"An Organ of Their Own": Victorian Print Trade Journals and the Evolution of Graphic Design Thinking

Abstract:In 1895, Victorian printer and letterpress historian George Joyner reflected upon the change that had been wrought in the character of British job and book printing, calling it "little short of a revolution!" He is correct; the second half of the nineteenth century saw the transformation of printers into designers. Central to this transformation was the explosion of print trade journals, which fueled the nineteenth-century revolution in British letterpress print design. These journals—more than one hundred of which were founded during the period—became energetic remediators of design reform theory, using this program of ideas to articulate some of Britain's earliest theories of graphic design.