Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

Author and design expert Steven Heller has revisited and revised the popular classic Design Literacy by revising many of the thoughtful essays from the original and mixing in thirty-two new works. Each essay offers a taste of the aesthetic, political, historical, and personal issues that have engaged designers from the late nineteenth century to the present--from the ubiquitous (the swastika, antiwar posters) to the whimsical (MAD magazine parodies). The essays are organized into eight thematic categories--persuasion, mass media, language, identity, information, iconography, style, and commerce. This revised edition also highlights recent trends in graphic design such as aesthetic changes in typography in the digital age and the nexus between graphic design and wired culture. This is an eclectic look at how, why, and if graphic design influences our ever-evolving, diverse world.