The author's many years' experience teaching graphic design students enable her to explain complex theories with total clarity. Topics include: communication models; visual representation as a system of signs; cognitive approaches to design; modernism and post-modernism; and the social, cultural and material contexts of contemporary design.

The book encourages students to evaluate design work critically, and to use theoretical frameworks to enhance their studio practice in order to improve their work and embark on a successful career.

Lucid, absorbing and elegantly written, this is an essential text for all students of graphic design theory but will also be important reading for anyone investigating ideas about audience, context and history as part of their graphic design work.