Graphic design history: past, present, and future

Teal Triggs was guest editor and wrote an article for this journal issue.

Graphic design, it seems, is still searching for its past. Other design disciplines, such as fashion and industrial design, have an established tradition of archiving, documenting, critically writing, and publishing history, as well as engaging with social, cultural, and political contexts. Such histories have, for example, focused on the study of designed objects as well as design movements; celebrated “named” designers and the profession’s history; and explored design in relationship to other areas, such as material culture. This is not to say that graphic design has not had its share of commentators who have been defining approaches to studying its own history. However, there remains a sense that graphic design history is less established as a discipline, and perhaps less exploratory in terms of defining new ways of writing about this history. The intent of this collection is to look again at the issues surrounding how we might define graphic design history, as well as to propose new ways forward.

This was a commissioned special issue by Design Issues editors and an opportunity to extend upon some of the themes and contributor’s work who had participated in the conference New Views: Repositioning Graphic Design History, 2005.