Graphic Design: A Concise History by richard hollis

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

It was a good read slightly disorienting in the way it's told. Lots of names and dates but not enough about the work itself. It's more so about what were similarities in style in a particular place during a particular period of time and the reasons for it could be (socio-political, economic, new method of printing and technology etc). Best part was discovering these designers and samples of their work. Otto Neurath, Isotype and use of Infographics. Laslo Moholy Nagy and Herbert Bayer from the Bahaus School. Marinetti and Futurism. El Lissitzky and constructivism. Peter Behrens work for AEG. Pieter Zwart's commercial posters and lots of cool stuff

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YoungVagabond

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Uskomatonta et tässä meni vaan pari kuukautta, tuntu ikuisuudelta.

Valitettavan paska kirja

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saadqta

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Importante fundamento para el estudio del diseño gráfico.

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Juillette

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Delivers a concise history. The country-by-country way of looking at it works well in the early days of graphic design when it was a nascent industry, less useful for 2nd half of the 20th century.

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6Monday9

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Um livro obrigatório para quem quer ser relevante com o design gráfico. Entender os caminhos trilhados e abertos pelos pais do design é crucial para que não apenas não cometamos os mesmos erros que eles cometeram, mas para que sigamos seu exemplo naquilo que acertaram. Excelente livro.

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SamIHellaAm

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Hollis' Concise History of Graphic Design is a mini-encyclopedia, jammed with international movements, examples, and profiles of the important players. Even the print in miniature, which is irritating; however, for the money this guide is rich and detailed.

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tikuku

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I'd like to begin by saying that I've read this book twice. The former was simply a read-through, and the latter was to collect notes. In my opinion, this book is an essential guide, but it is also difficult to read for a few reasons. There is plenty of vital information in here for anyone interested in design, and it covers multiple countries such as Britain, France, Germany, USA, Japan and more. Furthermore, there are multiple styles included, and it contains a number of designers (I calculated somewhere around 336, give or take a few).

However, upon finishing my notes, this was an immediate gripe of mine, given that I'd whittled it down to only 57 designers being noteworthy; with the rest being one-time name-drops, assistants, or otherwise being barely mentioned. I remember my first read being confusing because of this overwhelming number of designers being sprinkled throughout the book; not in any biographical, or even chronological manner - but rather just dropped here and there. It made me paranoid to think that if I didn't remember a name, it'd become important later on - but it seldom was.

Another gripe I had was the organisation of dates. Something about the way the dates were laid out makes it disorientating, in that it dances back and forth between eras. For instance, you'll be jumping from chapters such as: "Avant-Garde and the Origins of Modernism 1914 - 1940"; straight to "National Tendencies until the 1940s"; to "The United States in the 1930s"; and then back to "War and Propaganda 1920s - 1945". I understand that graphic design is multi-layered, and not everything can be lumped together; but layout like this can only ever make it difficult to mentally map out where everything is in relation to all else while you're reading. This is *truly* a book that is for reference and note-taking, not for understanding the subject via reading alone.

Amongst all this, the tone is documentative, very dry and humourless. I also couldn't help but to feel bias from the author in favour of Modernist design; since traditional German & British design is somewhat skimmed over in favour of Bauhaus & Swiss Modernism, despite the book itself making it clear that the latter was not the norm for the times in question. It's not as though I don't understand the importance of Modernism in design, but a large enough portion of the book is so dedicated to covering it, that it feels like a drag at times due to the lack of variety.

Overall, it's not as though the information in this book is false or unreliable, and it certainly is a must-need read for anyone interested in the origins of design. The context and information itself is well-researched and documented, and I respect the author for having gone through the pain of collecting it. Sadly, however, the aforementioned was enough to put me off of ever reading this book a third time.

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