Graphic Design Resources
Digital Design by Call Number: Main Book Stacks ; NK1520 .E85 2023ISBN: 9780691181394Publication Date: 2023-10-17
Graphic Design History by Call Number: Main Book Stacks ; NC998 .D78 2009ISBN: 9780132410755Publication Date: 2008-01-29
The History of Graphic Design. Vol. 1. 1890-1959 by Call Number: Oversize (Shelved after Z) ; NC998.4 .H555 2017ISBN: 9783836563079Publication Date: 2017-11-242 Vols
Graphic Design by Call Number: Main Book Stacks ; NC998 .E85 2019ISBN: 9780300233285Publication Date: 2019-05-21
Extra Bold by Call Number: Main Book Stacks ; NK1520 .L87 2021ISBN: 9781616899189Publication Date: 2021-05-11
Design Dictionary by Call Number: EBOOK & Main Book Stacks ; NK1165 .W6713 2008xISBN: 9783764377397Publication Date: 2007-12-07
For in-class research assignments, projects, and presentations, use these free online resources to learn, download images, and find inspirations.
- ArtStor on JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Database of images covering various time periods and cultures that includes architecture, painting, sculpting, photography, decorative arts and design, and more.
Digital collections of graphic design objects from museum, industry and university collections in the UK, North America and Australasia.
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AIGA Design ArchiveCollection of communication design items dating back to 1924.
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Canada ModernArchive of modernist Canadian graphic design, with articles and designer profiles.
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Center for the Study of Political GraphicsPosters relating to historical and contemporary movements for social change. Over 8,000 posters and prints available to view online.
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Cooper Hewitt: Graphic DesignGraphic design collections from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
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Graphic Design Archive OnlineCollection of resources on the history of 20th–century American graphic design from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
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International Dada ArchiveA scholarly resource for the study of the historic Dada movement.
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London Transport MuseumOver 500,000 items, including posters, maps, signs and ephemera, covering 200 years of London's transport system.
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Milton Glaser Design Study Center and ArchivesSignificant works by designers and illustrators, including Milton Glaser, Gail Anderson and Steven Heller.
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Paul Rand: Modernist Master, 1914-1966Covering the life and work of the American art director and graphic designer.
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People's Graphic Design ArchiveA crowd-sourced virtual archive of inclusive graphic design history.
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Poster HouseMuseum dedicated to posters, from their earliest appearance in the late 1800s to their present-day use.
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Re:collection: Australian Graphic Design c.1960-c.1990Online archive of Australian graphic design, featuring biographies, interviews, and archival collections.
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Romek Marber ArchiveArchive of work by the Polish-born British designer known for his covers of Penguin Books.
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Saul Bass ArchiveIconic film posters and more from the legendary designer Saul Bass.
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UbuWebEducational resource for avant-garde material and publications.
Online collections of graphic design history from outside the Anglophone world.
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Archivio Grafica ItalianaDigital archive dedicated to showcasing Italian graphic design heritage.
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Chinese Type ArchiveCompiles and catalogs resources related to Chinese typography to make them open and accessible.
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eMuseumArchive of the Zurich University of the Arts and Museum of Design Zurich. The largest Swiss online database for design and art.
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Grafis NusantaraArchive of vintage Indonesian labels and stickers, presenting the significance of Indonesian vintage design.
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Graphic FrontRomanian graphic design visual archive, including examples of advertising, posters, stamps and signage.
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Hans Hillmann ArchiveFilm posters, book covers and magazine illustrations, unpublished sketches and drafts across seven decades of work from one of the most important German graphic designers of the postwar period.
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La PatriaAn archive of Uruguayan graphic design, featuring posters, logos and ephemera from Uruguay's history.
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The Memory: The Poster ProjectMore than 50,000 posters from seven heritage institutions provide a historical picture of the Netherlands from 1870.
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MICG: Corpus Typographique FrançaisFonts designed in France between 1850 and today, aiming to illustrate the importance of French typography.
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MozaikaArchive of Lithuanian children’s book illustration, and its cultural significance.
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Palestine Poster Project ArchiveOver 15,000 posters from the 1970s to the present day, representing Palestinian graphic design and iconography.
