Recommended Databases
SMFA Print Periodicals
- Eye: the international review of graphic designPrint issues available at the SMFA Library & Tisch and online issues
- Step inside designPrint issues available at the SMFA Library and online issues
- Surface design : the journal of the Surface Design AssociationPrint issues available at the SMFA Library and online issues
SMFA Online Periodicals
- Computer artsOnline issues
- Journal of graphic engineering and designOnline issues
- The international journal of visual designOnline issues
- Acta graphicaOnline issues
- The graphic arts industry news digestOnline issues
Graphic Design books
A - Z record shop bags : British record shop bags 1940s - 1990s by
This exhaustive collection of the record shop bag provides a unique perspective of record shopping in the UK over the last century, bringing together over 500 incredible bags (some possibly the only surviving examples) to document the fascinating story of British high street record shopping. Bags from famous chains such as NEMS, Our Price and Virgin (the amazingly rare Roger Dean bags), sit alongside designs from local shops run by eccentric enthusiasts. Packed with stories such as the first Jewish ska retailer, the record sellers who started the premier league, famous staff (David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Morrissey, etc.) and equally infamous owners, these anecdotes of mythical vinyl entrepreneurs will entertain and delight. With vinyl record sales at their highest ever for decades (outselling CDs in the US), this publication acts as an amazing insight into the history, culture and visual language of record collecting. Following Own Label, Wrappers Delight and Auto Erotica - I've Got The Music In Me is the next book in the series by Jonny Trunk and FUEL, examining overlooked aspects of our collective past.
Call Number: SMFA: NK8643.3 .T78 2022
Blind Maps and Blue Dots by
The shift towards digital modes of production has fundamentally changed both cartography and graphic design. The omni-present computer, the interactive possibilities of digital media and the direct exchange of visual information through networks have blurred the distinction between designers and users of visual information. Blind Maps and Blue Dots is the first work to explore the disappearing boundaries between producers and users of maps. Using three mapmaking practices as examples--the Blue Dot, the location function in Google Maps; the Strava Global Heatmap, a world map showing the activities of a fitness app; and the "Situation in Syria" maps, a regularly updated map of the Syrian conflict made by an Amsterdam teenager--renowned designer Joost Grootens shows the blurring of the binary distinction between producing and using, ultimately offering a whole new approach to graphic design.
Call Number: GA102.4.E4 G76 2021
CAPS LOCK: How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and How to Escape from It by
"Capitalism could not exist without the coins, banknotes, documents, information graphics, interfaces, branding, and advertisements made by graphic designers. Even anti-consumerist strategies such as social design and speculative design are appropriated to serve economic growth. It seems design is locked in a cycle of exploitation and extraction, furthering inequality and environmental collapse. CAPS LOCK uses clear language and visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked. The book features designed objects and also examines how the study, work, and professional practice of designers support the market economy. Six radical design cooperatives are featured that resist capitalist thinking in their own way, hoping to inspire a more socially aware graphic design."
Call Number: SMFA Library: NC1001.6 .P38 2021 and ebook
CriticAll! by
"How can we encourage more people to become actively aware of and critical about the design of their environments? How can we make the realm of design criticism more inclusive? These were the questions that motivated Onomatopee Projects to launch an open call for (un)professional everyday design criticism. This publication presents a series of essays that were selected from this open call, in which participants were asked to submit a short text that reflects upon an everyday design object, system, environment or construct. The result is a rich and varied collection of essays that provides a refreshing take on design criticism aimed at laymen, professionals and everyone in between. The book features an interview with Ellen Lupton. Contributors include: Vanessa Brazeau, Lara Chapman, Pete Fung, Iskander Guetta, Adina Glickstein, Judith Leijdekkers, Rosannagh Maddock, Jo Minhinnett, PLSTCTY Studio, Josh Plough, Bessie Rubinstein, Y. Selim, Lauren Thu, Anniek Tijmes, Joannette van der Veer, Vincent van Velsen, Stijn van de Vyver and Zack Wellin."
