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This article is from March 19, 2012, and is no longer current.

"The History of Graphic Design" Comes to iPad

The definitive textbook for the study of graphic design has long been The History of Graphic Design by the late Philip B. Meggs. First published in 1983, the book was “the first time the words ‘History’ and ‘Graphic Design’ were used together in a book title,” wrote Steven Heller, perhaps America’s most prolific chronicler of design.
Now in its fifth edition and revised by colleague Alston Purvis, Meggs’ classic text has been updated for the digital age. Inkling, a developer of digital textbooks, has created an interactive version for the iPad. All 24 chapters have been converted to a medium that allows the reader to embark on guided tours of a graphic design or view slideshows of a designer’s oeuvre. Test preparation is available in the form of quizzes and flashcards.
Creating the book for the iPad meant duplicating Meggs’ Herculean effort to represent the evolution of graphic design. As Heller wrote in The Atlantic: “Beginning his history with the origins of writing and moving chronologically through the evolution of printing and type, it was necessary to condense a considerable amount of mass communications history before getting to the heart of what we call graphic design—its commercial reasons for being, which started in the mid-19th century and progressed intensely through styles, form-givers, and media from the fin de siècle into the 20th century.” While Meggs lived to see the dawn and maturation of the digital age, the transition of print matter to iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and other electronic books would have given him fodder for many more chapters.

Inkling’s interactive textbook for the iPad
The iPad textbook is available from Inkling for $64.99 (list price is $85, the same as the print edition). Inkling is currently offering Chapter 4 as a free preview; download the free Inkling app from the iTunes to read it.
Readers of the print book who want only to test their knowledge can do so with flashcard apps for the iPhone and iPad. Both are available from iTunes for $1.99.

The iPhone flashcard app

The iPad flashcard app
It’s fitting that The History of Graphic Design be adapted for digital devices. The last chapter in the current edition is entitled “The Digital Revolution — and Beyond,” a chapter that will surely expand in future updates.
 

  • Anonymous says:

    Most of my college friends hated this book. I simply adored it. How could I not? Take two of my favorite subjects, history and design, and combine them. How can you say no to that?

    It really opens your eyes to how truly visual we are as a species. And makes me wonder why were put so much importance into left-brained education.

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