Design School Reader

A Course Companion for Students of Graphic Design

Steven Heller

• Publisher: Allworth
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781621536918
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Design History & Criticism

An Essential Collection of Essays and Musings on Graphic Design from One of the Field's Leading Educators In this wide-ranging compilation, art director, writer, and lecturer Steven Heller shares his passion for graphic design with readers, whom he invites to consider that design can be discerned in all things natural and manmade. Developed as content for a class devoted to reading, this collection is not overtly about conventional design, but about a variety of topics viewed through the lens of design. Offered as a primer for undergraduate and graduate students, Design School Reader presents more than forty essays on subjects such as:

• The role of design in politics
• Visual culture and the social impact of design
• Key moments in the history of typography
• Technological innovations
• The power of branding and logos
• Ethical considerations and dilemmas
• Important figures in the design world

Divided into five parts—Design Language; Design Dialects; Politics, Ideology, Design; Business and Commerce; and Inspiration and Discoveries—each section features a collection of essays culled from Heller's extensive publications from the past several decades. At the end of every essay, readers will find discussion points to prompt further lines of inquiry. As Heller notes, "The key is to read, discuss, and debate." Students, aficionados, and anyone with a healthy curiosity will thoroughly enjoy this illuminating and thought-provoking assemblage of perspectives on the practice.

Index

#

9/11 attacks, 82–83

“1984” (commercial), 213

2001 (Kubrick), 213

A

activism, 57–58

Adamson, Glenn, 32

advertising. see also toys

of the 50s and 60s, 48–49

cigarette

benefits promoted, 202–203

celebrities, 203

as fashionable, 202

targeting women, 201–202, 203

less is the key

ideas and execution, 50–51

public service ads, 51

trade characters, 50

Volkswagen “Think Small” campaign, 49–50

subliminal, 190

and television, 65

AIGA, 9, 20, 26, 32, 34, 41, 55, 136, 174, 177, 178–179

airbrushing, 91

Albers, Josef, 31, 74

album covers, 66–69, 83–84

Ali, Muhammad, 82

Alka Seltzer, 50

Allegory (Shahn), 4

Allner, Walter, 98

American Artist, 173–174

American Institute of Graphic Arts. see AIGA

American Late Modernism, 47

American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), 82

American style, 48–49, 76–77

anarchy, 24, 40, 41, 106. see also counterculture; underground art and design

Anderson, Charles Spencer, 33

Animal Farm (Orwell), 148

Ansel, Ruth, 44, 62

answering machines, 218–219

anthropomorphic simians, 227–228

anti-design, 104–105

Antupit, Sam, 57–58

Apple, 20, 30–31, 35, 99, 103, 104

Apple II, 213

The Architectural Record, 193

art deco, 9...