice? Good- An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design seeks to answer these questions. Graphic design is in ethical flux. Good comes at a time of growing disenchantment with style-led design solutions and the pursuit of self-expression alone and yet vacuous design judgements are still made without any real analysis of the criteria used. The terms good and bad are repeatedly applied without qualification whilst the relationship between personal and professional ethics is far too contentious to do any more than give cursory consideration. Despite recent manifestos and themed publications on design for good graphic designers have yet to examine what such terms really mean- in a time of relativism it has been far too divisive to do so. Good takes philosophy as its starting point but is not a philosophy book. It seeks to marry abstract ideas with practical application, removing some of the mystique that surrounds philosophy and highlighting its relevance for us all. Designers are people. This book seeks to engage designers in a debate about their profession and in an analysis of their value and worth. The decisions we make define us, in our ethical choices we reveal who we are.
Design Observer: https://www.designobserver.com
Eye Magazine: http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog
Eye on Design: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/
Modes of Criticism: http://modesofcriticism.org/
