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
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
2
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
1
historiography, the knowledge of 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.
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
5
1.3 Envisioning information
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
8
9
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
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 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.
10
11
12
Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference, Alan Bass trans, Chicago U.P., 1978, p. 255
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
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 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 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 shifts 14 . 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.
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.
14
Stuart Hall, ‘What Is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture?’ in Gina Gent, Black Popular Culture, Seattle, Bay Press, 1992,
pp. 21-23,
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
large face, tongue and fingertips. Such maps of animals and humans are created
by recording the electrical activity in the neurons of the sensory cortex 15, 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.
15
Peggy Walker, Mapping the Homunculus,03/07/04,
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1994/walker_mapping.html (10 July, 2004)
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
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.
Janin Hadlaw, ‘The London Underground Map: Imagining Modern Time and Space’, Design Issues 19 no1 Wint, 2003, pp.
25-35
16
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
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 might even say that English is a major colonial-cultural language,
and the historiographies of design research are based on the ideology of
17
John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1991.p. 14
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 environment, and
18
19
20
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.
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
Rick Poynor, ‘Optic Nerve: Canon Fodder’, Print, Vol. 56, No. 3, 2002, pp. 180-1.
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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