Visual Communication: Design History Research

Primary Sources are first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it. In design history research, these can be artworks, type specimens, photographs, drawings, adverts, video footage, interviews and original designed objects that were created in the period you are studying.

Use this page to help you browse historical graphic design resources by type, from museums and archival collections worldwide.

Online collections of graphic design history from outside the Anglophone world.

The Letterform Archive offers books, periodicals, posters, sketches, original art for reproduction, and related ephemera. Together, these works chronicle the history of written communication, from the invention of writing and medieval manuscripts to modernism, the age of print to the present explosion of digital type. 

The following archives are available to view in print in the Library:

• Modern Publicity (1929-1985)
  The annual for graphic design – posters, printed material, packaging and trade marks – from around the world, printing the best advertising of the time. Edited by Felix Gluck from 1968 to 1981. Previously known as Posters and Publicity. Incomplete archive.
   
• Penrose Annuals (1904-1980)
  Annual London-based review of the graphic arts, that remains the quintessential record for the development of print media, advertising, photography, design, and typography throughout the 20th century. The Museum of Printing provides a searchable record of the articles published.

• Aspen Magazine (1965-1971)
  Online version of the innovative arts magazine, created by editor Phyllis Johnson. Each issue came in a customized box filled with booklets, records and postcards, subverting the bound magazine format. Contributors included some of the most interesting artists of the 20th century. The Library also holds selected print issues of Aspen. 
   
• Avant Garde (1968-1971)
  Short-lived magazine, famed for its graphic and logogram design by Herb Lubalin (1918–1981), a post-modern American graphic designer. The publication gave birth to the well-known typeface of the same name.
   
• Design (1965-1974)
  Influential magazine from the Design Council, initially published by the Council of Industrial Design. Targeting professional designers, manufacturers, buyers and managers, the magazine's aim was to promote good design and increase the market for well-designed products.
   
• Emigre Magazine (1984-2005)
  Quarterly magazine dedicated to visual communication, graphic design, typography, and design criticism. Emigre was one of the first publications to be designed on Macintosh computers, and their work heavily influenced other graphic designers in the early digital era, creating some of the very first digital layouts and typeface designs.
  The Library also holds selected print issues of Emigre.
  
  
• Oz Magazine (1967-1973)
  Sometimes called the most controversial magazine of the sixties, renowned for psychedelic covers by pop artist Martin Sharp (who was initially responsible for the graphic design) and cartoons by Robert Crumb. By August 1971, it had been the subject of the longest obscenity trial in British history.
   
• TM Research Archive (1960-1990)
  Typographische Monatsblätter was one of the most important journals to disseminate Swiss typography to an international audience. The issues published between 1960–90 correspond to a period of transition in which technology, socio-political contexts and aesthetic ideologies profoundly affected and transformed the fields of typography and graphic design. 
   
• Upper & Lower Case (1970-1990)
  U&lc was one of the first publications intended specifically for the design community, launched in 1970 by legendary American graphic designer, Herb Lubalin. The publication featured experimental typographic compositions, along with illustrations, cartoons and discussion of new type designs. Notable contributors include Steven Heller and Milton Glaser. The Library also holds selected print issues of Upper & Lower Case.
   

Digital collections of graphic design objects from museum, industry and university collections in the UK, North America and Australasia.