The late Philip B. Meggs is an inductee into the Art Directors Hall of Fame and received its Educator's Award for lifetime achievement. A former contributing editor to Print magazine, he authored more than a dozen books and 150 articles and papers on design and typography.

Alston W. Purvis is Professor of Visual Arts at the Boston University College of Fine Arts where he serves as Chair of the Department of Graphic Design. He is author and co-author of numerous books on graphic design history.

Preface to the First Edition viii Acknowledgments ix Part I The Prologue to Graphic Design 1The visual message from prehistory through the medieval era 1 The Invention of Writing 5 2 Alphabets 21 3 The Asian Contribution 35 4 Illuminated Manuscripts 49 Part II A Graphic Renaissance 69The origins of European typography and design for printing 5 Printing Comes to Europe 73 6 The German Illustrated Book 85 7 Renaissance Graphic Design 103 8 An Epoch of Typographic Genius 129 Part III The Bridge to the Twentieth Century 147The Industrial Revolution: The impact of industrial technology upon visual communications 9 Graphic Design and the Industrial Revolution 151 10 The Arts and Crafts Movement and Its Heritage 187 11 Art Nouveau 209 12 The Genesis of Twentieth-Century Design 245 Part IV The Modernist Era 265Graphic design in the first half of the twentieth century 13 The Influence of Modern Art 269 14 Pictorial Modernism 291 15 A New Language of Form 316 16 The Bauhaus and the New Typography 345 17 The Modern Movement in America 371 Part V The Age of Information 391Graphic design in the global village 18 The International Typographic Style 397 19 The New York School 415 20 Corporate Identity and Visual Systems 439 21 The Conceptual Image 465 22 Postmodern Design 491 23 National Visions within a Global Dialogue 513 24 The Digital Revolution-and Beyond 571 Epilogue 621 Bibliography 623 Image Credits 657 Index 663