The goal of Design History Reader is to create a resource that offers a diverse and inclusive view of graphic design history articulated through the student voice. The project includes a comprehensive collection of essays that were curated across a range of perspectives and conceptual ecosystems.
How can we – as people, as designers, as educators – contribute to change? How can we foster more enhanced cultures of empathy and inclusion?
The central focus of this book is to promote a pluralistic approach to teaching and narrating graphic design history by presenting a design history that actually reflects the diversity in the profession and in the classroom. This book also grapples with the paradox that while historians intentionally craft historical discourse based on collective knowledge, it often remains bound to a singular perspective.
Those perspectives multiplied when Boston University History of Graphic Design students embraced a plural design history pedagogy. Students challenged the Western design history canon through written research that targets under-known designers and design movements who they believe deserve representation. Students embraced the collective venture of shared responsibility – bringing their own authentic experiences and lived histories into conversation.
Those responses comprise the Design History Reader. Chapters are organized thematically, defining a framework for design history beyond chronology. These ideas broadly encompass a range of stories representing dominant and minority cultures. The concepts that tie these stories together become a contemporary vision of graphic design history and offer a new way to study, interact with, and perceive that narrative.
Written contributions by: Amina Hachimura, Alexina Federhen, Anna Doctor, Annabella Pugliese, Belle Bennet, Charles Li, Dar Saravia, Ellen Johnson, Flora Kerner, Grace Chong, Haya AlMajali, Julia Cheung, Kristina Shumilina, Lauren Had, Leila Garner, Maidha Salman, Natalie Seitz, Niharika Yellamraju, Olujimi Taiwo, Rayne Schulman, Rhea Jauhar, Rashina Wang, Risa Yamazaki, Shaimaa Sabbagh, Sheryl Peng, Sophie Zimbler, Tzu-Hsuan Huang, Winnie Mei, Xiuqi Ran and Yue Luo.
324 pages, 17 x 24cm, softcover, Onomatopee (Eindhoven).