Graphic Design History traces the social and cultural role of visual communication from prehistory to the present, connecting what designers do every day to a history of innovative graphic forms and effects. The contents of this book include the following chapters titled Early Writing: Mark-making, Notation Systems, and Scripts - Medieval Letterforms and Book Formats - Modern typography and the Creation of the Public Sphere - the Graphic Effects of Industrial Production - The Culture of Consumption - Corporate Identities and the International Style - Postmodernism in Design - Digital Design. The book includes an extensive glossary of terms, a bibliography and a list of image credits. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This section of the Review considers new publications relating to design in graphics, typography, travel literature, religious illumination, design history, British modernism and California "cool" in art, culture and film. "Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish is reviewed. It is held by the Sackner Archive. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.