Visualizing design history: an analytical approach
Abstract
This project is about imaging complexity. It harnesses design’s intrinsic capacity for
giving visual form to concepts and relations, using graphic design to interrogate its
own history. There are two main threads to this research. The first is a critique of the
construction of design history. It uses Philip Meggs’s A History of Graphic Design
and Steven Heller and Elinor Pettit’s Graphic Design Time Line: A Century of
Design Milestones as examples of the problems and limitations in historical writing
about design. The second thread represents graphic design history in diagrammatic
form, laying the groundwork for alternate ways of surveying the field. The research
does not seek to supplant the written historical survey but rather to suggest
complementary, design-based strategies. My approach is a speculative one,
grounded in design experimentation. By recourse to external analogies—the ideas
of the homunculus, the ancient continent of Pangea, and Mr Beck’s London
Underground map—I employ inventive and imaginative approaches to visualise the
web of forces and events that is design history. I approach this task not as a historian
but as a designer seeking new applications for design thinking while making
knowledge about design available in new ways.
Keywords: graphic design history, envisioning, information design, timeline
design
1. Introduction
1.1 Multiple graphic design history perspectives
The creation of design history has been challenged by a number of writers, who
have argued that it is far from an objective or neutral enterprise. For example, Clive
Dilnot argues that design historians place too much emphasis on the individual
designer, instead of adopting a socio-historical approach, examining design activity
against its economic and cultural context.1 Adrian Forty sees the writing of design
history pejoratively, as an activity steeped in connoisseurship, the goal of which is
to erect a canon of the great authors of designed form.. For Fry, canonisation and
connoisseurship reveal an ideological understanding of the nature of design, playing
a hegemonic role in the unfolding contemporary design culture.2 He argues that it
serves to hide the social, political and economic implications of design practices
behind an ahistorical discourse that deals with only one aspect of a design object's
being, its physical appearance, masking issues like commodification and class
division.
Connoisseurship leaves the design object marooned in a realm of pure aesthetics,
with no acknowledgement of the forces of production and consumption that come
into play in its development. Like connoisseurship, canonisation presupposes a
hierarchy of design objects and designers. Those included become the established
canon of design history. However, this group of designers and design works,
accounts for only a tiny fraction of all the design entities created in history. As Fry
asks, “What of all the other designed objects ... which evolve and are used but are
excluded from such a history? What of the relation between validated design and the
popular taste?” 3 For Dick Hebdige it is necessary, though much harder, to
simultaneously consider the nature of design objects, and the design practices and
institutional structures created in relation to the network of social relationships, in
which design objects arise and exist.4.
1.2 Design knowledge capability
Historians have attempted to record the history of graphic design from very
different focuses, and as discussed above, more effort is required to extend its
breadth and depth, just like various maps, which do not contradict, but complement
one another. Taken together they can provide a more complete account of the terrain,
than when taken alone. Along with graphic design historiography, the knowledge of
1
Clive Dilnot, ‘The State of Design History: part 1:Mapping the field’, in Margolin, Victor ed., Design Discourse, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989, pp.213-232
Tony Fry, Design History Australia: a source text in methods and resources, Sydney, Hale & Iremonger and the Power Institute
of Fine Arts, 1988, pp. 52-54
3
Tony Fry, Design History Australia: a source text in metho125
ds and resources, Sydney, Hale & Iremonger and the Power Institute of Fine Arts, 1988, p. 27.
4
Dick Hebdige, “Object as Image: the Italian Motor Scooter” in Hiding in the Light, Routledge, London, 1988, pp. 77-115
2
graphic design history has been encapsulated through text, and restricted to
scholastic works; (although some publications claim themselves as “graphic design
history”, they are more like monographs or biographies). This demarcation divides
graphic design history from practical design, and places the attention on linear
narration.
