InfoGuides: History of Graphic Design: Find Background Information

Designers and Design History

Reference sources and useful for finding the basic details of a topic: names, dates, places, related artists or themes, movements, etc. Consider these if you're struggling to define a topic, or as your next step after Wikipedia.

Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Scholarly art encyclopedia. Includes over 200,000 reference articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present, with selected images, written by over 6,800 scholars. Serves as the access point for Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference resources. Tutorial for the Oxford Art Online database.

Meggs' History of Graphic Design by Philip B. Meggs; Alston W. Purvis
Call Number: Z246 .M43 2012
ISBN: 9780470168738
Award-winning reference book on graphic design. In addition to classic topics such as the invention of writing and alphabets, the origins of printing and typography, and postmodern design, this edition presents new information on current trends and technologies.

Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Offers exclusive, authoritative research guides developed by scholars and librarians worldwide to address a variety of subjects, including African Studies, Anthropology, Atlantic History, Cinema and Media Studies, Classics, Criminology, Education, International Law, International Relations, Latin American Studies, Management, Music, Political Science, and Sociology. Tutorial for the Oxford Bibliographies Online database.
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 300 Oxford University Press dictionaries and reference works. Texts are updated after new editions of the print book are published. Tutorial for the Oxford Reference database.