Graphic Design: A Concise History

World of Art

by Richard Hollis

From its roots in the development of printing, graphic design has evolved as a means of identification, information, and promotion to become a profession and discipline in its own right. This authoritative documentary history begins with the poster and goes on to chart the development of word and image in brochures and magazines, advertising, corporate identity, television, and electronic media, and the impact of technical innovations such as photography and the computer. For the revised edition, a new final chapter covers all the recent international developments in graphic design, including the role of the computer and the Internet in design innovation and globalization. In the last years of the twentieth century, at a time when "designer products" and the use of logos grew in importance, the role of graphic designers became more complex, subversive, and sometimes more political―witness Oliviero Toscani's notorious advertisements for Benetton. Digital technology cleared the way for an astonishing proliferation of new typefaces, and words began to take second place to typography in a whole range of magazines and books as designers asserted the primacy of their medium. Designers and companies discussed here include Neville Brody, David Carson, Design Writing Research, Edward Fella, Tibor Kalman, Jeffery Keedy, LettError, Pierre di Sciullo, Tomato, Gerard Unger, Cornel Windlin, and a host of others. Over 800 illustrations, 30 in color

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art, History, Art Design, Reference, Creative

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Richard Hollis Hon. FRSL (born 1934) is a British graphic designer. He has taught at various art schools, written books, and worked as a printer, as a magazine editor and as a print-production manager. Hollis was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019.

Reviews

[Laura Eydmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was quite dry and crammed a lot of information into it, so it was not the easiest thing to read.

The book follows Graphic Design from the 1800's to the late 1990's. It starts with the change from Graphic Art to Design, and touches on Posters, Bauhaus, New Typography, the beginnings of design, the war and propaganda, the Avante Garde, Modernism, Futurism, Swiss style, Neue Graphik, 60's, Psychedelia, protest design, and new technology, with everything in between. It mentions all the major players, and some that I hadn't heard of, all the different big styles and movements and the major events of the the last 150 years and how they affected design (or vice versa).

This is a good source of information, as a starting point, and although it goes into some detail, it isn't really in depth about any particular subject, but then that isn't the point of the book. It's a good place to start if you want to learn more about different styles and movements or about the history of Graphic Design, and there is a fantastic bibliography at the back of the book that helps you to find more books to find out more...

I bought this book at the beginning of my degree course to help in the theory side, and ended up buying/borrowing more books on each individual subject, but used this as a good starting point. It is also a good reference book to find out about designers from different eras, and styles, but the imagery is purely to help illustrate the points in the text and tend to be black and white thumbnails rather than full colour full page prints, so this is not a good book to pick up for some visual inspiration.

A good reference book to start with, to help you find out more about the different styles and movements, designers and eras before going on to research in more depth.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 9 Feb 2016

I'm not even going to review this. It's a book for uni and like all uni books I didn't like it.

[Zohar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important read for the graphic design student.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd like to begin by saying that I've read this book twice. The former was simply a read-through, and the latter was to collect notes. In my opinion, this book is an essential guide, but it is also difficult to read for a few reasons. There is plenty of vital information in here for anyone interested in design, and it covers multiple countries such as Britain, France, Germany, USA, Japan and more. Furthermore, there are multiple styles included, and it contains a number of designers (I calculated somewhere around 336, give or take a few).

However, upon finishing my notes, this was an immediate gripe of mine, given that I'd whittled it down to only 57 designers being noteworthy; with the rest being one-time name-drops, assistants, or otherwise being barely mentioned. I remember my first read being confusing because of this overwhelming number of designers being sprinkled throughout the book; not in any biographical, or even chronological manner - but rather just dropped here and there. It made me paranoid to think that if I didn't remember a name, it'd become important later on - but it seldom was.

Another gripe I had was the organisation of dates. Something about the way the dates were laid out makes it disorientating, in that it dances back and forth between eras. For instance, you'll be jumping from chapters such as: "Avant-Garde and the Origins of Modernism 1914 - 1940"; straight to "National Tendencies until the 1940s"; to "The United States in the 1930s"; and then back to "War and Propaganda 1920s - 1945". I understand that graphic design is multi-layered, and not everything can be lumped together; but layout like this can only ever make it difficult to mentally map out where everything is in relation to all else while you're reading. This is *truly* a book that is for reference and note-taking, not for understanding the subject via reading alone.

Amongst all this, the tone is documentative, very dry and humourless. I also couldn't help but to feel bias from the author in favour of Modernist design; since traditional German & British design is somewhat skimmed over in favour of Bauhaus & Swiss Modernism, despite the book itself making it clear that the latter was not the norm for the times in question. It's not as though I don't understand the importance of Modernism in design, but a large enough portion of the book is so dedicated to covering it, that it feels like a drag at times due to the lack of variety.

Overall, it's not as though the information in this book is false or unreliable, and it certainly is a must-need read for anyone interested in the origins of design. The context and information itself is well-researched and documented, and I respect the author for having gone through the pain of collecting it. Sadly, however, the aforementioned was enough to put me off of ever reading this book a third time.

