Drip-dry shirts: the evolution of the graphic designer

‘Drip-dry shirts: the evolution of the graphic designer’ is the publication which documents and assesses the work of the practitioners who created the now familiar term ‘graphic design’. Through illustrated interviews and contextual essays this book is an insight into what being a designer was like during this formative period and reveals the expectations, aspirations and influences of the time. Information and historical details together with the anecdotes and observations bring to life the famous works and lives of the contributors and present a fresh and personal approach to design history.

Wright’s contribution to this book took the form of additional writing, researching and editing. She was commissioned to research and write the contributors biographies. These included the extended biographies of the key protagonists Wim Crouwel, Milton Glaser, Ken Garland, Rosemarie Tissi, Colin Forbes, Geoff White, Karl Gerstner, Margaret Clavert and Ivan Chermayeff as well as those of the secondary interviewees Experimental Jetset, Brookie Maxwell, Peter Smith, Sabina Oberholzer, Michael Gericke, Rupert Bassett, Helmut Schmidt Rhen, Kerr Noble and Dirk Futterer. With Ray Roberts and Kelvyn Laurence Smith Wright also contributed to the introductory dimension essays. This involved the research, development and sourcing of visual references for The Type, The Trademark and The Imagery in particular. In collaboration with Kelvyn Laurence Smith she selected, researched, compiled and edited Smith’s timeline for the reference section of the book. Wright’s contributions are credited in the end pages marked with coloured tabs for the purpose of this exercise.

‘Drip Dry Shirts’ was recently included in 50 reading lists published by Spin where Margaret Calvert and Karl Gerstner selected it among the top ten books they believed designers should read (www.spin.co.uk ).