But as a hermeneutic or interpretive method, visualization has rarely been applied to
the field of graphic design history, although graphic design is, itself, focused on the
development and delivery of visual messages. Recently, some articles have
suggested that visualization works in stages. Bruce Archer contends that “Design
research is systematic inquiry, whose goal is knowledge of, or in the embodiment of,
configuration, composition, structure, purpose, value and meaning in man-made
things and systems.”5 This includes an understanding of design capacity as the
generative basis of human agency, as well as allowing humans to participate in the
ongoing genesis of creation. Basic design capacity is also inclusive, integrative and
emergent; an analogue state from which categories of design ,inquiry and action can
be dissected. Subsequent research has developed this assumption, recognizing that
design knowledge may apply to a broader field. Chris Rust raises the topic that
design has a special ability to embody ideas and knowledge, in the form of artefacts,
which affords us access to tacit knowledge6, while stimulating employment of one’s
own tacit knowledge to form new ideas7. Design is animated by purpose. Those
served by a particular design activity are the ones who bring purpose to that activity.
The means and ends of design activity are brought to life through the desires and
needs of those who are being served by that design activity. When today’s graphic
design historians become more aware of what they are writing and representing,
design knowledge should be applied to reveal the real status of graphic design,
together with new possibilities.
1.3 Envisioning information
5
Bruce Archer, “A View of the Nature of the Design Research”, Design: Science: Method, R. Jacques, J. A. Powell, eds. Guilford,
Surrey: IPC Business Press Ltd., 1981, pp. 30–47. L. Bruce Archer gave this definition at the Portsmouth DRS conference.
6
Tacit knowledge is a concept which was formalised by Michael Polanyi. Polanyi believed that creative acts are shot-through or
charged with strong personal feelings and commitments. Arguing against the then dominant position that science was somehow
value-free, he sought to bring into creative tension a concern with reasoned and critical interrogation with other, more 'tacit', forms
of knowing. The classic statement of tacit knowledge is in Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge. Towards a Post Critical
Philosophy, London, Routledge, 1958
7
Chris Rust, Design Enquiry: Tacit Knowledge and Invention in Science, Sheffield Hallam University, Art and Design Research
Centre working paper, 8 July 2003
Visual presentation can clarify complex relations, increasing the density, range and
number of informational dimensions that can be represented simultaneously on one
plane, or as a linked sequence of information fields; it can also demonstrate
causality and elevate key content to its primary position. The process of clarifying
the visual may also clarify the analysis of the data itself. These, of course, are the
basic principles of information design, as advanced by Edward. "Escaping this
flatland," he wrote, "is the essential task of envisioning information, for all the
interesting worlds that we seek to understand are inevitably and happily multivariate
in nature."8 For Tufte, appropriate strategies of visual display have the capacity to
enhance the viewer's consideration of information, reveal the implicit meaning of
information, and emphase its more important aspects and inherent implications.
Tufte’s groundbreaking writing on the potential of information design have a clear
relevance to my project. According to Tufte, the designer has an important role in
the presentation and configuration of data, so that it exists in a form that is
meaningful to end users. In seeking to visualise design history, I have come to
understand many of the conceptual complexities, paradoxes and ideological
agendas driving not only the construction of history, but also the conception of time.
I seek to demonstrate this through the presentation of multivariate data in a single
representation and through a sequence of diagrams.
1.4 Reading deference
While looking at the same sign, two people will approach it with similar common
sense, but also with group experience. At the same time, there are “differences“ in
their configuring, based on the individuals’ dissimilar backgrounds, personal
experiences and idiosyncrasies. Jacques Derrida explains how “meaning” is
communicated in difference; the "meaning" being always deferred and the presence
never actually being present. Signifiers attain significance only by their differences
from one another9. Derrida also interprets the French verb “differer” to mean both
“to differ“ and “to defer“,10 creating meaning in various contexts. This description
indicates how differently we may experience the same data, and this is natural as
well as essential. I refer here to the meaning of difference in forming my concern for
8
R. Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information, Connecticut, Graphics Press, 1990, p. 12
Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference, Alan Bass trans, Chicago U.P., 1978, p. 263
10
Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference, Alan Bass trans, Chicago U.P., 1978, p. 255
9
graphic design history. Most graphic design history is actually “the history of
graphic design objects”. When graphic design history is presented differently, it is
because the design works chosen are different. On the other hand, the design works
may be the same, while the interpretation is different. In this research, we go one
step further; we look at the same collection, from two different publications of
significant graphic design historians, reconstructing the design works and activities
from the perspective of the “signified”11. These design works have been accessed
intertextually via different audiences, in time, space and personal experience. This
notion of intertextuality originally came from Roland Barthes, whose unforgettable
announcement on 'the death of the author' and 'the birth of the reader', declared that
'a text's unity lies not in its origin but in its destination'12. Consequently, all literary
works have been "rewrites"; the concept of intertextuality reminds us that each text
exists in relation to others. In fact, texts may owe more to other texts, than to their
own makers, providing much the same, visual presentation/representation,
constructed and re-constructed, by author and viewers.
