About Graphic Design collects over 40 years of Richard Hollis's writing on graphic design history — interviews, essays, letters, lectures, and course outlines — into a single volume designed by Hollis himself and dense with over 500 images.
About This Book
This is a book about how graphic design thinks. Assembled from decades of essays, lectures, correspondence, and course outlines, About Graphic Design traces the intellectual and methodological preoccupations of one of the discipline's most respected practitioners and historians. Hollis argues, implicitly and explicitly, for the social importance of graphic design: that the designer who ensures legibility — in urban signage, in publications, in the built environment — performs a genuinely civic function. For students of design history and working practitioners alike, the book also makes a case for historical precedent as a living tool, not an academic exercise. Illustrated with over 500 images and designed by Hollis himself, it reads as both archive and argument.
Key Features
- 296 pages of essays, interviews, letters, articles, lectures, and course outlines spanning over 40 years
- Authored and designed by Richard Hollis
- Over 500 illustrations throughout
- Published by Occasional Papers, ISBN 9780956962317
What You'll Discover
- How Hollis understands the graphic designer's role as guarantor of legibility across urban and social spaces
- The relationship between historical precedent and contemporary graphic design practice, argued across multiple decades of writing
- The range of forms Hollis's critical thinking takes — from formal lectures and course outlines to personal letters and published articles
- What methodological rigour looks like when applied to design history by a practitioner who has lived inside the discipline
About the Author
Richard Hollis is a graphic designer, theorist, and historian whose influence on the field extends from practice to pedagogy. He is perhaps best known for designing the layout of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, and has written extensively on graphic design history. His critical and historical writings have shaped how the discipline understands its own past.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 296
- Dimensions: 170 × 240 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780956962317
- Publisher: Occasional Papers
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Graphic designers, design historians, typography enthusiasts, and students seeking a practitioner's account of how graphic design history shapes contemporary visual culture.