Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This graphic design compendium distils the essences of 48 design styles, from Victoran to Post-Modern. What does Swiss Art Deco look like? Or Italian Art Noveau? Or De Stijl, Dada or Polish Late Modern? Here the answers to these and a host of other questions.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

A minimum of words, a profusion of picturesand the result is a book on graphic style that is itself an expression of graphic style. This work examines printed communication as a reflection and often a manipulation of popular taste, whether for political motives, commercial gain, or philosophical beliefs. Stopping along the way for a look at Art Nouveau and Deco, Dada and Bauhaus, it discusses 48 distinctive styles. A major asset is the extensive bibliography and the index of every designer whose work appears in the book. However, the result is more style than substancesomething to leaf through rather than to read cover to cover. For large collections. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum Lib., New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Presented in celebration of 150 years of design (beginning with the Victorian age and concluding with the Post-Modern), this chronologically compiled volume entertainingly documents the development of graphic art, an often undervalued cousin of the fine arts. The esthetic and social values of each era are appropriately illustrated with a plethora of unusual and interesting black-and-white or color art, advertisements, typography, posters and everyday products, accompanied by a brief historical analysis. The designs of these previously inconsequential artifacts were influenced by political and economic events, and demonstrate the implications of expressive periods such as Bauhaus and Art Nouveau. This study by award-winning designer Chwast and Heller, art director for the New York Times Book Review , should heighten most readers' appreciation of the evolution of graphic design, as well as the way in which design reflects historical events of the period in which it was created. (Oct . ) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

History, technology, war, nature, society, philosophy, and art are just a few of the influences shaping our visual literacy. These influences are explained in the text and described with hundreds of illustrations in this volume by two of America's foremost graphic designers. Heller and Chwast chronicle visual stylization as it occurred in the burgeoning graphic design world of the mid-1880s to the present day. Considering the far-reaching effect that artistic styles have had on our everyday lives, it is not surprising to see examples ranging from fine art to architecture to package design to furniture to posters. While Heller and Chwast provide us with the who, where, when, and how of style development, they also deal with the peripheral and reactionary trends, making the evolution of graphic styles more understandable. While Graphic Styles is said to be too incomplete to be considered a history book, it is too informative not to be used as one. It will become a respected reference source for the professional designer, artist, craftsperson, and a fascinating book for the casual reader. -M. LaPorte, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Booklist Review

A gallery of 640 examples of commercial, propagandistic, and journalistic art is presented in a 150-year chronology of styles. Chapters within the continuum collect discrete styles under umbrella terms; for example, specimens of futurism, vorticism, constructivism, De Stijl, Bauhaus, and New Typography all appear in the chapter called ``Modern.'' A general introduction and chapter introductions consider developments in taste and technology that impinged upon style. Notes on every other display page treat the histories of the particular styles. More than 200 illustrations are in color, and Abrams' high-quality reproduction makes the monotones no less striking, an important feature in a compendium of images meant to grab attention. A definite asset to design collections, in both reference and, budget allowing, circulating copies. Selected bibliography; index of designers. RO.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Steven Heller is senior Art Director for the New York Times & author of over seventy books on art, culture, & design.

He lives in New York City.

(Bowker Author Biography)