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SCOMUSBulgarian graphic design from the socialist era (1944-1989).
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Singapore Graphic ArchivesCollection of graphic design and visual culture from Singapore.
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Syrian Design ArchiveDesign & typography found in Syria.
Search Primo for articles, books, ebooks, and streaming videos
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More Subject Headings:
Call numbers can also be used to search for books on the library catalog or in the stacks. For graphic design, related call numbers include:
- Drawing. Design. Illustration - NC1-1940
- General works - NC703-725
- Graphic art materials - NC845-915
- Printed ephemera - 1280-1284
- Commercial art. Advertising art - NC997-1003
- Posters - NC1800-1850
- Decoration and Ornament. Design - NK1160-1590
Top journals in the field of Visual Communication, Graphic Design, and Visual Culture are:
- ArtStor on JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Database of images covering various time periods and cultures that includes architecture, painting, sculpting, photography, decorative arts and design, and more.
- Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new windowCoverage of hundreds of journals and reports in the fields of communication and mass media.
- Chicago Manual of Style Online This link opens in a new window
Full contents of the 18th and 17th editions of CMOS.
Notable Graphic Designers in History
Abram Games
Adrian Frutiger
Alan Fletcher
Alexey Brodovich
Alvin Lustig
April Greiman
Armin Hofman
Bradbury Thompson
Chip Kidd
Cipe Pineles
Claude Garamond
David Carson
El Lissitzky
Erik Nitsche
Erik Spiekermann
Fred Woodward
Herb Lubalin
Hermann Zapf
Ivan Chermayeff
Jacqueline Casey
Jan Tschichold
John Maeda
Josef Muller-Brockmann
Ladislav Sutnar
Lester Beall
Louise Fili
Lucian Bernhard
Margo Chase
Massimo Vignelli
Matthew Carter
Max Miedinger
Michael Bierut
Milton Glaser
Muriel Cooper
Neville Brody
Otl Aicher
Paul Rand
Paula Scher
Peter Saville
Saul Bass
Seymour Chwast
Stanley Morison
Stefan Sagmeister
Susan Kare
Tibor Kalman
Tobias Frere-Jones
William Golden
Wolfgang Weingart
Zuzana Licko
Ethical Use of Images
In addition to legalities, you should also strive to use images ethically. This means you should be careful to represent people and situations accurately while also considering personal privacy and reputation. When editing photos and adding them to your thesis, do not alter the meaning, content, or context of the images.
Many aid and social justice organizations have policies around the ethical use of images when working with or doing research with or about communities. These can be helpful to look at to get a sense of the importance of how to ethically, fairly, and appropriately represent individuals and communities. Some examples:
Checklists can help you think about your ethical responsibilities when using images. Use these checklists to help determine if your image use is fair and ethical.
Fair Use Checklists
Fair Use Analysis Checklist, Cornell University (pdf)
Fair Use Checklist, Columbia University
You may encounter the below terms in your efforts to use images ethically and legally. Brief definitions and links to more information are included here.
Intellectual property
Creative products and results of intellectual work, including designs, images, symbols, art, and architecture.
For more information: World Intellectual Property Organization
Copyright
Legal right of creators to control how their works are used by others. Images may be subject to multiple copyright claims, inclucing claims by artists, photographers, designers, institutions, corporations, or others.
Copyright Term
The period of time a work is covered by copyright. The copyright term is limited by copyright law.
For more information: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States (Cornell University)
Public Domain
When a work is not covered by copyright (because the copyright term has expired, the creator has released the work, or the work was never copyrighted) it is in the public domain. The public then holds the rights to the work.
Fair Use
A provision in copyright law that allows for the use of copyrighted works under some specific circumstances and for particular purposes such as criticism, comment, scholarship, or research. Fair use is determined by the following four factors (from Chapter 1, Section 107 of the Copyright Law):
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the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
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the nature of the copyrighted work
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the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
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the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
Open Access
"Free and unrestricted online availability," according to the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Open Access images are typically images that archives, libraries, museums, or copyright holders have chosen to make available online without restrictions on distribution or reuse.