2 Visualizing design History--metaphor and critical analysis
Historians’ idiosyncrasies appear in their narrations of design history legends. It is
true that we all see the world through our own eyes, and from our own perspectives.
Sometimes, however, we miss seeing something, even though it exists, because we
do not fully comprehend, or even ignore it. The masses are educated to believe what
they have been told, and discount the things they are ignorant of. The following
section discusses and visualizes the historical perspectives, both conscious and
unconscious, used by our two writers, illustrating how the conventions and ideology
of historical writing challenge the prescribed narrative system of weltanschauung.
Meggs’ “A History of Graphic Design “and Heller’s “Graphic design timeline: a
century of design milestones” are summarized here, in order to allow visualization
of this prejudice. The data was entered into an Excel data base. The purpose of this
design project is not to represent all of graphic design history, but to promote the
capacity of visual information to reconfigure and restructure the history of graphic
11
12
Roland Barthes, Annette Lavers trans. , Mythologies, New York, Hill and Wang, 1972, pp. 114-115
Roland Barthes, Image-Music-Text, London: Fontana, 1977, p. 148
design. Basically, all of the data (referred to as entries) were collected from these
two books. Nearly all of the entries in Meggs’ book were included. For the sake of
simplicity, in this experimental stage, only those shown in Meggs’ graphic design
timeline were collected into the data.All entries were classified into five main
categories: early developments, design publication, design practice, design events
and design technology. Two obvious problems are evident in this assertion.
First, following the logic in his writing, graphic design history is unintentionally
represented through his Western, cultural ethnocentrism. Sumeria, Egypt and China
are discussed only as touchstones for the fountainheads of Western culture, or to fill
a vacuum before focusing on European graphic design history. The Sumerians
invented writing in 3200 BC; the Egyptians wrote on the Rosetta Stone in AD 197.
Since they gave no account of Western development, they disappeared from the
history of graphic design. This tendency was obviously inherited from the
historiographic convention in the history of art.
Of the more than 200 countries in the world, only 29 were referred to (Actually, 17
of these 29 countries were mentioned less than 5 times in the 5000 years history.),
although Meggs traced some ancient connections, and Heller referred to some
Japanese graphic designs., However, perhaps the historiography of graphic design
history was obversely dominated by the Western Bourgeoisie, mostly male and
white. Their exclusions and inclusions, in graphic design history, illuminated this
specific primary hegemony.
2.1 Pangea: the connection and shifting in graphic design
A series of figures present the two main shifting and connecting phenomena found
in graphic design history. These transitions have similar intersections to Pangea,
which was a hypothetical protocontinent as part of his theory of continental drift13.
The relative positions of the continents, at any time, are determined by
paleomagnetic measurements. The direction of the field informs us of the distance
to the magnetic pole. Magnetic anomalies on the sea floor can also provide a history
of the opening of the ocean, which explains the original relationship and connection
13
Pangea supposedly covered about half the Earth, and was completely surrounded by a world ocean, called Panthalassa. Late in
the Triassic Period (248–206 million years ago), Pangea began to break apart. Its segments, Laurasia (composed of all the
present-day northern continents) and Gondwana (the present-day southern continents) gradually receded, resulting in the
formation of the Atlantic Ocean.
of the continents, under the impact of different factors, such as climate, the
vagarious distribution of living species and the topography of these disjunct
continents. We found the evolution of graphic design history to be highly relevant to
the history of western civilization. By adapting Pangea as a conceptual metaphor,
the visual connecting and assembling of Pangea can be interpreted as being similar
to how graphic design historians were driven by the corresponding descriptions of
the civilization process.
