A History of Visual Communication

by Josef Müller-Brockmann

This book refers to the richness of visual communication by establishing a reference to the past through contemporary works and the most recent technical means.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art

168 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1986

Reviews

[Ania Gaska · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't finish it, I read the first couple of chapters but it is difficult to read because it reads more like someone taking notes for themselves. The images included are much more informative, I loved the trademarks for brands of herring!

[Liad Shadmi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Badly written and full of name dropping without any real meaning and investigative way of writing. No cross references between the written text and pictures. Still is a very interesting document and the pictures are good examples.

[Dora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad book, although it is slightly outdated (it was written in 1986 after all) and it is clear from the start that it was written by a graphics designer. That is to say, Brockmann's summaries of visual practices of various cultures are centered around writing styles and later on print, typography and graphic design basically. There is little or no focus on other areas of visual communication, and visual communication is definitely a much broader term than he lets on in this book. Nevertheless, the book is short (and most of it is made up of visual reproductions) so, despite all of what I mentioned above, a lot of material was covered in the very few pages of text left.