Paul Stiff, Paul Dobraszczyk, and Mike Esbester suggest that many interactions of everyday life in the nineteenth century were conducted through, and recorded by, ephemeral printed documents, the varied texts and graphic configurations of which made new demands on newly literate audiences.
They think that Victorian ‘information design’, done before the emergence of professional designers, is an intelligent but little known ancestor of today’s graphic design. They aim to show what can be learned about and from it.
Their project explores three themes: time and travel (such as diagrams and timetables); selling and buying (such as catalogues); and questions and answers (such as tax forms). They analyse these artefacts for production and dissemination, and especially for evidence of reception – reading and its consequences.
They are at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading, and together work on ‘Designing information for everyday life, 1815–1914’, a research project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
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