It is apparent that many other analogies may be drawn from this series of
figures(Figure 1). Looking at these continental transitions from a dominant Western
point of view, the figures may also reveal the economic, political, and technological
development within these shifting powers. Since ancient times, China, Egypt and
the Middle East have had a congenital, geographical connection, coalescing as the
Pangea equivalent in early graphic design history. The continents then began to drift
and coalesce into another Gondwanaland with Europe and America, after the
Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.
In the aftermath of World War II, design history clung to Europe as the primary site
of cultural invention, having experienced drastic shifts14. Recently, industrialization
and commerce have gradually moved the centre of power to North America, from
machines to digital technology, all of the famous designers and design companies
have settled in America, with the majority of design historians focusing on the
largest capitalist country in the world.
Figure 1, The Design Pangea: the power shifts and focuses in graphic design
2.2 Homunculus: the focus of graphic design history
There is another figure that presents the hegemony of graphic design history.
Homunculus can be called ’a body map’ (Figure 2), sometimes thought of as the
‘little man inside the head’. The sensory homunculus in human beings has a very
14
Stuart Hall, ‘What Is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture?’ in Gina Gent, Black Popular Culture, Seattle, Bay Press, 1992, pp.
21-23,
large face, tongue and fingertips. Such maps of animals and humans are created by
recording the electrical activity in the neurons of the sensory cortex15, resulting
from tactile stimulation of the skin. This figure is conceptualized from Homunculus,
showing the volume of each continent’s design output, without relating to its
geographical size. Relative importance has been presented as the number of design
activities referenced in the two primary graphic design history publications
mentioned earlier. Figure 3 illustrates the shifts in focus of graphic design history.
According to the data collected from design history publications of Meggs and
Heller, more than half of the design activities addressed took place in America, with
Europe being the next largest, and Africa, South America, Australia, and even
Canada, being almost negligible. Consequently, the dilemma of ‘who speaks’
involves issues of access to those people in the world who are automatically
excluded.
Figure 2 Dubin, Mark, Images of the homunculus, 2003, www.dubinweb.com/
brain/3.html, (July, 2004)
Figure 3, The homunculus map of graphic design history
15
Peggy Walker, Mapping the Homunculus,03/07/04,
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1994/walker_mapping.html (10 July, 2004)
3 Reconfiguring: The simultaneity and complexity of graphic design history
Henry Beck produced his first London Underground Map sketch in 1931(Figure 4).
The distances between stations are arranged at more or less uniform intervals, a
strategy more typically employed in the representation of time, rather than space.
“Connections”, as Beck observed, “were the things.”16 The London Underground
map is commonly held up, by designers and cartographers, as possessing a visual
logic and clarity that makes it easy to interpret and comprehend. We can form a new
understanding of this map, using it as a conceptual metaphor, to elucidate a timeline
of graphic design history. Basically, this visual form of information design can be
seen as a diagram, map, chart or guide. Whatever it is named, however, the primary
issue is to substitute connections and relationships under the sequence and time flow
of a linear timeline.
Figure 4 Harry Beck, The first card folder of the London underground Map, in
Garland, Ken, Mr. Beck's Underground Map, Harrow Weald, Capital Transport,
1994, p. 20
This conceptual development ends up with the basic concept of the London
Underground Map. Proper classification of the large number of data included in
16
Janin Hadlaw, ‘The London Underground Map: Imagining Modern Time and Space’, Design Issues 19 no1 Wint, 2003, pp.
25-35
graphic design history becomes the essential task. All the entries used in this final
prototype came from the data mentioned earlier in this paper. Being aware of the
timeline as a historical representation, time consciousness was the basis of this
design so it could represent diverse relationships between individual historical
sequences, as well as meeting people’s expectations of time, thus expanding the
simple linear concept (Figure 5).
Figure 5 Mapping graphic design history: reconfiguring the simultaneity and
complexity (partial in 1990-2000).
