This critical survey of the trends and key issues involved in graphic design over the last 200 years provides an introduction to this ever-changing subject. The international development of magazine, advertising and poster design is traced within a chronological framework from the illustrated journalism of the 19th century, to graphic images produced by celebrated artists such as Daumier and Toulouse Lautrec, to late-20th century alternative practices: pop, sub and counter-cultural graphics and the well-known work of Neville Brody. In the process of examining the relationship between word and image in the public domain, the authors cover issues of gender, class, race, hegemony and incorporation.