Visualizing design history: an analytical approach

The graphic design publications, reviewed in this research, represent important general conventions in graphic design history. These selections also allow us to reflect on their limitations, which are restrictive in both their publication language and distribution. They do not however, present a worldwide view of design history, especially not of domestic graphic design history. English is undoubtedly the dominant language of global communication, affecting and reflecting the viewpoints and perspectives of the largest territory in graphic design history. Consequently, using English as a vehicle of expression and communication, as well as the fact that the majority of research material is in English, can be seen as representing and reproducing cultural imperialistic behaviour, reflecting the power of the hegemony. This is represented by Western, liberal-minded academics writing about what is considered an "intellectual commodity" in their cultural context.¹⁷ We might even say that English is a major colonial-cultural language, and the historiographies of design research are based on the ideology of hegemony. The history we have been exposed to has pandered to the narrow perspectives, intentions and customs of its authors. Although it may be unrealistic to expect absolute truth in history, it is not unreasonable to look for an alternative angle, from which to configure our past, and provide hope for a broader audience in the future.

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Aynsley, Jeremy, A century of graphic design, London, Mitchell Beazley, 2001

Barthes, Roland, Richard Howard trans, A lover's discourse : fragments, New York, Hill and Wang, 1978

Baudrillard, Jean, For a Critique of the political Economy of the Sign, St Louis, Telos Press, 1981

Bayazit, Nigan, “Investigating Design: A Review of Forty Years of Design Research”, Design Issues Vol 20 (1), Wint 2004, pp. 16-29

Bonsiepe, Gui, ‘A Step towards the reinvention of graphic design‘, Design Issues Vol.10(4), 1994, pp. 47-52,

Buckley, Cheryl, ‘Made in Patriarchy: Towards a Feminist Analysis of Women and Design,’ in V. Margolin, ed., Design Discourse History-Theory-Criticism, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1989, pp. 251-264;

Clegg, Sue and Wendy Mayfield, “Gendered by Design: How Women's Place in Design Is Still Defined by Gender”, Design Issues, Vol.15 (3), 1999, pp. 3-16

Cross, Nigel, ‘Designerly Ways of Knowing: Design Discipline Versus Design Science’, Design Issues, 17 no3, 2001, pp. 49-55

Dahl, Darren W.; Amitava Chattopadhyay and Gerald J. Gorn, ‘The importance of visualisation in concept design’ in Design Study, v. 22 no. 1, 2001, pp. 5-26

Derrida, Jacques, Writing and Difference, Alan Bass trans, Chicago U.P., 1978

Dilnot, Clive, “The science of Uncertainty: The potential Contribution of Design to Knowledge”, Doctor al Education in Design Conferenc 1998, Ohio, Proceedings of the Ohio Conference, 1998

——— “The State of Design History, Part I: Mapping the Field", in Dilnot, Clive. Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989, pp. 213-232

——— “The State of Design History, Part II: Problems and Possibilities ", in Dilnot, Clive. Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989, pp. 250

Doordan, Dennis P., Design history: an anthology, Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press, 1995

Foucault, Michel, Power/Knowledge, Brighton, Hareveter, 1980

Forlizzi, Jodi and Cherie Lebbon, ‘From Formalism to Social Significance in Communication Design’, Design Issues, Vol. 18(4), Aut 2002, pp. 3-13.

Forty, Adrian, Objects of Desire: Design and Society 1750-1980, Thames and Hudson, London, 1989

Fry, Tony Design History Australia: a source text in methods and resources, Sydney, Hale & Iremonger and the Power Institute of Fine Arts, 1988

Garland, Ken, Mr. Beck's Underground Map, Harrow Weald, Capital Transport, 1994

Gowan, Al, ‘Philip B. Meggs: A Personal Note’, Print, 57 no1, 2003, pp. 26-7

Greeley, Robin A. ‘Richard Duardo's 'Aztlan' poster: Interrogating cultural hegemony in graphic design‘, Design Issues, 14, 1998, pp. 21-34

Hadlaw, Janin, ‘The London Underground Map: Imagining Modern Time and Space’, Design Issues, Vol. 19. (1), Winter 2003, pp. 25-35.

Hall, Stuart, ‘What Is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture?’ in Gina Gent, Black Popular Culture, Seattle, Bay Press, 1992, pp. 21-23,

——— Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices, London, Sage, in association with The Open University, 1997.

