Incomplet Design History

Kustom Kulture is the name for a subcultural movement from the 1950s and 60s in America. This movement included souping up cars to create hot rods and customizing cars into unique one-of-a-kind creations. These custom cars were an identity for the, usually, men that drove them. This movement has been called a distinctly masculine movement and is said to have died out when Detroit car manufacturers started appropriating elements from both rods and customs into mainstream-designed cars. Yet this unique phenomenon produced many visual elements that are still popular today, including graphics such as flames, lettering, and demented-looking characters...

Jackie Ormes, an African-American cartoonist from Pennsylvania, was born on August 1st, 1911. Her father, William Winfield Jackson, owned and operated a printing business, and her mother, Mary Brown Jackson, was a homemaker.  As a teenager, Jackie published her first comics in her school’s yearbook as Monongahela High School’s Yearbook arts editor.  After graduating, she worked as a proofreader for the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper. This is also where she starts her first comic strip with “Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem.” After being with the Pittsburgh Courier, she moved to Chicago and became a journalist and specia...

Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was a pioneering Finnish artist whose multifaceted career spanned painting, illustration, cartooning, and literature. Best known internationally for her creation of the Moomins, whimsical troll-like characters who first appeared in books and later in globally syndicated comic strips, Jansson’s legacy bridges the divide between “high” fine art and “low” commercial illustration. Born into an artistic family, Jansson was deeply influenced by her mother, a prolific illustrator and graphic designer. Her early work, particularly for the satirical magazine Garm, sharpened her skills in political commentary and visual storytelling.

Despite Finland’s progressive stance on women’s rights, Jansso...

REFERENCES

Tucker, I. (Ed.)(2018). FF DOT: The pixel art of final fantasy. Dark Horse Books. 

Hendrix, G. (2017). Paperbacks from hell: The twisted history of ‘70s and ‘80s horror fiction. Quirk Books.

Chatziioannou, A. (2023). From ants to zombies: Six decades of video game horror. Bitmap Books.

Gianni, G. (2017). Gary gianni’s monstermen and other scary stories. Dark Horse Books.

Kochman, C. (Ed.)(2012). Mars attacks. Abrams ComicArts.

Vallejo, D. (2000). The art of rowena. Paper Tiger.

Voger, M. (2015). Monster mash: The creepy, kooky monster craze in America 1957-1972. TwoMorr...

Brummett Echohawk was a war hero, an artist, a writer, and a public speaker, and he was also a member of the Pawnee tribe, born in Oklahoma in 1922. Though he is well known for his contributions to the art world, he is less known for his contributions to the history of illustration and commercial art, he turned to these outlets throughout his life to successfully augment his income. Brummett Echohawk considered himself a historical or classical artist, rather than an “Indian” artist, though his work often centered on his indigenatity. His first notoriety as an artist was for his war...

REFERENCES

White, R. (2003). Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind. Harry N. Abrams Inc. 

Clottes, J. (2008). Cave Art. Phaidon Press Limited. 9780714845920

Neumayer, E. (1983). Prehistoric Indian Rock Paintings. Oxford University Press. 9780195613872

Ruspoli, M. (1987). The Cave of Lascaux: The Final Photographs. Harry N. Abrams Inc. 0810912678

Myron, R. (1964). Prehistoric Art. Pitman Publishing Corporation. 0273438611

Stokstad, M., & Cothren M. W. (2011). Art History: Ancient Art (4th ed.). Pearson Education. 0205744222 

Art Nouveau was a stylistic movement in the late nineteenth century characterized by highly ornate and decorated designs. Inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, Celtic manuscripts, The Arts and Crafts Movement, and the development of the lithograph, Art Nouveau, or New Art, was applied to everything from architecture to biscuit tins.

Though widely applied, posters that make up a great part of Art Nouveau history.The development of lithography meant posters could be large illustrations filled with bright colors and elaborate designs, even though they were advertisements for anything from events to consumer products. While Paris, France was...