Figure 6 New interpretation of graphic design timeline (partial detail in 1990-1991)
The prototype shown in Figure 6 is a part detail from the timeline. There are two
fixed elements in the basic scheme of the timeline: they are the scales of time,
represented by the horizontal lines from left to right, and the design activities which
are set at 90 degrees to the horizontal timescales. There are also floating elements
between these fixed timelines, entries of design technology development, as well as
sub-connections, which may be understood as different journeys within the graphic
design history. To emphasise the interactivity between design technology, design
theory and design activities, the entries of design technology development are
shown separately from the fixed timelines, floating years behind the year in which
they were actually developed. The other floating elements are sub-connections, or
multiple connections, whose relationships were drawn from the different
perspectives of graphic design history, such as design canons, design movements
and specific design technologies (Figure 7, 8). Viewers may use their favorite
design works as floating elements and sub-connections. This timeline map can be
seen simultaneously as a macro map, exhibiting the whole in an orderly way with
neutrally fixed timelines and particular sub-connections. At the same time, each
sub-connection may be extracted in a micro interpretation, and arranged in a single
legend for a micro graphic design history reading.
Figure 7 Cross-relationship of the paths of design canons (partial)
Figure 7 Cross-relationship of the paths of nations (partial)
4. Conclusion and Future Study
The graphic design publications, reviewed in this research, represent important
general conventions in graphic design history. These selections also allow us to
reflect on their limitations, which are restrictive in both their publication language
and distribution. They do not however, present a worldwide view of design history,
especially not of domestic graphic design history. English is undoubtedly the
dominant language of global communication, affecting and reflecting the
viewpoints and perspectives of the largest territory in graphic design history.
Consequently, using English as a vehicle of expression and communication, as well
as the fact that the majority of research material is in English, can be seen as
representing and reproducing cultural imperialistic behaviour, reflecting the power
of the hegemony. This is represented by Western, liberal-minded academics writing
about what is considered an "intellectual commodity" in their cultural context.17 We
17
John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1991.p. 14
might even say that English is a major colonial-cultural language, and the
historiographies of design research are based on the ideology of hegemony. The
history we have been exposed to has pandered to the narrow perspectives, intentions
and customs of its authors. Although it may be unrealistic to expect absolute truth in
history, it is not unreasonable to look for an alternative angle, from which to
configure our past, and provide hope for a broader audience in the future.
Graphic design offers new ways to explore the organisation of knowledge. The
experimental scheme of timeline design demonstrates that graphic design has the
latent capacity to be a way to strengthen and construct knowledge at different
levels.This research endeavours to expand the references and interpretative
frameworks surrounding design history by offering a critique of prevailing methods,
and by understandings and reflecting on significant specialist writings. Indeed,
certain preoccupations and limitations are present in any graphic design history
perspective, so it is important that we appreciate the contributions made by the
historians we have focused on. The canonized perspective of ‘Graphic Design
History’ was questioned by Martha Scotford.18 Philip Meggs responded to Scotford
by admitting that ‘the dangers of a canon should be acknowledged, however, there
are risks in repudiating canonical figures whose philosophies or works had seminal
or pivotal impact upon the evolution of graphic design. To repudiate seminal works,
or for designers to avoid a canon - with the repudiation based on nationalistic, ethnic,
political, or gender issues separate from the evolution of graphic design and its
cultural role - is an equal danger’.19 Rick Poynor believes that a canon can provide a
common body of knowledge, a shared basis for judgment and a starting point for
discussion.20 It exposes us to essential material we might otherwise overlook, and
helps set the agenda. It is one more approach in accessing and understanding graphic
design history; one more step towards understanding our past and magnifying the
potential of graphic design. Historical studies are valuable in that they bring forth an
energetic and able direction which enables designers to find their place in a research
18
Martha Scotford, ‘Is There A Canon of Graphic design History?’, in Steven Heller and Marie Fenimore, Marie
Fenimore (Ed.), Design Culture: an anthology of writing from the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, New York,
Allworth Press and American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1997, pp. 218-227.
19
Philip B. Meggs, ‘Is A Design History Canon Really Dangerous?’, in Steven Heller and Marie Fenimore, Marie
Fenimore (Ed.), Design Culture: an anthology of writing from the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, New York,
Allworth Press and American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1997, pp. 228-229
20
Rick Poynor, ‘Optic Nerve: Canon Fodder’, Print, Vol. 56, No. 3, 2002, pp. 180-1.
environment, and to develop a creative calling. In this way, graphic design can make
a difference in the world.
The history we have been exposed to has pandered to the narrow perspectives,
intentions and customs of its authors. Although it may be unrealistic to expect
absolute truth in history, it is not unreasonable to look for an alternative angle, from
which to configure our past, and provide hope for a broader audience in the future.
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