Harris, E. Errol, The Reality of Time, New York, State University of New York Press, 1988

Hebdige, Dick, Hiding in the Light, Routledge, London, 1988

Heller, Steven, ‘The Origins of Graphic Design in America, 1870-1920’, Design Issues, 14 no1, 1998, pp. 84-5

——— Typology: type design from, the Victorian era to the digital age, San Francisco, Chronicle, 1999.

——— Graphic style: from Victorian to digital, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 2000

——— Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century, London, Phaidon, 2003.

——— ‘Philip B. Meggs: Making History’, Print, 57 no1, 2003,pp. 24-5

Heller, Steven and Elinor Pettit, Graphic Design Time Line: A Century of Design Milestones, Allworth Press, 2000

Heller, Steven and Georgette Balance (eds.), Graphic design history, Allworth Press, 2001

Heller, Steven and Philip B. Meggs, ‘Making History’, Print, Vol. 57(1), 2003, pp. 24-5

Holland, DK ed., Design Issues : how graphic design informs society, Allworth Press/Communication Arts, New York, 2001

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Kelly, Rob Roy, ‘The Early Years of Graphic Design at Yale University’, Design Issues, 17 no3, Summ 2001, pp.3-14

King, Emily, New Faces: type design in the first decade of device-independent digital typesetting (1987-1997), A Doctor of Philosophy degree thesis of Kingston University, London, Kingston University, 1999

Kronz, M. Frederick, Theory and Experience of Time: Philosophical Aspects, Department of Philosophy, The University Texas at Austin, 1997

Lefebvre, Henri, The Production Space, translated by Donald Nichson-Smith, Oxford and Cambridge, Blackwell press, 1991

Levine, Robert, A Geography of Time, The temporal misadventures of social psychologies, Chicago, Basic Books, 1998

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Meggs, Philip B., ‘Is A Design History Canon Really Dangerous?’, in Steven Heller, Design Culture, New York, Allworth Press, 1997, pp. 228-229

——— A History of Graphic Design, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1998

Margolin, Victor, Design discourse: history, theory, criticism, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1989

McDermott, Catherine, 20th century design, Ringwood, Vic., Viking, 1997

Nelson, H. G. and E. Stolterman, "The Case for Design: Creating a Culture of Intention." Educational Technology XL, (No. 6), 2000, pp. 29-35.

Newton-Smith, H. William, The structure of time, Oxford, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980

Palmer, Jerry and Mo Dodson (eds.), Design and Aesthetics: a Reader, London, Routledge, 1996.

Polanyi, Michael, Personal Knowledge. Towards a Post Critical Philosophy, London, Routledge, 1958

Poynor, Rick, ‘Optic Nerve: Canon Fodder’, Print, Vol. 56, No. 3, 2002, pp. 180-1.

Purvis, Alston W, Graphic design 20th century: 1890-1990, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2003

Remington, R. Roger, American modernism: graphic design 1920 to 1960, London, Laurence King, 2003

Roozenburg, N F M and J. Eekels, Product design: fundamentals and methods John Wiley and Sons, Toronto Ontario, 1995,

Rothschild, Deborah Menaker, Graphic design in the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, Yale University Press in Rudolph, Berlin, Die Gestalten Verlag, 1999

Rust, Chris, Design Enquiry: Tacit Knowledge and Invention in Science, Sheffield Hallam University, Art and Design Research Centre working paper, 8 July 2003

Sabin, Roger and Teal Triggs (eds.), Below Critical Radar: Fanzines and Alternative Comics from 1976 to now, Hove, Slab-O-Concrete Publications, 2001

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Sparke, Penny, A century of design: design pioneers of the 20th century, London, Mitchell Beazley, 1998

Thomson, Ellen Mazur, “Alms for Oblivion: The History of Women in Early American Graphic Design”, Design Issues, 10:2, 1994, p. 27.

Tomlinson, John, Cultural Imperialism, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1991

Tufte, R. Edward, Envisioning Information, Connecticut, Graphics Press, 1990

Walker, John A. ‘The London Underground Diagram‘, in Triggs, Teal (ed), Communication Design: Essays in Visual Communication, London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1995, pp. 87-96

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Wood, Denis and John Fels, ‘Designs on Signs/ Myth and Meaning in Maps,’ Cartographica 23: 3, 1986, p. 66

Wurman, Richard Saul, Information Architects, Zurich, Graphis Press Corp., 1996