"100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design"

Pam Pfiffner

On Monday I wrote about Meggs’ History of Graphic Design written by Philip B. Meggs and updated by Alston Purvis. Long considered the preeminent textbook on the subject, the fifth edition of the book has been published, and the book is now available on the iPad.
Here’s another book about graphic design that might be viewed as a companion to Meggs’: 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design. Authored by design chronicler Steven Heller and art director Veronique Vienne, the book is a concise overview of graphic design as told in one-page essays and carefully selected images.
The book gives the impression that the history of graphic design has been bursts of creative thinking strung together, one after another. According to publisher Laurence King Publishing, 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design is mostly presented in chronological order and the entries range from “technical (overprinting, rub-on designs, split fountain); to stylistic (swashes on caps, loud typography, and white space); to objects (dust jackets, design handbooks); and methods (paper cut-outs, pixelation).”
Among the 100 ideas selected by the authors are:

• Clenched Fists
• Colour Blocks
• Text as Images
• Propaganda
• Calligrams
• Supergraphics
• Funny Faces
• Ransom Notes
• Riddles and Rebuses
• Photomontage
• Floating Heads
• Forced Obsolescence
• Motion Graphics
• The Grid
• Illegibility
• Teen Magazines
• Underground Comics
• Self-Promotional Publishing
• Universal Pricing Code
• Do It Yourself

And that’s only one-fifth of the topics in 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design.
The book, one of a series called “100 Ideas That Changed…”, will be available in April 2012 and is available for pre-order through the publisher’s Web site and from Amazon.
Below are some spreads from the book.

Image: Laurence King Publishing

Image: Laurence King Publishing

Image: Cool Hunting

Image: Cool Hunting
Editor’s Note: A tip of the hat to Cool Hunting for pointing me to this book.