Capcom, a Japan-based maker of successful game properties, made a tremendous impact on the business of video games world wide, and helped usher in the current boom in Japanese-based visual media like manga and anime as much as fellow cultural exports like Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Speed Racer, and the Dragon Ball series. 

The art team behind the bulk of Capcom’s fighting game imagery began in the late 80s and lasted until the early 2000s. The team’s story includes an eccentric artist remembered almost as much for his habits as his skills and leadership, a draftsperson capab...

TIMELINE

* A broad timeline spanning centuries is used to account for imprecise dates in the Ottoman Empire from multiple sources.

REFERENCES

Witwer, M. & Newman, K., Peterson, J., Witwer, S. (2018). Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, A Visual History. Ten Speed Press.

Seeley, S. & Seeley, T. (2015). The Art of He-Man and The Masters of The Universe. Dark Horse Books.

Forster, B. & Sorenson, J. (2019). Transformers Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging. IDW Publishing.

Farago, A. (2014). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History. Insight editions.

Heller, S. & Mungia, R. (2021). SF20: Toys: 100 years of all-american toy ads. Taschen.

Voger, M. (2015). Monster mash: The creepy, kooky monster craze in America 1957-1972. TwoMorrows Publishing.<...

Bio/ Background (intro)

Topic 1 Introduction

To my surprise, a number of people have never seen or heard of the movie “Treasure Planet.” In this  classic retelling of “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson,  the narrative was turned into an intergalactic adventure complete with cyborgs, space travel, and, of course, treasure. Disney’s “Treasure Planet” was one of two experimental movies in the year 2002. “Treasure Planet,” however, is notorious for its box office failure. The other experimental film, from a different in-house studio was “Lilo and Stitch,” which got way more attention an...

Lynd Ward hits all my favorite aspects of the mercurial world of art and design. Here is the son of a leader of the Methodist Church whose work unabashedly depicts the underside of the Depression Era city and the undead creatures of gothic horror (often in the buff). His work embodies the height of graphic narrative and the depth of pulp chunkiness. The elite halls of the gallery and chummy confines of the childrens’ library nook. Comfortable with brush or knife, his work carries an expressionistic zeal to it that would go on to influence comic books, illustration and pr...

José Guadalupe Posada was a Mexican illustrator who worked in lithography and engraving, he was a very prolific image maker who completed an estimated 20,000 illustrations in his lifetime, with themes ranging from Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead illustrations, political cartoons, popular illustrations, and daily life, as well as illustrations for “shocking” crime stories. He was also known to have created illustrations for a number of children’s books in the form of cheaply printed chapbooks with the printer Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, making them accessible to wide audiences. Yet despite his enduring legacy, his contributions are not...

From its origins in the 1950s from the pages of books to software like MacDraw in the 1980s to CD Roms, and finally moving online in the 1990s, Clip Art’s evolution took place along with that of graphic design. Even though clip art was mostly created by unnamed designers and illustrators and sold in packages or libraries, there are many important figures we know of whose clip art contributed to the history of graphic design. Joan Shogren, an early computer art pioneer and clip art designer; Frank Fruznya, whose iconic clip art defined an era; and Sean Tejaratchi, wh...

Most books, not all, but most, follow conventions of book design that have been in place for literally hundreds of years. With very few exceptions, it wasn’t until the 1960s when authors began to play around with story structure that there were any books that also played with the structure of the book itself. And it was later still that graphic design started adding another layer to the storytelling in popular literature. The colors, the typography, the page layouts all came to be used in service of the story. In House of Leaves, when the story starts getting re...

The History of Tarot decks intersects with symbology, or the study of symbols as well as their history, mass production of text and images, and popular culture, all of which are fields of study in the history of graphic design, and yet this subject has not been included in mainstream histories of design. Is this a reflection of the mystical, romanticized history of the cards, and one that implies a connection to divination or fortune telling? It is also a history that connects with the history of alchemy, and science, as well as with religious studies, esoterism, and occult...