Call Number: SMFA Library: NK1525 .C75 2021
Design Struggles by
This publication offers a critical assessment of the complicity of design in creating, perpetuating, and reinforcing social, political, and environmental problems, both today and in the past. It proposes going against the grain by problematising Western notions of design to foster situated, decolonial, and queer-feminist modes of disciplinary self-critique, and looks at design through the intersections of gender, culture, ethnicity, and class. Applying robust scholarly insight with engaging and accessible modes of conveyance and storytelling, an urgent and expansive array of voices and views emerge from those engaged in struggles with, against, or around the field of design.
Call Number: SMFA Library: NK1510 .D47 2021
Everything Must Go! by
Taking inspiration from vintage catalogues and classified ads, Everything Must Go acts as a playful memento mori that compiles writing, photography, and illustration in a variety of formats and genres. This offering of giveaways is a collaboration between Jason Fulford and nine artists of the experimental Image Text Ithaca MFA Program. The publication invites viewers to interact with works by: Karine Baptiste, Caiti Borruso, Eleanor Eichenbaum, Cable Hoover, Marissa Iamartino, Will Matsuda, Erika Morillo, Michael Popp, and Irit Reinheimer. Take what you wish, but Everything Must Go!
Call Number: SMFA: N7433.35.U6 E93 2022
Glossary of Undisciplined Design by
D for Dummy Woman, M for Monster?s Tools, S for Style Defense, U for Unstable Signs ? the Glossary of Undisciplined Design looks into undisciplinarity as a feminist unpacking of the field of graphic design, of dogmatic rules, discriminatory structures and a particularly one-sided canon. Carried by a decidedly fragmentary and collective backbone, the GUD handbook combines a multitude of theories and narratives of varying densities ? from visual essay, hands-on experiment, interview or advertorial, to poem, speculative tale and academic writing. With around 55 contributions by 20 international designers, activists, educators and theorists, the Glossary of Undisciplined Design explores role models, tools and dissent.0Glossary of Undisciplined Design is a joint initiative instigated by designer/educators Anja Kaiser and Rebecca Stephany. Kaiser is active in feminist contexts and in the club culture scene, where she seeks to carve out space for resistance. Stephany?s polyphonic cultural practice is fuelled by intersectional social critique, undisciplined research tools, and an unquenchable desire for imagery.
Call Number: SMFA Library: NK1160-1590
Graphic Design Is (... ) Not Innocent by
'Graphic Design Is (...) Not Innocent' questions ingrained approaches, values and assumptions of graphic design in globalized societies. The publication aims to initiate a dialogue between designers, scholars, critics and commissioners, who investigate responsibilities, potentials, politics, limits and risks of designing visual communication. How innocent is graphic design? Whom is it addressing, whom is it in/excluding? What does it bring about? When defining the role and impact of visual communication, what future questions lie ahead? 'Graphic Design Is (...) Not Innocent' combines case studies and academic reflections, trying to sketch a common ground for basic research into the parameters and value systems of graphic design. It is a road trip between various possible conceptual challenges and praxis. It is a temporal inventory, without the claim of completeness. It is a question mark, as well as an exclamation mark. And it wants to stimulate critical thinking in graphic design.
Call Number: SMFA: NC997 .G73 2022
I Got Something to Say: by
Texts by Jason Alejandro, Somnath Bhatt, Elias Chen, Ryan Diaz, Everett Epstein, Zak Jensen, Ian Lynam, Vaishnavi Mahendran, Anna Sagström, Christopher Sleboda, Kathleen Sleboda, and Mary Yang. An inventory of posters produced by Draw Down Books for art book fairs, workshops, and lectures between 2013 and 2021. Documenting Draw Down's activities throughout the period, the publication also graphically maps the contours the artist book publishing world during the second decade of the 20th century. A series of reflections and essays by prominent graphic designers provides context and insights, providing readers with new ways of considering their own poster-making and event documentation.
