Designed History

History is dull. It can be thought of as dry, long, boring, dull and of course it always repeats itself. A reader would not casually pull Megg’s five-pound, 625-page, History of Graphic Design off the shelf to curl up by the fire for a night of light-reading.

Nevertheless, the content and history contained within the pages and that which did not make editor’s cut is crucial to the understanding of where graphic design originated and who and what has been influential in a global lens or even in isolated, “free-floating non-places” (Blauvelt).

Graphic design practitioners, researchers, instructors and even those with an interest in design must work in unison—it is our duty as a discipline to investigate trends and impacts on the field—and to prevent the details from being lost in the fold. Additionally, using our visual demesne, the narrative should be displayed in a inviting and comprehendible manor—to open the tale of design to non-designers as well.

By much like other practices and disciplines, our history is rich and full of complexities. How far down the rabbit hole should we delve when writing the story that is graphic design?

“The past causes the present, and so the future” (Stearns).