[Akef Rahmati · Rating 3 out of 5]

یک کتاب تاریخ هنر و یا زیرشاخه ای از آن مثل تاریخ گرافیک، استفاده و نشان دادن تصاویر با کیفیت خوب را میطلبد. از نظر من محدودیت فیزیکی یا بودجه برای چاپ یا هر دلیل دیگری که من از آن اطلاع ندارم باعث شده که تصاویر این کتاب بسیار کوچک و از کیفیت کافی برخوردار نباشند. در اکثر مواقع بخشهایی از کتاب را رد کردم و موضوعاتی که برایم بیشتر جالب بودند را خواندم. این کتاب بر خلاف تقسیم بندی سبکی و یا زمانی، تاریخ گرافیک را براساس مکان تقسیم بندی کرده. این موضوع میتواند هم گمراه کننده و هم مفید باشد. گمراه کننده از آن جهت که باعث میشود پیدا کردن مطالب از طریق کلیدواژه ای خاص بدون داشتن پیش زمینه ای از دانش گرافیک سخت شود و از طرفی دنبال کردن روند گرافیک مبهم شود. اما از طرفی به دلیل دسته بندی مکانی میتواند برای آن دسته از کسانی که از طریق مکان به دنبال کسب اطلاعات میگردند راحت تر شود. از نظر من سبک خوانش این کتاب، تنها روخوانی و تامل درباره چیزی که خوانده اید نیست. در هر پاراگراف این کتاب تعداد زیادی اسم و اثر هنری روبرو هستید و بیشتر از اینکه به تحلیل و تجزیه اتفاقات در روند گرافیک یک دوره بپردازد، مستندات زیادی ارائه میکند و منبع خوبی برای پیدا کردن این اسامی است. از همین جهت، علاوه بر خوانش این کتاب، جستجو و دیدن آثار هنرمندان در اینترنت و یا کتایهای دیگر نیز ضروری است.

[Carolina · Rating 2 out of 5]

O livro dá um vislumbre interessante sobre o tema. Porém cada capítulo mais parece uma lista interminável de nomes que nada dizem para quem não conhece o assunto tratado. Acaba ficando um pouco massante.

[Heidi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uskomatonta et tässä meni vaan pari kuukautta, tuntu ikuisuudelta.

Valitettavan paska kirja 😄 tekstissä keskityttiin ensisijasesti nimiin ja firmoihin, joissa ihmiset työskenteli, kuvia oli (mun mielestä) aiheeseen nähden vähän ja suurin osa mustavalkosia, mikä johti siihen et värejä kuvailtiin sanallisesti. Jebs.

Järjestyksen puolesta tää oli looginen ja musta eri maiden esittelyt toimi. Tää oli vaan niin täynnä nippelitietoa et tuntuu et mulla ei jääny mieleen mitään muuta ku et ranskalaisissa sota-ajan rekryjulisteissa oli tyyliin runoja.

Okei kyllähän tästä myös se välitty et miten paljon graafinen suunnittelu on muuttunu, miten suunnittelijan valta on kasvanu ku työkalut on tullu omiin käsiin ja miten paljon esimerkiks käytettävissä olevien fonttien valikoima on laajentunu.

Oma hidasteensa lukemisessa ja ymmärtämisessä oli kieli ja termistö, en tiedä mikä on letterpress tai woodblock printing. Tai sans serif type vs. mikä tahansa muu fontti?!

[Sairam KR · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good read slightly disorienting in the way it's told. Lots of names and dates but not enough about the work itself. It's more so about what were similarities in style in a particular place during a particular period of time and the reasons for it could be (socio-political, economic, new method of printing and technology etc). Best part was discovering these designers and samples of their work. Otto Neurath, Isotype and use of Infographics. Laslo Moholy Nagy and Herbert Bayer from the Bahaus School. Marinetti and Futurism. El Lissitzky and constructivism. Peter Behrens work for AEG. Pieter Zwart's commercial posters and lots of cool stuff

[Julie Stan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're interested in the history of Graphic Design, reading this might help. But not if you're looking into improving your skills as a designer. The book is all about stating facts and doesn't really teach anything practical. Reading it didn't make much of a difference to me.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of information packed in this book! I feel it's a great book for graphic designers to read and use as a reference.

[Ania Gaska · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was mostly a list of names and dates that was dull to read and gave me a foggy picture on the subject.

[Samer Farhan]

Farhan

[Urvashi]

How to open
Look intersting

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great jump into the history of Graphic Design.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delivers a concise history. The country-by-country way of looking at it works well in the early days of graphic design when it was a nascent industry, less useful for 2nd half of the 20th century.

[Yokusun Basi]

Graphic Design: A Concise History, Second Edition (World of Art) by Richard Hollis (2002)

[Max Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Não é o livro com a escrita mais clara e bem estruturada do mundo, contudo mesmo com essa falha consegue ser tremendamente educativo. Super recomendo.

No mais grande abraço e God bless.

[giomustdie┆saw mcr :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 :)

[Nedislav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Hollis puts into practice his remarkable English and leads the reader through an entrancing passage through the History of Design.

Almost stripped from personal remarks, his simple stories and theoretical explanations make you reconsider what's been and what's coming.

I am really grateful for being given the book and would recommend it to every designer.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is dense — it packs over a hundred years of design history into just 225 pages. But that’s a good thing, as the writing is rather dry; any longer and it would have been too much of a chore to read. Nevertheless Hollis’ book is a really useful and enlightening read, and will equip you with the knowledge you need to better appreciate the roots of the design profession.

[Michael Graber]

Hollis' Concise History of Graphic Design is a mini-encyclopedia, jammed with international movements, examples, and profiles of the important players. Even the print in miniature, which is irritating; however, for the money this guide is rich and detailed.

[Guilherme Gontijo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro obrigatório para quem quer ser relevante com o design gráfico. Entender os caminhos trilhados e abertos pelos pais do design é crucial para que não apenas não cometamos os mesmos erros que eles cometeram, mas para que sigamos seu exemplo naquilo que acertaram. Excelente livro.

[Xavier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Importante fundamento para el estudio del diseño gráfico.

[Pádhraic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good information but quite dry.