A Book to Think With

A Review: After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Graphic Design Pedagogy

Abstract

Reviewed by Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl

This ambitious book, edited by Geoff Kaplan, is well worth your time as it is a collection of essays from many perspectives. The collection will jog your thinking about graphic design past, present, and future. I propose that readers should think along with this book; sometimes I will digress as I ponder the essays in the collections. You will want to agree or disagree with some authors or even expand on the ideas presented. Several authors slip the frame established by the Yale conference, that is the title of the book. After the Bauhaus and Before the Internet is more than a history; many articles are provocations. I selectively sampled some articles that I found particularly compelling, although I read the entire book and scanned the extensive footnotes, which by themselves provide a rich resource given various academic and scholarly pursuits. The authors are serious academics dealing with thorny issues of substance that concern how to frame graphic design education now and in the future. The book is in four sections, which are use here as section headings.