History and Theory of Graphic Design

Katarzyna Matul: Polska szkoła plakatu -od sztuki masowej do dzieła sztuki Aby zrozumieć fenomen polskiej szkoły plakatu, realizmu socjalistycznego, który w większości op wtedy plakaciści zawalczyli o wolność twórczą, a realny wpływ na kształtowanie się polskiej sceny Co Tydzień": "Polska na plakacie". Polska szkoła plakatu jest niewątpliwie jednym z najbardziej niez u[1]. Już w drugiej połowie lat 50. jej renoma sięgała daleko poza inspiracje zachodnią sztuką nowoczesną, odręczna typografia, hu grafików zarówno w krajach kapitalistycznych, gdzie plakat był na gdzie projektanci o podobnej wolności twórczej mogli tylko poma

The legacy of colonialism in Australia has resulted in the devaluing and exploitation of Indigenous visual culture, design and representation. Through reinterrogating, revealing and documenting previously unacknowledged or omitted Indigenous contributions to communication design history in Australia, this article seeks to reposition examples of Indigenous visual culture as powerful sites of iconographic symbols, graphic forms and political posters.

In this article, communication design as ‘visual communication’ is utilized as a framework to re-evaluate Indigenous contributions to Australian design history. This article presents a number of case studies of Indigenous contributions to communication design within a historical timeline, from prehistoric visual communication to twentieth-century examples—mirroring the development of the communication design industry.

Parallel to the historical timeline, I note the emergence of recurring themes that are critical to the incorporation of Indigenous contributions into design history more broadly; notably effects of national politics, conflicted ideas around national identity, cultural ownership of work and the inclusiveness of the design industry. Through an applied retelling using a decolonizing historical paradigm, key Indigenous contributions are recognized and misappropriated work is repositioned, to acknowledge and give voice to Indigenous communication designs and their undeniable role in creating a national design style.

Si pone in rilievo il ruolo di una rivista di disegno industriale, oggi design, nella storia dell'italiano contemporaneo. Fondata dall'architetto Alberto Rosselli nel 1954, la pubblicazione trimestrale e poi bimestrale, «Stile industria», accompagnerà per nove anni la crescita della società italiana del "boom" economico, dando una forma testuale e linguistica al dibattito intorno all’estetica della produzione in serie, e toccando nel contempo un insieme di fenomeni e processi riguardanti diversi strati della popolazione coinvolti nella produzione e nel consumo dei beni. La nuova realtà produttiva, che ha profondamente modificato la vita della società italiana condizionando a partire dagli anni Cinquanta gli usi e i costumi della quotidianità, ha trovato nella disciplina del design una delle manifestazioni più evidenti. Alla sua fisionomia di materia e tecnica e artistica corrispondeva appieno l’impostazione del periodico guidato da Rosselli. E così, nella scrittura "del" e "sul" design, le parole antiche, "forma" e "formale", "funzione", acquistano una nuova accezione circoscritta al lavoro del designer. All’epoca poco frequenti nella lingua d’uso, i termini che le affiancano, "funzionale" e "funzionalità", dal linguaggio tecnologico passeranno rapidamente in quello del commercio e della pubblicità, per fissarsi stabilmente nel lessico di settori diversi. A questi si aggiungono "efficienza" ed "estetica", l’antico "creativo" con il valore del tutto nuovo di ‘dotato di fantasia e inventiva’ e la neoformazione "creatività".

Reading Graphic Design in Cultural Context explains key ways of understanding and interpreting the graphic designs we see all around us, in advertising, branding, packaging and fashion. It situates these designs in their cultural and social contexts.

Drawing examples from a range of design genres, leading design historians Grace Lees-Maffei and Nicolas P. Maffei explain theories of semiotics, postmodernism and globalisation, and consider issues and debates within visual communication theory such as legibility, the relationship of word and image, gender and identity, and the impact of digital forms on design. Their discussion takes in well-known brands like Alessi, Nike, Unilever and Tate, and everyday designed things including slogan t-shirts, car advertising, ebooks, corporate logos, posters and music packaging.

