AUGUST 2019
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMW
hy bother to study the history
of graphic design? As an
ever-evolving practice, it can
be tempting to think that for graphic
design, history is – in the words of
Henry Ford – bunk. As a student
I remember being fascinated by the
history of design, but with this came an
anxiety that time spent geeking out
over old books would have been better
spent on developing my design skills.
Eventually, once I embarked on a career
as a designer, and later a design writer,
this worry faded and I appreciated how
I had benefitted practically from a
passion for design history.
Although the technology used
to create graphic design is always
changing, the basic building blocks we
play with are much the same as they’ve
been for some 70 years. Typography,
photography, illustration, lettering,
geometry, colour, texture, composition
- these are the elements we must
wrangle together into something that
ultimately fits the job at hand. I love that
graphic design is a creative practice and one open to
individual expression, but this can also be daunting
or anxiety-inducing, and I find that analysing
graphic design history helps to remind me that I’m
doing a practical job, not reinventing the wheel.
Fashions in graphic design come and go, and
those from the past are there to be plundered. But
approaches are universal, aesthetics are not, and the
more design you look at, the better prepared you’ll
be to solve new problems. Widening your pool of
references to include the past as well as the present
can help to avoid the pitfalls of imitating whatever is
currently trendy.
That said, studying design history is also helpful
to come to terms with the fact that graphic design is
susceptible to trends in the broader visual culture.
I don’t buy into the idea that design can ever be
timeless, and I think it’s unfair to promote the
idea that this is something we should strive for. It’s
impossible to work in a vacuum and whether we’re
conscious of it or not, our aesthetic choices are
influenced by the times in which we live.
In my book Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design,
I explore the aesthetic favoured by many designers in
COLUMNTHEO INGLIS
the wake of World War II and theorise
why it was fun, colourful, expressive and
created with such a sense of freedom.
I was first drawn to the era thanks to
the work of legendary figures such as
Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, Abram Games
and Saul Bass. However, I hoped to
show that as brilliant as they were, these
‘forefathers’ of graphic design were part
of a wider industry, and had equally
talented peers who are now less well-
known or sadly forgotten.
I also aimed to present an explanation
for the style adopted by these famous
designers. Often design heroes are
presented as lone geniuses, but I wanted
to place their work into an overall
aesthetic trend and to put this in a
broader cultural context. The aftermath
of fascism, the Cold War, economic
prosperity, rapidly changing forms of
culture, expanding consumerism... these
factors, and many more besides, all
influenced design at the time and help to
explain the choices designers made and
the mood their work captured.
Throughout my research for Mid-Century Modern
Graphic Design I read a lot of old design magazines,
such as Print, Graphis and Gebrauchsgrafik. I was
surprised by the honesty with which designers spoke
about the difficult side of their job and the struggles
that entail when you try to do your best work.
Designers of the past are often put on a pedestal. We
see their greatest hits and read about the ideas they
have had once in the position of infallible sages, so
it was refreshing to see that all graphic designers, no
matter how legendary, have faced the same problems.
We admire mid-century design for the expressive
and optimistic freedom that its creators seemed to
have been given, but it’s important to remember
that they had to fight for it, just as we do, and that
throughout history designers have always been
striving to do the best work they can. The path we
have chosen is well-trodden, its struggles timeless.
Exploring the history of graphic design helps you
remember this and to learn from the designers who
created before us.Theo Inglis’ latest book, Mid-Century Modern Graphic
Design, published by Pavilion Books, is now on sale.The pioneers from design hiory are ill relevant today, says Theo Inglis
Be informed by the past
THEO INGLIS
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
AND AUTHOR
http://www.theoinglis.co.uk