The history of graphic design has traditionally skewed toward designers from white hegemony. Where white men (and some women) tend to fill the pages, webpages, and galleries that celebrate design. As humanity evolves, we must realize the value of making space for more diverse voices in the design world. This episode elevates Black designers who have successfully fought against the forces of white supremacy and oppression to take back control of representation. Starting with Abolitionist broadsides, this episode examines how mostly white creators of broadsides, used to support the antislavery movement, were hindered by what we now call the “Wh...

George Herriman was a cartoonist, illustrator, and pioneer of the cartoon comics genre, and is perhaps most known for his long-running and wildly popular comic strip Krazy Kat. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, and  John Jacob Astor, a wealthy business tycoon, were some of the famous fans of Herriman’s comics. Astor went so far as to name his dog Ignatz for the mouse that was Krazy Kat’s constant companion. Herriman’s work was not only popular but also influential and was said to have inspired cartoonists Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the strip Mutts...

An indigenous cowboy-artist from small-town Oklahoma, Tommy Wayne Cannon was born to Caddo and Kiowa parents in the Fall of 1946. Growing up he attended school in Gracemont and took an interest in the arts. As an adolescent, Cannon was self-taught in the arts and entered his works in regional art competitions through the Southern Plains Indian Museum. His success in these competitions, as well as his proficiency in multiple mediums, won him a scholarship to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was here that Cannon’s passion for art was met with an en...

Women have long been a part of bookmaking, design, and publishing, dating as far back as handmade illuminated manuscripts, created before the printing press. In the 18th and 19th centuries, women were known to run some very successful book binderies, including Jane Steel, Katherine Waghorn, Jane Aitken, and Lorina Watkins. Most often women took over when their husbands or fathers died. Other women supported their husbands' work by setting type, such as Bertha Goudy, wife of noted book and type designer Frederic Goudy. Women also became very successful book designers following the era of book reform known as the...

If it seems like the underground comix scene was a raucous and raunchy boys club, that’s fairly accurate. However, there were plenty of women artists who reacted against the sexist depictions of women in comix, of which there was plenty. Their complaints about how women were being portrayed was seen to be just more censorship heaped on the male comix artists. Rather than just be quiet and go away, women like Trina Robbins, Willy Mendes, Linda Barry, Mary Fleener, and many others started drawing, bringing their own voices into the underground comix scene. Their experience in comix wasn’t al...

Comix, spelled with an x at the end instead of c, is a uniquely American movement and brings to mind eccentric, explicit, and subversive comics aimed at an adult audience. Having roots in the explicit Tijuana Bibles of the 1920, the lurid horror comics produced by EC, and the later wackiness of MAD Magazine, Comix creators defied censorship laws and American moral standards to create their unique artistic visions and thrived as a part of the Counterculture movement of the 1960s. In some respects, comix were a reaction against what the artists saw as the over-sanitized mainstream comics that did...

During the 1960s, the Chicano Movement or "El Movimiento" gave way for Chicano artists, designers, and printmakers to emerge. The Chicano Movement united Chicanos, Americans of Mexican heritage who chose that label, in a new shared identity to fight for social and political empowerment. One of the creatives that made their mark in support of this movement was Yolanda Margarita López, a feminist painter, printmaker, educator, and film producer. She was best known for her works focusing on the experiences of Mexican-American and Chicana women, often challenging the harmful ethnic stereotypes associated with them. López is most kn...

There is a rich history of Black films and filmmaking in the United States that stems from the history of segregation, which created a need for separate films for separate audiences. Since mainstream Hollywood ignored Black audiences, Black filmmakers took the lead in making all Black or “colored” cast films for their audiences. These films have become known as race films. The goal was to shoot films for and about Black folks that were positive and uplifting, to counteract the stereotyped portrayals of mainstream movies. The era of race films dates from roughly 1912-1950 when following World War II movi...

