Graphic design is at a crossroads. Looking back, one sees designers engaged in a process where intuition informs the development of visual rhetoric intended to evoke a response from a target audience. Looking ahead, one sees them engaged in a process where research is integrated into the design of objects and experiences for and with the audience. By adopting interdisciplinary research approaches, graphic designers can both question and affirm their intuitive inclinations, and place this process in conversation with peers and even the lay public. Traditionally graphic design theory has privileged intuition and creativity over empirical research. This book seeks to provide an alternative approach to graphic design theory by surveying the best work, past to present, on research based graphic design theory. The question then is: what are graphic design's theories? It can be argued that the art-based principles of graphic design-including (but not limited to) contrast, hierarchy, repetition, alignment, and color-are in fact theories proven through a long history of successful experimentation in practice. Indeed, graphic designersthrough professional practice have tested and retested to the point where it makes sense to refer to these theories as laws or principles. Marty Neumeier's and James Souttar's analyses of the work of John Rushworth, Massimo Vignelli,…Graphic design is at a crossroads. Looking back, one sees designers engaged in a process where intuition informs the development of visual rhetoric intended to evoke a response from a target audience. Looking ahead, one sees them engaged in a process where research is integrated into the design of objects and experiences for and with the audience. By adopting interdisciplinary research approaches, graphic designers can both question and affirm their intuitive inclinations, and place this process in conversation with peers and even the lay public. Traditionally graphic design theory has privileged intuition and creativity over empirical research. This book seeks to provide an alternative approach to graphic design theory by surveying the best work, past to present, on research based graphic design theory. The question then is: what are graphic design's theories? It can be argued that the art-based principles of graphic design-including (but not limited to) contrast, hierarchy, repetition, alignment, and color-are in fact theories proven through a long history of successful experimentation in practice. Indeed, graphic designersthrough professional practice have tested and retested to the point where it makes sense to refer to these theories as laws or principles. Marty Neumeier's and James Souttar's analyses of the work of John Rushworth, Massimo Vignelli,WWWW…