AI-generated images bring a whole new dimension to the fields of art, photography, advertising, design:
Questions arise about how to cite AI-generated images, and also about the ethical and even legal implications of AI accessing the work of visual artists online and using it, not necessarily with permission, as the basis for AI-generated art.
The University of Victoria Libraries has put together a useful guide to AI and images. The guide addresses how to cite AI-generated images in APA and other styles, as well as licensing and technical details of popular AI-art tools like DALL-E 2.
AI and Art Creation
Ethical Issues with art-generating AI
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Deepfakes - The Danger Of Artificial Intelligence That We Will Learn To Manage Better from Forbes
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Australian artists accuse popular AI imaging app of stealing content, call for stricter copyright laws from The Guardian
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From Trump Nevermind babies to deep fakes: DALL-E and the ethics of AI art from The Guardian
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Legal & ethical aspects of using DALL-E, Midjourney, & Stable Diffusion from Medium.com
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AI-generated deepfakes are moving fast. Policymakers can't keep up from NPR
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The Deepfake Dangers Ahead from The Wall Street Journal
Copyright and AI
Is it okay to use copyrighted images and materials to train AI? This is still up for debate.
Creative Commons says yes: Fair Use: Training Generative AI
The Copyright Alliance says maybe not: Does the Use of Copyrighted Works to Train AI Qualify as a Fair Use?
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American Institute of Graphic ArtsIn their history section, they note "AIGA brings design to the world, and the world to designers. As the profession’s oldest and largest professional membership organization for design—with more than 70 chapters and more than 15,000 members—we advance design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force."
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Society of Illustrators, Artists and DesignersInternational in membership, SIAD says it is "a society that promotes and recognises the highest standards of achievement in the practice of illustration, art and design, and works to encourage public appreciation of those creative endeavours."
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Society for Experiential Graphic DesignThe society describes itself as "We are the global, multidisciplinary community of professionals who plan, design, and build experiences that connect people to place. We are graphic, information, media, interaction, exhibition and industrial designers, fabricators, architects, technology integrators, brand strategists, students, wayfinding specialists, teachers, and others who have a hand in shaping content-rich, experiential spaces."
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Letterform ArchiveThey describe themselves by saying, "The Archive was founded by Rob Saunders, a collector of the letter arts for over 40 years, as a place to share his private collection with the public. We opened to visitors in February 2015 and now offer hands-on access to a curated collection of over 75,000 items related to lettering, typography, calligraphy, and graphic design, spanning thousands of years of history."
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The Society for News DesignThe SND describes themselves as "an international organization for news media professionals and visual communicators who create print, web, mobile publications and products. Our members art direct, design, edit, report, illustrate, make photos and video, visualize data and write code."
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The Society of Typographic ArtsThe Society says "Since 1927, we’ve been uplifting creative professionals while having good times along the way. Our community spans the globe, but we still call Chicago home. We’re the Society of Typographic Arts, and we just really love design."
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Society of IllustratorsThe Society of Illustrators’ "mission is to promote the art of illustration, to appreciate its history and evolving nature through exhibitions, lectures and education, and to contribute the service of its members to the welfare of the community at large. Founded in 1901, the Society of Illustrators is the oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to the art of illustration in America. Notable Society members have been N.C. Wyeth, Rube Goldberg, and Norman Rockwell, among many others."
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Inter-Society Color CouncilFounded in 1931 the ISCC is the principal professional society in the field of color in the United States, encompassing the arts, sciences and industry.
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The Type Directors Club (TDC)Established in 1946, their website states "The TDC celebrates and amplifies the undeniable power of typography. We are a global community united by the shared belief that type drives culture and culture drives type."
Useful Websites--under construction--please suggest links!
- TypediaA growing encyclopedia of typefaces as well as several instructional modules such as "Anatomy of a Typeface". Includes forums for discussion and an active community blog.
- typo/graphic posersDesigned by Brazilian graphic designer Andre Felipe, this site serves as a platform of posters of more than 560 designers, studios, projects or exhibits worldwide.
- Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Wallace Center at RITOne of the country 's premier libraries on graphic communication and history. Significant image collection!