Call Number: SMFA: NC1810 .I4 2022
Nature: Collaborations in Design by
Designers today are striving to transform our relationship with the natural world. While the modern industrial age gave way to designs that vastly improved human enterprise through technology, there were unintended and destructive consequences for the environment. Humans are intrinsically linked to nature yet our actions have frayed this relationship, forcing designers to think more intentionally and to consider the impact of every design decision, from an artifact's manufacture and use to its obsolescence. Designers are aligning with biologists, engineers, agriculturists, environmentalists and many other disciplines to design a more harmonious and regenerative future. Based on these new partnerships, designers are asking different questions and anticipating future challenges, which not only change the design process, but also what design means. 0'Nature: Collaborations in Design' includes over sixty-five international projects from the fields of architecture, product design, landscape design, fashion, interactive and communication design, and material research. More than 300 compelling and exquisite photographs, illustrations and content from data visualizations illustrate seven essays, which explain and explore designers' strategies around understanding, simulating, salvaging, facilitating, augmenting, remediating and nurturing nature. Four conversations between scientists and designers delve into topics related to synthetic biology, scientific versus design lexicon, and recent shifts in the meaning of nature with a glossary illuminating scientific, technological and theoretical concepts and processes invoked by the designers.--Exhibition: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, USA & CUBE Design Museum, Kerkrade, The Netherlands (10.05.2019-20.01.2020).
Call Number: NK1520 .N38 2019
Off the grid : histories of Belgian graphic design by
This book offers a collaborative panorama of Belgian graphic design history from a multiplicity of perspectives. It includes new wrting by scholars and practicing designers on topics such as type design, colonisation, and labour relations. Each essay is richly illustrated with previously unpublished reproductions of posters, signage, typography, packaging, book design, logos, and ephemera.
Call Number: SMFA: NK1455 .O344 2022
Process Music by
Essays on print-media culture from Paul Rand to Barney Bubbles by a leading American design thinker In Process Music, Virginia-based author Kenneth FitzGerald provides deep readings of print-media artifacts and activities, often through the lens of music. Employing a range of narrative voices, the works combine academic rigor with the accessibility of popular forms such as music journalism. FitzGerald's new book compiles over 40 of his pieces from the last decade--many of which are now inaccessible or behind a paywall--with reprinted works first appearing in outlets such as Emigre, Eye, Print, Idea, Modes of Criticism, Design Observer, Speak Up and Voice: AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. Divided into four thematic sections and a coda, Process Music considers a variety of influential figures working in design and music, including Barney Bubbles, Paul Rand, William Addison Dwiggins and Jacqueline Casey. A prelude composed by AIGA Design medalist and Design Matters host Debbie Millman also features.
Call Number: SMFA: NK1404.2 .F58 2022
W. E. B. du Bois's Data Portraits by
At the 1900 Paris Exposition, the famed sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois presented a series of groundbreaking data visualizations advocating for African American progress. These graphs, charts, and maps provided powerful glimpses into the lives of black Americans to convey both a literal and figurative representation of what Du Bois famously referred to as "the color line." From advances in education to the lingering effects of slavery, these infographics - beautiful in design and impactful in content - made visible a wide spectrum of black experience. W.E.B. Du Bois's Data Portraits collets the complete set of infographics for the first time in full color, making their insights and innovations available to a contemporary audience while exploring their context in social and design history. As Du Bois's prophetic work continues to grow in potency and relevance, these images illustrate, in the words of the introduction, how "data might be reimagined as a form of accountability and even protest in the age of Black Lives Matter."--Back cover
Call Number: E185.86 .D846 2018
SMFA Research & Instruction Librarian
The SMFA Library, the fine arts branch of the Tisch Library, has books about Color Theory within these call number ranges:
| ND1290 | Color in painting |
| ND1480 – 1490 | Color theory |
| QC495 | Color (scientific aspects) |
| TR510 – 545 | Color photography |