This tightly knit account examines the birth, development, and evolution of graphic art, or commercial art, from its beginnings in late-19th-century Europe through the Information Age 100 years later. Graphic design began as artisan experimentation in typefaces and book design and eventually grew into increasingly sophisticated strategies in brand identity, repetition, and conceptual advertising. Graphic arts expert Alain Weill demonstrates how this art integrated the exploding demands of commerce with the changing tides of artistic avant-gardes and political change. Graphic Design: A History is an instructive primer in the social, artistic, and political roots of graphic art.