Edward Gorey was probably best known as an author and illustrator of more than 100 books in his lifetime. Collector's items today, his books have become icons in and of themselves, darkly humorous and humorously dark. The books defied genres and publishers sometimes had a hard time determining how to market them. They were illustrated yes, but the dark and sometimes gruesome tales certainly weren’t children's books. This contribution was undoubtedly significant, but this was not the limit of his career, which included designing book covers, sets, and costumes for theater and ballet (including the Tony award-winning designs for Dr...

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panther Party was founded during the turbulent times of the sixties that saw many changes in America. Newton at first led the party with an ideology called their Ten Point Program, and with the idea that arming Black communities was essential for their protection and survival. Through community assistance programs and armed community patrols to prevent police brutality, the Black Panther Party sought to protect and uplift their communities, stepping in where the government had failed them.  In o...

In 1922 William Harmon, a white real estate mogul from Ohio, started the Harmon foundation which, among other things, supported Black artists. His hope for the foundation was that it would help these artists gain recognition and help them to sell their work, regardless of their skin color. The foundation organized exhibitions and awards for Black artists, all with the explicit intent to stimulate their success. Despite its good intentions, the foundation met with criticism from the Black community. The work the foundation did was seen as patriarchal and fulfilling a “white savior” complex rather than effecting real change and achi...

Posters as political tools are nothing new. In the Middle East, two revolutionary movements led to some of the most potent and vibrant posters in design history. The Iranian Revolution and the expulsion of Palestinians due to civil war and the continued fight to reclaim Palestinian homelands from Israel. These posters effectively gave voice to the struggles of ordinary people resisting the influence and meddling of various Western powers. For Iran, that meant keeping the dream of an Islamic state free and independent from Western countries that had been trying for decades to install a democratic government. And once...

Sylvia Harris has been described as a public designer, her own words, and a citizen designer, but whatever you want to call it, Harris was dedicated to designing for the good of the people. She was committed to creating designs that helped people to navigate their world. Harris grew up in Richmond, Virginia where she experienced the desegregation of her school, which likely had a significant impact on her entire life.  As a Black designer who was educated and entrenched in modernist design practices, created by western and European “elite” designers, she sought to discover what the Black aesthetic in Am...

There is a long history of racism behind famous brands, characters, and design that often goes unnoticed. Blatantly racist caricatures began with minstrel shows and the use of blackface, where white actors would use black makeup and overdrawn lips to depict Black people. These drove stereotypes that would be used in film, television, and branding. White actors depicted other minorities in an ill manner. From Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese man, Mr. Yunioshi, to Claudia Cardinale playing Indian Princess Dala, actors continued to manipulate their physical features to display the American audience’s ideas of these different ethnicities. Cartoons li...

The birth of the Black newspaper in America took place in the form of abolitionist newspapers that spoke out against enslavement. These papers were an essential part of the Abolitionist movement in America, and many of them gave the Black community an important voice on issues that directly affected them and their communities. These newspapers spread Enlightenment-era ideas of equality and the rights of Black Americans and fought back against the negative and disparaging news that was regularly published about Black Americans in white-owned newspapers. Freedom’s Journal, The Liberator, The Colored American, and The North Star were all ei...

This episode considers the 2016 proposal to place the likeness of Harriet Tubman on the U.S. $20 bill. The first use of paper money dates back to 1000 CE and has been cited as the first instance of widespread access to printed images. Money is an invented concept, it has value because societies collectively agree that it does, but historically images, symbols, and seals have been used to help authenticate money within the culture that it serves. Images of gods, monarchs and historical figures imbue the money with the magic of the gods or the authority of the government to assert...