The research deals with the development of graphic design in Slovakia in the circle of selected graduates of the Department of Visual Communication and related actors who participated in the creation of the scene. The aim of the thesis is to describe and define a distinctive type of discourse that was created in 1989 (and led to the current setting of education and type of production). The second aim of the research is to capture the beginnings of defining the field of graphic design in Slovakia and its professionalisation in education, practice and institutions. The research is carried out by the method of empirical collection (interviews, period materials, etc.) from the perspective of selected graphic designers (graduates of the field) of four generational circles and the circle of selected founders of the field before 1989. The main output is theoretical research and a written part of the thesis elaborated into the prototype of the publication. Includes basic/collecting research and analytical/ applied research of topics. In the text, the generational phenomena and tendencies that have been formed in the circle as well as the external and internal contexts (causes) that influenced their development are described chronologically. Based on these findings, some characteristics of discourse are evaluated as an inclination to an alternative concept of design against „dominant“ production, authorial approach and professional definition, or taking into consideration mainly cultural and aesthetic quality of graphic design. The result of this work is the first continuous research of a similar kind in the context of Slovakia. It outlines the confrontation of discourse in the reflection on the wider meaning of the circle of graduates in society and the current situation of Slovakia.

Postmodernism has been important in acknowledging many forms of "otherness" that emerge from differences in subjectivity, gender, race, class, temporal, spatial geographic location and dislocation. This has become a topic of interest among graphic designers as they explore de-sign's relationship with culture. This project, a series of creatures called The Avatars explore the use of graphic design to produce visual artifacts that discuss hybrid embodiment of Indo-Canadian identity. Using hybridity, Homi Bhabha's concept of a "third space" identifies a metaphor for the space in which cultures meet. Where communication, negotiation, and translation bridge societies, a new space emerges.

"Freedom is one of the highest values in democratic societies. One may ask if, and in what way, design should be concerned with freedom, particularly in a technologically complex world.
(…)
The views for an ethics of design that do not separate our human existence from the artifices we create for ourselves, putting designed objects and communications as a part of our common existence, pose a political problem as design intervenes in the public sphere."

This book tells the story of critical avant-garde design in Japan, which emerged during the 1960s and continues to inspire designers today. The practice communicates a form of visual and material protest drawing on the ideologies and critical theories of the 1960s and 1970s, notably feminism, body politics, the politics of identity, and ecological, anti-consumerist and anti-institutional critiques, as well as the concept of otherness. It also presents an encounter between two seemingly contradictory concepts: luxury and the avant-garde. The book challenges the definition of design as the production of unnecessary decorative and conceptual objects, and the characterisation of Japanese design in particular as beautiful, sublime or a product of 'Japanese culture'. In doing so it reveals the ways in which material and visual culture serve to voice protest and formulate a social critique.

An implementation of the visual event in graphic design is aiming less at the profession, but rather at the theory of the profession. It questions the assumption that the task of graphic design is just to make objects, such as books and posters, and that subsequently these objects represent what graphic design is. Instead, in conjunction with the visual event, graphic design is understood as a practice rather than as making.

Visual Representation of Australia's Peoples and Cultures in a Commonwealth Collection. An exhibition catalogue authored by the exhibition curator, Sarah Schmidt, with guest essay by Professor Marcia Langton. This 2002 exhibition included artwork from National and State galleries, libraries and museums as well as from university museums and private art collections.

Petra Černe Oven’s closing keynote presentation will interweave three layers. The first layer will offer a glimpse into the work of influential Slovenian modernist architect, sculptor, and graphic designer Jože Brumen (1930–2000). The second layer will reflect upon Černe Oven’s findings and connected research process. And the third layer will put historical research into the context of contemporary design and its future. This exploration will point to the existence of many hidden gems which are not yet on the world map of “official” design history. In 2010, design thinker Victor Margolin said, “the history of design is central to the history of the world.” Černe Oven thinks that it’s high time we begin mapping all of its missing parts. To this end, she will broach questions about the relationship between design and history and the importance of rigorous research, while addressing the obstacles and pitfalls of such undertakings. Projects from the past can lend insights into technological development, as well as the influence of the geopolitical contexts which shaped the design professions of individual cultures. Only through gaining an understanding of their roots and their collective pasts may designers find professional identity and recognize the role of design in contemporary society. With all of this in mind, they may envision solutions for the future: solutions which will bring about a positive change to the (for now) bleak prospects surrounding the presence of humans on Spaceship Earth.

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