When teachers work with students to construct a metalanguage that they can draw on to describe and analyze graphic novels, and then invite students to apply that metalanguage in the service of composing multimodal texts of their own, teachers broaden students' analytical frameworks. In the process of doing so, teachers empower students. In this…

What are the capacities of visual arts curricula to engage learning within narrow frameworks of overly "scientistic" standards (Lather, 2007)? With growing emphasis in schools under STEM initiatives and evidence-based standards, the possible cross-pollination of effects that art education may have on a science-centric education may be a…

This paper argues that typography can be an affective re/presentational strategy when used as a medium within the research framework of arts-based inquiry. Grounded in a larger comparative case study exploring the experiences of two elementary teachers in south Texas, the purpose of this paper is to (1) situate typography within the field of…

The Emerson College Web site on Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction" nicely animates some ideas of the essay. One such idea is the following: "To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility." When Benjamin wrote this essay and this maxim, Norman…

It is a mainstream view within the ontology of art that there are singular as well as multiple artworks, but it is also a view that is contested. In this article, the author investigates whether the singular/multiple distinction can be sustained and argues for a new way to determine the category to which an artwork belongs. The author stresses…

Integration or connectedness between faith and learning is a core aim of Protestant evangelical colleges and universities. It is pursued in a number of different ways in the academic programs of these institutions, even in commercially oriented courses that they offer, such as graphic design. However, the different ways that practical and…

A picture is a patchwork of color laid out in a private space in which lie flat imitations of life. Such a patchwork constitutes a make-believe visual field. The author rolls out this suggestion under the following headings: Intention, Form and Content, Ontology, Picture Space, Make-believe, Photography, and Resemblance. This commentary focuses on…

States that in "The New Typography," Jan Tschichold explicates a functionalist and information-based theory of typographic design and demonstrates its application in numerous typographic examples of varied genres. Outlines Tschichold's typographic position; analyzes his style of visual communication; and considers subsequent developments…

Provides occupational information about computer-assisted graphic design including educational requirements and job expectations. (JOW)

Argues that, given the functional relation between typography and language, histories of typography must be informed by those disciplines which bear upon language and its manifestations. Suggests that failing this, chronicles of "natural," untheorized objects will continue to assume the role and claim the status of history-writing. (RS)

Presents examples of logotypes of the word "Mexico" by second-semester typography students from the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico. Analyzes each according to its unity, coherence, and emphasis. Discusses the context, syntactic and semantic rhetorical figures, metaphor, and the denotation and connotation of each. (CR)

Proposes that the work of the French feminist writers Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray could serve as the basis for devising a more imaginative form of critical writing that might help to draw the history and practice of graphic design into a closer and more purposeful relation. (SR)

Introduces this issue of the journal, which is devoted to new perspectives on critical histories of graphic design. Notes that the essays in this issue offer examples of the variety of interpretative approaches available that serve to question both the previously unchallenged acceptance of historical explanations and the transcendent understanding…

Discusses most effective use of graphics and design in school newspapers as suggested by Dr. Mario Garcia, a foremost newspaper redesign specialist. (HTH)

Notes that the use of classical symmetry theory permits a precise study of relationships found in forms; presents an illustrated examination of sets of symmetry relationships that are possible in small, clearly defined segments of space. (GT)