The conference focused on the relationship between graphic design history and practice, their intersection and exchange, their mutual engagement as well as their frictions and dissonances. Organized at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, the conference gathered international graphic design historians, practitioners, educators and commentators, who have engaged with design history through writing, publishing, editorial and curatorial activities.

I was invited to contribute a lecture, take part in a panel discussion, and prepare a paper for the subsequent publication. I chose as my subject ‘Changing Attitudes to Graphic Design History in the digital age.’

In my lecture and text I identified a growing interest on the part of students and young graphic designers in design history and criticism, and noted a parallel increase in interest in design history amongst design journalist.

I argued that far from being eclipsed by the arrival of the internet and the superabundance of visual material available online, it was this plethora of material (previously hard to find) that had engendered an interest in forging a deeper understanding of history and its relation to contemporary practice.