A New Program for Graphic Design

✍ Scribed by David Reinfurt

• Publisher: Inventory Press/D.A.P.
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 260
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A toolkit for visual literacy in the 21st century

A New Program for Graphic Design is the first communication-design textbook expressly of and for the 21st century. Three courses―Typography, Gestalt and Interface―provide the foundation of this book.

Through a series of in-depth historical case studies (from Benjamin Franklin to the Macintosh computer) and assignments that progressively build in complexity, A New Program for Graphic Design serves as a practical guide both for designers and for undergraduate students coming from a range of other disciplines. Synthesizing the pragmatic with the experimental, and drawing on the work of Max Bill, Beatrice Warde, Muriel Cooper and Stewart Brand (among many others),, it builds upon mid- to late-20th-century pedagogical models to convey contemporary design principles in an understandable form for students of all levels―treating graphic design as a liberal art that informs the dissemination of knowledge across all disciplines. For those seeking to understand and shape our increasingly networked world of information, this guide to visual literacy is an indispensable tool.

David Reinfurt (born 1971), a graphic designer, writer and educator, reestablished the Typography Studio at Princeton University and introduced the study of graphic design. Previously, he held positions at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University School of Art. As a cofounder of O-R-G inc. (2000), Dexter Sinister (2006) and the Serving Library (2012), Reinfurt has been involved in several studios that have reimagined graphic design, publishing and archiving in the 21st century. He was the lead designer for the New York City MTA Metrocard vending machine interface, still in use today. His work is included in the collections of the Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. He is the co-author of Muriel Cooper (MIT Press, 2017), a book about the pioneering designer.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface, Adam Michaels
Foreword, Ellen Lupton
Introduction
T-Y-P-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y
Postmasters
Assignment 1, Letterpress
Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu
Raytracing with Moholy-Nagy
Assignment 2, Photocopier
T as in Tree
This stands as a sketch for the future.
Assignment 3, Computer
Mathematical Typography
Further Reading
G-E-S-T-A-L-T
A Few Forms
Assignment 1, Stop
The Language of Visual Thinking
Assignment 1 (adjusted), Go
Currently in Process
Assignment 2, Wait
After Effects
Assignment 3, RGB v. CMYK
ABC, TV, NeXT
Global Branding
Further Reading
I-N-T-E-R-F-A-C-E
Assignment 1, Apple Watch
Zapotecs & Pulsars
Olivetti’s Interfaces
“… Meet the Tetracono”
Touch Start to Begin
Desktops, Trashcans
Further Reading
Author Acknowledgments
Publisher Acknowledgments