Graphic Classics reimagines the 2017 bestseller Graphic: 500 Designs That Matter with 50 new entries highlighting contemporary artists, activists, several industry icons, and previously overlooked pioneers. From the earliest days of mechanical reproduction to today's digital masterpieces, this book provides an extraordinary visual survey of design's evolution over 700 years.
Divided into two parts, the book presents large-scale images upfront, followed by in-depth descriptions of each piece at the back. We're talking 300-plus word text. A new colour-coded key makes navigation easier, classifying designs into categories like advertising, typefaces, books, magazines, and logos.
Curated by a panel of esteemed experts, the projects span 33 countries and feature over 400 designers. They showcase everything from the Nike logo, Shepard Fairey's Obama Hope poster, and the New York City subway map to the Gutenberg Bible and Joy Division album art. We get an understanding of the career highlights of anonymous creators to industry icons such as Aleksandr Rodchenko, Paul Rand, Alessandro Mendini, Emory Douglas, April Greiman, Stefan Sagmeister, Ahn Sang-soo, and Julia Born.
But here's where it gets a bit more modern: 50 new additions address design's historical biases by incorporating a broader range of voices. For example, forty per cent of these new entries come from female or mixed-gender teams, and a third represent designers of colour or those from diverse backgrounds. We're talking cover designs from The Black Panther and Gay Power and posters like Silence = Death and Black Lives Matter.
