Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

ingeniously consistent graphic program ever devised. That he succeeded in
transmuting an ancient symbol with such a long-lasting historical
significance into one that was even more indelible is attributable to his
mastery of the design and propaganda processes. Yet, the Nazi emblem’s
good design does not redeem the corruption of a party and a nation that
embraced it. “As National Socialists we see our program in our flag,” wrote
Hitler in Mein Kampf. “In the redwe see the social idea of the movement,
in the white the national idea, in the swastika the mission of the fight for
the victory of the idea of creative work which in itself is and always will be
anti-Semitic.”
Hitler’s death and Germany’s defeat in 1945 , twenty-five years after
the symbol was adopted, may have stopped the Nazis’ crimes against
humanity, but no amount of cleansing can wash the blood off the swastika.
Unless the history of the Nazi era ( 1933 – 1945 ) is totally rewritten—and the
danger of that is ever present—the swastika will remain forever the most
powerful logo of the age, the manifestation of evil and hate.