Note from the editor :

The first critical survey to offer a complete overview of the graphic revolution during the postmodern period.

According to Rick Poynor, changes in graphic work were already well underway by the early 1980s, even before the computer became a ubiquitous tool. With the international embrace of new electronic technologies in the 1990s, these developments began to accelerate. An explosion of creativity in graphic design took place as designers and typographers reassessed their roles, jettisoned existing rules, and forged experimental new approaches. Graphic work became more self-expressive, idiosyncratic, and occasionally extreme.

The author tells this story in detail, breaking down a broad, multifaceted, and sometimes confusing field of graphic design activity into key developments and themes: the origins of postmodern design; deconstructionist design and theory; issues of appropriation; the revolution in digital type; questions of authorship; and critiques of postmodern graphic design. Each theme is illustrated by significant examples of work produced between 1980 and 2000 that have changed the way in which designers and their audiences think about graphic communication.