What gave you the idea of creating this website? Why do you think it's important to look at the history of graphic design in this way?

The designhistory.org website is the product of my organisational training as a graphic designer, my observations as a teacher and my studies in graphic design history. While teaching the course, History of Graphic Design, it became apparent to me that the students became overwhelmed trying to absorb the course content through the text we were using - an intensive historical tome written in a chronological sequence. However they were focused and engaged when discussions connected the course material to their studio activities. It appeared that prioritising the link between graphic design history and graphic design studio was a potential approach to explore.


The site has been running for 10 years now. Tell us about your research methodology for populating the site.

First I itemised a list of topics needed to support the historical roots for each studio course in the graphic design curriculum: typography, identity, symbol design, composition and layout etc. The next step was to combine that content with what I considered to be "must knows" in design history. Interestingly a series of topics emerged that could be arranged almost chronologically.

This new arrangement allowed me to assign a richer variety of reading assignments. No longer tied to a specific text, I could include readings from various sources. Eventually Design, Writing, Research (Miller and Lupton) was adopted as the text for the class. It includes a collection of essays that compliments the historical breadth of the course lectures as well as related contemporary issues.

In the absence of a text it was necessary to make the lecture images available for the students to reference for study. There was no server space available for faculty at the school where I taught so I purchased an address and launched the site. Each week I would give a lecture packed with visuals and from this select the most important images and information for the web site.

The course runs for fifteen weeks - eleven weeks of lecture, two weeks of field trips to library collections or museums in Philadelphia and two weeks for exams or paper review.  All course content, reading lists and weekly events are included on the web site. The design is arranged in the format of a text with a table of contents and 'chapters' that contain the information from one lecture. The text pages are arranged on a simple grid with images numbered in sequential order. For the first few years the site was primarily images but over time I added longer comments for the students who had missed class or were poor note takers. Eventually numerous quotes and links from books and other web sources were added to introduce the students to my research sources and to encourage further study beyond the short blurbs. Now almost every entry has a linked source.


How do you intend visual communication designers to use it? Also, you indicate that the site is built for your curriculum. How is the site used as a tool within that situation?

The web site has proven to be popular with my students. They can study anywhere and anytime that they can get online. (Note also that a list of good graphic design history books is recommended and students are urged to build their personal libraries.) I've seen students print out the pages and cut them up as flash cards to study, returning the information from virtual space to the real world.

Despite the use of the Internet for content I am rather 'old school' when it comes to lecture time. I want the students to look at the images I am showing on the screen (many more than shown on the web site) and interact with me so for the past two years I have banned computer use during the lecture period of the class. The students print out the web page prior to class and take notes on the hard copy. This approach means that their attention is not focused on typing notes or other temptations that wireless Internet has brought into the lecture hall. So far there have been no complaints but I am still fluid in my thinking on laptops in the lecture hall.

The site is not advertised or promoted and is meant only for students in my class. If others find their way there they are free to look at all of the content or use the site according to the limitations of the Creative Commons license. Basically one can share and adapt the site as long as there is attribution and the information is used non-commercially. I've received a number of inquiries and comments over the past ten years especially from young teachers with little or no historical background who have been assigned the course to teach in their department. This is not an easy class to teach if you are without an extensive knowledge of the topic. The website's visual format seems to help beginners get a foothold on the information and they often ask permission to use the site or the format I've devised until they can formulate their own approach. I appreciate the requests and try to offer advice.

Most importantly what I've come to realize is that there are many people using the site (actually about 50% of the 2,000 or so daily visitors) who live outside the US and in non-English speaking countries. As a result I've left the site low-tech and kept the text open for translation to other languages for those who would not normally have access to this information. Future plans are to improve the design, revise and edit the content and expand some of the chapters. Since the site is a side activity to teaching, letterpress printing, some research projects and general life activities, changes happen somewhat erratically.


According to trends what do you predict for the future of graphic design?

A continuing priority for me is including more information about women in the general history of design. The lack of emphasis on women such as Ethel Reed, Margaret MacDonald, Candice Wheeler and Lilly Reich skews a student's understanding of the participation of women in the history of design. From some texts it could appear that there were no women in the graphic arts before the middle of the 1900's; however it is known that over past centuries many male printers and designers had important working partnerships with their wives or other women artists. Because the field of graphic design history is now a course of study in graduate programs I suspect that more research on historical women designers will follow.

Ten years ago I did not anticipate the outside responses from posting my class syllabus. 
Contact by both local and international colleagues trying to deal with the same problem of how and what to teach in the history of design has been energizing and helpful. Hopefully over the next decade we will continue the conversation and develop better solutions.

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For more information please visit the History of Graphic Design website

Nancy Stock-Allen is a Professor of Graphic Design and Illustration at Moore College of Art and Design.