Meggs : making graphic design history

Graphic designer, professor, historian, and author Philip Baxter Meggs (1942-2002) was born in 1942, Meggs began teaching in the Communication Arts and Design Department at Virginia Commonwealth University, chairing the department from 1974 to 1987. In 1983, he published his History of Graphic Design --the book that not only put graphic design in its historical context; it put graphic design on the cultural map.

Before Phil Meggs wrote his seminal book, graphic design was left largely unchronicled. A History of Graphic Design offered designers and students of design a foundation on which to build, a starting point from which to move forward, and a context for graphic design's place in history.

This single work afforded an immediate legitimacy to a field that had, until that moment, been considered more of a trade than a profession. As Steven Heller wrote in PRINT magazine, Meggs "laid more than a groundwork; he built a monument to graphic design's legacy. Now he is an integral part of that legacy."

Meggs: Making Graphic Design History is at once a retrospective of Phil Megg's achievements as a historian, educator, and artist in his own right, a deserved tribute to his lasting influence on the graphic arts, and a loving memoriam written by family, friends, and colleagues who were lucky enough to have known him.

• Foreword: From A History of Graphic Design First Edition p. 8
• Introduction p. 12 Rob Carter
• Contributing Essay p. 17
• Growing Up with Phil p. 18 Bill Meggs
• The Collaboration p. 25 Libby Meggs
• Life by Design: From Ephemeral to Historical p. 34 Elizabeth Meggs
• Philip B. Meggs, A Memoir p. 36 Alston Purvis
• America's First Graphic Design Historian p. 41 Steven Heller
• Fond Personal Memories and Warm Professional Recollections p. 48 R. Roger Remington
• Philip B. Meggs: A Personal Remembrance p. 51 Roy McKelvey
• Selected Writings and Lectures p. 59
• Marshall McLuhan Lecture Notes p. 62
• Novum Education: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond p. 65
• George Tscherny p. 65
• The Demilitarization of Graphic Design p. 67
• Graphic Design History: Discipline or Anarchy? p. 68
• Design Education: Pedagogy vs. the Real World p. 73
• The Swiss Influence: The Old New Wave p. 77
• Toulouse-Lautrec: Superb But Not Alone p. 81
• High Style, Low Style, Vile Style p. 82
• An Oracle of the 21st-Century Book p. 84
• What is American about American Graphic Design? p. 88
• Government Style: Design Consciousness and the Feds p. 90
• ITG Bashing p. 93
• Test Your Typographic IQ p. 98
• Louis Prang: The Man Who Brought Out the Artist in Children p. 100
• A Pantheon of Design Eccentricity p. 104
• Farewell to the Opulent Eighties p. 105
• Future Issues in Graphic Design Education p. 106
• The Women Who Saved New York p. 108
• The Obscene Typography Machine p. 116
• The 1940s: Rise of the Modernists p. 120
• Excerpts from Type & Image p. 130
• Saul Bass on Corporate Identity p. 132
• The Design Education Quandary p. 137
• The Vitality of Risk p. 139
• The Designer, Paper, and the Environment p. 146
• Landmarks of Book Design, Second of a Series: For the Voice p. 149
• The Last Word on the Walker Show p. 157
• Women's Place: Two at the Top p. 162
• Peter Behrens: Design's Man of the Century? p. 167
• Tibor the Pit Bull p. 174
• Landmarks of Book Design, Fourth of a Series: The Elements of Euclid p. 179
• I Am Type! Revisited p. 183
• Introduction to Typographic Specimens: The Great Typefaces p. 186
• Yin/Yang and the Art of Graphic Design p. 189
• Landmarks of Book Design, Seventh of a Series: American Typefounders Specimen Book and Catalogue, 1923 p. 194
• Tribute to an Unrepentant Modernist p. 202
• Landmarks of Book Design, Eighth of a Series: The Bald Soprano p. 205
• Required Reading for the Millennium p. 211
• Methods and Philosophy in Design History Research p. 219
• Back Talk: Philip B. Meggs, Design Historian p. 227
• Landmarks of Book Design, Tenth of a Series: Before Rosebud was a Sled p. 230
• Excerpt from Fotografiks p. 235
• Letters to Print: Critical Mass p. 237
• Letters to Print: Departed Icons p. 238
• Foreword to Revival of the Fittest p. 239
• Introduction to The Allure of Postage Stamps p. 242
• Introduction to the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of The Mechanical Bride p. 244 Marshall McLuhan
• Epilogue from A History of Graphic Design, First Edition p. 249
• Chronology p. 250
• The Complete Published Writings p. 251
• Biographies of Editors and Contributors p. 254
• Biography of Philip B. Meggs p. 255
• Acknowledgements p. 256
• Colophon p. 256