I have an earlier version of this book, but this was the book that established who was who in the history of graphic design for me. We had this book in lieu of a graphic design history course at my undergraduate school.

A must read for all graphic design and art history students. I wish it had more images, but I think that about every book. :)

A very rich and enlightening read for those who care about the history and movements of the art

I took a summer class on the History of Graphic Design and had to read this book...not cover-cover, but pretty close. It's the only class I've actually had the time to complete all of the assigned readings for, and I'm really glad I did. This book is the only one of its kind that I've found. I learned so much from it. It's always been very confusing to try to find where our history is (as graphic designers)...Meggs was the first to really pool all the information in one place.

The only qualms I had with this book was that for being a book ON graphic design, they really didn't take great care in designing it too well. The book is long and slightly dull as you'd expect any textbook to get after a while, but the sans-serif made it slightly even more painful, and the layout was very disorganized (figure references don't show up until pages after they're already been discussed, you can read a full spread of straight text -which is agonizing- and then skim through a full spread of pictures, etc). The book is set up to give you a general overview of each movement, so it can be a little frustrating when your favorite designer gets a paragraph of recognition and Herbert Bayer gets ten pages, but in all honesty you can't expect a subjective topic like design to be perfectly aligned with what you view as more important.

All in all, I think its essential for any designer. Just like with painting, it's kinda hard to find your niche when you haven't had a chance to study the renaissance. It's definitely enriched my design background and vocabulary. You have to know your rules before you can break them, but you also have to know your history so you can see why people made the rules in the first place.

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Excelente libro sobre la historia del diseño gráfico. Me quito muchos prejuicios que tenia sobre este, ya que siempre lo vi inferior a las bellas artes. Sin embargo, este libro conecta de una forma brillante el cubismo de Picasso, el constructivismo ruso, el dada, el suprematismo y muchos otros movimientos y artistas de vanguardia con el diseño gráfico.

Se podría decir que los inventores del diseño gráfico moderno fueron los rusos con el suprematismo y el constructivismo. Da risa saber que los primeros carteles publicitarios fueron inventados por un país en plena revolución comunista.

Es extraordinario porque desenmascara el hecho de que todo, absolutamente todo está conectado. Esas categorías que hacemos son falsas.

Extraordinario libro.

It is a good book to read if you are wanting to learn about Art History and Graphic design!

This is the book that made me want to become a graphic designer. It is well written, lots of photos and always a good source of inspiration.

It’s a great textbook in terms of the content. However it is all over the place. It will constantly flip around different topics and the layout is difficult to read through - you’ll read page after page of text and then referenced images will show up in spreads.

Comprehensive and an excellent source for images, but the text is so repetitive and hyperbolic that it's enough to drive you mad. I understand that a book on the history of graphic design is going to feature every innovation and innovator, but you can't just say line after line that this is the most stunning innovation ever!--not through over 600 pages. You'd think a book on graphic design would be better designed. Frustratingly, the references to the illustrations are frequently on a preceding or subsequent page.

Although this book was very informative, I got lost in all of the names, dates, and places. I'm so glad that there were plenty of pictures to offset the text. For a textbook, it would have been nice to have used bold print for important items, like definitions and important people.

Read this in college; a previous version. Great reference for designers.

Read Chapters 7-24 for GMD 120 at College of the Canyons, very dry