This book is a must for all graphic designers.

The first couple chapters of this book are full of interesting information about the evolution of written language. After that the book bogs down in personal details of the designers' lives. For example, I now know that in the 1700s Bodoni in Italy and Didot in France were rivals in the development of more modern fonts, each borrowing from the other, and both drawing upon the earlier type designs of Baskerville. A lot of words are wasted on telling how so-and-so designer went to so-and-so place at so-and-so time...for the purposes of understanding how various aspects of design history impact present work, the designer's personal lives are of little use to me.

Instead, I would have found it more useful to see a comparison of similar styles with information on how to tell them apart and indications of the sentiment (including culture, time, place, and philosophy) evoked by each. The trivialities that make up much of the text (titles of the works, the names of the designers and their acquaintances, their education, and the names of the publications and presses they worked) for would be far better relegated to sidebars or appendices so that I wouldn't need to slog through them to find the useful information.

Wish I could pause time and re-read this book examining every beautiful example. It makes you fall in love with the visual world.

Was my textbook for a class of the safe name, I really enjoyed it. As long as it is, and as dense, it really gave me a starting understanding of graphic design history and how we’ve arrived to our place now. Was a great help in my research during the semester.

This was a course book during my studies to become a graphic designer. Loved reading it.

Finished it. Read it for school. Pretty good, I may not sell it back at the end of the semester! I think I got an A in the class too. So, yeah!

I been using this book in my graphic design school. Everything in it well explained and with illustrations. On my opinion this is the best graphic design history book which exist nowadays. If you are student, don't hesitate to read it.

Please borrow this from me!

You don't have to be a graphic designer to love this book. You just have to enjoy history.

simply put...the most amazing history of graphic design book ever.

Very interesting book, had to buy it for a Graphic Design History class, and as a previous poster said I might not sell it back after the class is done. It provided me with a more detailed background on the history of printing and design, type etc. which I knew nothing about, loved the pictures in the book as well. As a Photography major it definitely got me more interested in Graphic Design!

Okay, so I didn't read the entire book, but I read enough that I can write a good review of it. This book was my first introduction to Graphic Design. This book should be mandatory for anyone who designs documents, marketing materials, or other medias for the public. It establishes a progressive history of where design ideas came from and what influenced the designers, along with the consequences (good and bad) of their actions. The writing style is easy to follow. My only criticism is that the scope often seems narrow in a way that I feel I'm not seeing the big picture, but focusing on the details. Since a book that covers all the details and all of the big picture would be more than I can handle, I do ultimately prefer the style of this book (and know that I have to do more research on the topic to get a more rounded perspective).