Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Content

Abstract

In his final book, Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context, design historian David Raizman provides in-depth analyses of seven pieces of graphic design within their historical context. They include work by a US political cartoonist, a seventeenth-century typophile, and several well-known twentieth-century designers. Raizman scrutinizes the reasons each man began his project and the commercial success of each piece, weighing whether the pieces reached their intended audiences. As part of that discussion, he gives background on the clients, the advertising/design problem that needed to be solved, and the social, cultural, and historical ideas that influenced the maker. Because the works were of personal interest to Raizman during the many years he taught graphic design history at Drexel University, the chapters do not have continuity based on theme, medium, or era (though all his subjects are men from Europe or the United States). What unites the essays is Raizman’s attention to each work’s stylistic and technical considerations and his effort to expose ideas such as the Breuna K. Baine is Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Auburn University Montgomery, Montgomery, AL, USA. bbaine@aum.edu © 2019 Breuna K. Baine DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2021.1973786