Design

Last Updated: 2-Mar-2015

This guide is designed to provide an introduction to the literature of graphic and product design. It also presents a selection of key primary source holdings in design in Stanford University Libraries.

Subject Librarians

Peter P Blank

Head, Art & Architecture Library

Art & Architecture Library

(650) 725-1038

ppb@stanford.edu

Katharine A Keller

Reference Librarian/VRC Cataloger

Art & Architecture Library

(650) 725-9274

kkeller@stanford.edu

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Subjects

Art

Advertising and media

Art history

Design

Mechanical design

Mechanical engineering

Communication and journalism

Overview

Graphic design does not have its own, discrete curriculum at Stanford, but its principles are explored in many art history and art studio courses, and in the various learning experiences offered through the d.school. Product/industrial design is the core discipline of the Stanford Design Program. Both graphic and product design combine art, technology, communcations, and marketing; product design also often involves engineering and computer science. Because of the multifaceted nature of design, it's worth exploring multiple libraries and using a variety of on- and off-line resources.

The more art-centric of these resources are covered in this guide. These include introductory textbooks, historical and theoretical works, yearbooks (a type of literature fairly specific to design), and items of special note from our Locked Stacks. The further research section includes descriptions of databases that index design-related literature.

General introductions

Graphic design and typography

Product design

Yearbooks

American Illustration presents the results of an annual competition (jury members are listed at the beginning of each volume) open to illustrators working commercially or on personal projects. While the Art & Architecture Library holds volumes only from 2000 to present, other illustration annuals in the collection help provide a view of illustration trends in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. See Illustrators: The Annual of American Illustration and Annual Exhibition: National Academy of Design.

Rather than publishing the results of design competitions, Designer Profile lists, alphabetically, the leading designers and firms in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The page spread dedicated to each designer/firm includes contact information and highly browseable portfolio examples. As with the Graphis yearbooks, the editorial board is not listed. Designer Profile is published once every two years and includes two volumes, one for graphic, corporate, and multimedia design, and one for industrial and exhibition design.

iF is a German-based design organization that hosts three annual awards, in product design, communication design, and packaging design. Unlike Graphis, which does not share the names of its editorial board or jury members, iF's yearbooks feature profiles of all jury members; this gives the awards an important transparency. The Communication Design Award Yearbook features entries in digital and print media, packaging, advertising, photography, and what it terms "crossmedia," a fusion between print and digital, product design and participatory environments. Each entry includes a paragraph describing the project. The yearbook's coverage is international, though the coverage of German design is, not surprisingly, somewhat disproportionate. The Art & Architecture Library holds volumes dating from 2009 to the present. It also holds volumes dating from 2007-2008 under the publication's previous title, iF Yearbook Communication.

Graphis is a commercial publisher that, through its annual competitions, presents what it describes as "the best in design, advertising, photography and illustration." The New Talent Design Annual features work created by students enrolled in design programs at colleges and universities (almost exclusively in the United States). The Annual covers advertising, editorial, and poster design, as well as photography and typography. The Art & Architecture Library holds volumes dating from 2000 to the present. It also holds volumes dating from 1996-1997 under the publication's previous title, Graphis Student Design.

Primary sources

Wendingen archive, 1918-1931

Amsterdam : MHCHIJ De Hooge Brug
8 linear feet (12 clamshell boxes of original journals, 2 flat boxes of manuscript material, 1 original artwork of cover, framed
Special Collections Manuscript Collection M1671

The title of this early twentieth-century journal, Wendingen, is based on a phrase from Friedrich Nietzsche, "Umwälzung aller Werte" [upheaval of all values]. Hendrik Theodorus Wijdeveld, the journal’s founder, translated the term "Umwälzung" into Dutch as "omwentelen" [revolve], then as "wentelen" [turn about], and, finally, as "wending" [turn]. "Wendingen" is the plural of "wending." Hence, Wendingen implied a sense of turnings, as in turning away from the past and toward the future. To this end, Wijdeveld, who designed and edited most of the one hundred sixteen issues himself, oversaw the journal’s adoption of graphically innovative covers that opened to reveal beautifully gridded and typeset pages. Inspired by the notion of socially engaged contemporary Dutch architecture, the journal’s focus quickly expanded to include such topics as printmaking, non-Western artifacts, puppetry and stage design, and ancient building construction—a topical (and geographical) range very unique for its time.

Wendingen includes seven issues devoted solely to Frank Lloyd Wright (one of whose covers was designed by El Lissitzky), as well as issues on Josef Hoffmann, Erich Mendelsohn, Eileen Gray, Jan Toorop (two issues), Gustav Klimt, and Lyonel Feininger. The archive includes all issues published, dated 1916-1931. It also includes a collection of related material: the finished original drawing by Jesserun de Mesquita for one of the covers (vol. IX, no. 1, 1928), two original drawings for page layouts, and other ephemeral items.
[AMF]

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Design

Subject Librarians

Subjects

Table of Contents

Overview

General introductions

Graphic design and typography

Product design

Yearbooks

Primary sources

Wendingen archive, 1918-1931