Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design

Born of the traditions of fine art and printing, graphic design is a form of visual communication that seeks to inform, identify or promote through the combination of word and image. But unlike the written word or a work of art, a graphic design operates exclusively in the context in which it will be seen, and mediates between the wishes of the client and the expectations of the public. Moreover, a graphic work is created for mass reproduction. The field of graphic design, as we know it today, has its roots in two developments: the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century an