Visual Communication

The bestselling graphic design reference, updated for the digital age Meggs' History of Graphic Design is the industry's unparalleled, award-winning reference. With over 1,400 high-quality images throughout, this visually stunning text guides you through a saga of artistic innovators, breakthrough technologies, and groundbreaking developments that define the graphic design field.

The dawn of American consumerism Prohibition made liquor illegal and all the more fun to drink. Speakeasies, luxury cars, women's liberation, bathtub gin and a booming economy kept the country's mood on the up-and-up. Women sheared off their locks and taped their chests, donning flapper dresses and dancing the Charleston until their legs gave out. Gangsters flourished in big cities and gangster movies flourished in Hollywood. It was the roaring twenties in America: a singular time in history, a lull between two world wars and the last gas before the nation's descent into the Great Depression. Forging the way into the future like a modern streamliner in a sea of antiquity, advertising in the 20s sought to bring avant-garde into the mainstream -- which it did with great success.

This exhaustive compendium of ads from the period - many of which haven't been seen since - is a fascinating reminder of surprisingly simpler times and a rediscovery of a forgotten age in advertising history.

This exciting new history of graphic design explores its evolution from the late 19th century to the present day. Organized chronologically, the book illuminates the dynamic relationship between design and manufacturing as well as the roles of technology, social change, and commercial forces on the course of design history. The layout of each chapter reflects the unique style of the period it describes, and some 450 illustrations throughout the volume provide a visual record of more than one hundred years of creative achievement in the field. Under the influence of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 19th century, a new era began for design arts. Fueled by popular Art Nouveau advertising, the work of graphic designers became central in the growing consumer goods economy. This book traces the emergence of varied modernist design styles in the early 20th century and then examines the wartime politicization of regional styles through American government patronage and revolutionary Soviet ideas. Richly contextualized chapters chronicle the history of the Bauhaus and the rise of the International Style, followed by the postmodern movement of the 1970s and '80s. After highlighting recent developments in graphic design around the globe, the author discusses the impact of inexpensive, powerful design software and the challenges facing designers now.

AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) was founded in 1951 by a small, select group of French and Swiss graphic designers. Since then AGI has invited some 600 designers from more than thirty countries to join its ranks.Together the members of AGI have written a significant part of the history of graphic design since the mid-twentieth century. This book tells the story of their accomplishments through a series of richly illustrated biographies, plus essays by prominent AGI members on past and present developments in visual communication.The designers featured here include Alan Fletcher, Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Roman Cieslewicz, Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geismar, Seymour Chwast, April Greiman, Yusaku Kamakura, Milton Glaser, Adrian Frutiger, Tibor Kalman, and hundreds more.

A chronological history of art that assembles chef d'oeuvres from all artistic disciplines around the globe and throughout the ages. This book-the first to be dedicated to the museum's collection-allows the reader to discover the universal spirit that permeates and incarnates the birth of this new museum. The growing collection, presented here for the first time, best captures and expresses the essence and spirit of the museum itself. These 300 works, reproduced in exceptional photographs commissioned for the publication, open a dialogue between the diverse world cultures and their artistic expressions. This work is a collaboration of the Tourism and Culture Authority, the Musee du Louvre, and Skira Flammarion.