Angel De Cora was an artist, illustrator, and educator from the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. Around the age of 14, she was enrolled in the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute as a part of the U.S. Government’s cultural assimilation program for Indigenous American youth. While at Hampton, she found her love for art. She went on to study under notable artists such as Dwight W. Tryon at Smith College and Howard Pyle at Drexel Institute. De Cora was later featured in Harper’s Monthly Magazine when she wrote and illustrated the semi-autobiographical tales “The Sick Child” and “Gray Wolf’s Dau...

John H. Johnson was the man driving the publishing empire that included Ebony, Jet, Tan, and Ebony Jr. Black-owned abolitionist newspapers certainly predated all of Johnson’s publications, however, Ebony was the first mainstream news and culture magazine by and for Black Americans. Much like its predecessors, Johnson’s magazines pushed back against the negative images and stereotypes of Black Americans found in many other papers and magazines. Ebony was inspired by LIFE magazine and printed stories of the “happier side of Negro life.” Ebony, as with all of Johnson’s other titles, fostered a sense of community and was popula...

There are not a lot of definitive details known about the life of Sequoyah and what information we do have is often conflicting, like was his anglicized name George Guess or George Gist? Did he possibly go by both? Sequoyah has been called an enigmatic figure and a genius because despite all unknowns about his life, what most historians can and do agree on is that he is the sole creator of the Cherokee Alphabet. The alphabet is more accurately called a syllabary, and Sequoyah is the only figure recorded in history to develop a written language all on...

Often the images and fonts meant to Africa are stereotypical and reduce the diversity and complexity of a vast continent to simplified imagery and types. Like Rudolf Koch’s typeface Neuland, used in the logo for Disney’s The Lion King, which wasn’t even supposed to be representative of anything other than Koch’s own religious fervor. The origin and development of typography in Africa is far more diverse and interesting. It is also, unfortunately, inextricably tied to the colonization of the continent. Alphabets and syllabaries were largely efforts to resist colonization while preserving languages and cultures. The first an...

An indigenous artist from Oklahoma, Alex C. Mackintosh was born in 1907 with Creek and Scottish ancestry. He attended the Chilocco federal Boarding school for Native Americans in Newkirk Oklahoma, it was there that he took on the name Acee Blue Eagle to honor his heritage. The name “Blue Eagle” was reportedly from his mother’s family; this matrilineal approach to last names is traditional and accepted in many indigenous cultures. After graduating from Chilocco he would go on to attend the Bacone Indian College and from there he was accepted to study art at the University of Oklahoma, where a spec...

Eiko Ishioka was a graphic, costume, and set designer. She was born July 12, 1938 in Tokyo, Japan. Growing up, her life always fused western and Japanese culture. She graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1960 and immediately started working for the largest cosmetic company in Japan, Shiseido. There she revolutionized the poster with her bold use of diverse models and progressive feminist messages that defied tradition. Ishioka later worked as a creative director for the department store Parco, producing iconic posters and television ads that broke with tradition and showed no products. In 1983, Ishioka left...

Margo Chase became a graphic designer almost by accident. In college, Chase was determined to become a veterinarian and in an attempt to get a higher GPA, signed up for a graphic design course. She discovered her love of solving problems creatively and attempted to combine her two loves of science and design by getting a masters degree in medical illustration. Chase realized she wouldn’t have the creative freedom she wanted and dropped out of school to become a full time designer. Some of her first jobs were designing album covers and typefaces for Geffen Records, Columbia, Warner Br...

Jacqueline Casey was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1927 and  grew up with a passion for art. While her parents encouraged her to study bookkeeping, she pursued art against their wishes by entering the Massachusetts College of Art. It was at MassArt that Casey met and befriended Muriel Cooper. In 1949, Casey graduated from MassArt with a degree in fashion design and illustration. She entered the workforce which was very gradually becoming more accepting of women and worked in fashion design, advertising, and interior design. Except none of them felt quite right. Frustrated, Casey took three months to travel across Europe a...