By David Raizman

Reading Graphic Design History uses a series of key artifacts from the history of print culture in light of their specific historical contexts. It encourages the reader to look carefully and critically at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction and typography, often addressing issues of class, race and gender.

The result is a volume that intentionally challenges the canon of graphic design history and various traditional understandings of graphic design. Raizman re-examines 'icons' of graphic design in light of their local contexts, avoiding generalization to explore underlying attitudes about various social issues. He encourages new ways of reading graphic design that take into account a broader context for graphic design activity, rather than broad views that discourage the understanding of difference and the means by which graphic design communicates cultural values.

With a foreword by Steven Heller

Cover design by Louise Dugdale

Published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021

Softcover, 304 pages, 33 color and 190 b&w images, 7.5 × 9.75 inches

ISBN: 978-1-47-429939-8