Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This chronological study traces the evolution of graphic form, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and up through the age of technology. Each period is explained in detail, from Classical craftsmanship to the changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution and the modern-day potential of the digital world. As computers now play an integral role in academic and professional environments, virtually everyone makes font choices on a regular basis, rendering typography more relevant than ever before. This thorough, scholarly, and visually-appealing volume combines the history of the letter form--from the invention of printing to the relationship between graphics and totalitarian regimes--with intricate analysis of graphic design and typography, all supported by 850 images with extensive notes and a bibliography. This is an indispensable handbook for understanding our daily visual environment, and essential reading for all graphic arts professionals.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This substantial history, written by French scholar/graphic designer Jubert, is notable for treating graphic design and typography together rather than as separate subjects. It offers the reader an excellent overview concerning the development of printing techniques and materials from the prehistoric period through the Renaissance. The groundwork is laid for understanding the elements that provided the basis for graphic design and typography as they developed in the modern era. The major portion of the book effectively interweaves the many strands that define graphic design since the Renaissance: the evolution of the book, the development of nonbook graphic forms (e.g., handbills, posters, newspapers), the history of the media, the rise of literacy, the influence of art movements on graphic and type design, the influences and demands of political movements on graphics, and the rise of modernity and a new kind of reader, encountering new opportunities to read and new graphic styles to serve those needs. Students and working designers will find this a useful reference and teachers a good textbook. For libraries serving design students and scholars.-Michael Dashkin, Qualcomm, San Diego (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

A wonderful new history of typography and graphic design, Jubert's book, built on the same chronological approach as Philip Meggs's A History of Graphic Design (1st ed., CH, Oct'83; 3rd ed., 1998), is the first scholarly alternative to that standard history. Teachers of the history of graphic design, design practitioners, and students will learn new things from this work. The historiography of the text is quite different from that of its competitors. A social and political perspective is taken in forming an understanding of the visual environment. Informed by the French cultural history approach, written by Jubert, a French art historian, this book tells more about European designers than its American counterparts. But rather than serving as a visual biography of canonical graphic designers (the previously typical approach to the writing of a survey history of graphic design), this book emphasizes the ideas that define the visual world in which we live and work. This visual history begins with archaic writing systems but rapidly and correctly moves forward to modernity. More than 850 illustrations support text that, perhaps for the first time in a survey history of graphic design, is more significant than the images. A great work. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. R. M. Labuz Mohawk Valley Community College