Designing graphic design history

Abstract

Graphic design history has only recently begun to be recognized as a field of study in its own right. The vast increase in mainstream publications and academic texts has been the proof. Nonetheless, as we reflect on where graphic design history currently stands, is there an alternative and equally valid history to be discerned through designed graphic artefacts? By looking at a unique body of small press and self-published magazines and pamphlets written and designed by typographers, graphic designers and, in some cases, design students, we might suggest how these publications represent a visual and text-based alternative history that has evolved outside traditional academic and historiographic practices. Indeed, a number of these self-published works have provided some of the most interesting criticism, plus new ways of conceiving of the visual and written documentation of graphic design. While reference will be made to examples, including work produced in the 1980s/1990s such as Octavo (UK), Emigre (USA), ZED (USA) and Dot Dot Dot (the Netherlands), this article will focus primarily on The National Grid. Founded in 2006 in New Zealand, this 'peripheral publication for graphic design', now publishing its fifth issue (2009), is challenging perceived notions of what graphic design history should be. It is at once local and international, taking as its cue the perspectives of a new wave of young designers steeped in the culture of music, fanzines and the design of the everyday. © The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Design History Society. All rights reserved.