The nature of history is that it is never “complete”, new information is gained every day that changes our understanding an interpretations of history. The mission of Incomplete Design History is to explore areas of graphic design history that are overlooked or ignored; to expand our knowledge in the field and to include all sides of the story. Incomplete design history seeks to be inclusive, inclusive not only of people but of ideas and technologies that advance the field of graphic design. History is messy. History is incomplete.
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The Grateful Dead occupy a singular place in American music and visual culture, achieving lasting success despite minimal radio play and a radically unconventional approach to performance, distribution, and branding. Founded in California in 1965, the band cultivated its audience through live, improvisational performances in which no two shows were ever the same. This emphasis on experience over reproducibility fostered a devoted fan base, known as Deadheads, and encouraged practices such as concert taping, tape trading, and fan-led circulation that have been described as an early form of viral marketing. Equally distinctive was the Grateful Dead’s approach to visual identity. Rather than relying on a single logo or cohesive corporate identity system, the band embraced a fluid system of symbols that evolved through collaboration with artists, designers, engineers, and fans. The Grateful Dead’s iconography was a decentralized and countercultural model of visual identity, focusing on key symbols such as the “Steal Your Face” (Stealie) skull and lightning bolt, the Skull and Roses (Bertha), the Dancing Bears, and the Terrapins. Created by figures including Owsley “Bear” Stanley, Bob Thomas, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, and Rick Griffin, these icons emerged from practical needs, psychedelic aesthetics, historical references, and fan participation rather than a top-down branding strategy. Permissive attitudes toward taping and unsanctioned merchandise helped expand the band’s visual language through fan creativity on Shakedown Street and beyond. Together, these practices reveal how the Grateful Dead built a powerful and enduring visual identity rooted in collaboration, adaptability, and community. All of which challenge conventional assumptions about branding, authorship, and control in graphic design history.
TIMELINE
1938 - Bob Thomas is born
1940 - Phil Lesh is born, Stanley “Mouse” Miller is born, Alton Kelley is born
1942 - Jerry Garcia is born
1945 - Ron "Pigpen" McKernan is born
1946 - Bill Kreutzmann is born
1947 - Bob Weir is born
1965 - The Grateful Dead band formed in Palo Alto, California
1966 - September, Grateful Dead perform at Avalon Ballroom, Kelley and Mouse designed poster
1969 - Steal Your Face or Stealie logo developed by Owsley Stanley & Bob Thomas, Live Dead album released.
1971 - Grateful Dead Live double LP released with Skull & Roses cover by Kelley & Mouse
1973 - Ron "Pigpen" McKernan dies, History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice) album released
1976 - the Steal Your Face Album was released
1985 - Rick Griffin creates minuteman logo for 20th anniversary tour
1993 - Bob Thomas dies
1995 - Jerry Garcia dies, the Band breaks up
2008 - Alton Kelley dies
2024 - Phil Lesh dies
2026 - Bob Weir dies
REFERENCES
Barnes, B. (2014). Everything I Know about Business I Learned from the Grateful Dead: The Ten Most Innovative Lessons from a Long, Strange Trip.
Benson, M. (2016). Why the Grateful Dead Matter (1st ed.). ForeEdge, an imprint of University Press of New England.
Bryant, M. (2015). Sullivan, Edmund Joseph (1869–1933), illustrator and cartoonist. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
Cushway, P. (2012). Art of the Dead. National Geographic Books.
Edgers, G. (2015, May 22). Meet the artist who invented the Grateful Dead’skull and roses logo: Stanley “Mouse” Miller talks Dead, monsters on hot rods and dung-eating beetles on Journey albums. The Washington Post (Online).
Richardson, P. (2015). No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead. Macmillan.
Scott, D. M., & Halligan, B. (2010). Marketing lessons from the Grateful Dead : what every business can learn from the most iconic band in history (1st edition). Wiley.
Throughout history, LGBTQ+ communities have used a wide range of icons, colors, badges, and symbols to communicate identity, resistance, and belonging, often under conditions of surveillance, persecution, and criminalization. Queer symbols as both coded language and visible markers, shifted in meaning as social conditions changed. Oscar Wilde used subtle visual cues like the Green Carnation of the Victorian Aesthetic Movement to signal queer identity in an era when homosexual acts were criminalized in Britain and beyond. The Pink Triangle, a symbol imposed by the Nazi regime to mark gay men as “other.” While it began as a tool of oppression, the Pink Triangle was later reclaimed as a sign of resilience, survival, and protest. The color lavender was an early twentieth-century coded reference, though it was weaponized during the McCarthy-era Lavender Scare before being reclaimed by lesbian activists such as the Radicalesbians and the Lavender Menace. Additional symbols, including the Lavender Rhinoceros and the Lambda, demonstrate how queer communities have repeatedly transformed stigma into empowerment through visual culture. The Pride Flag, arguably the most iconic queer symbol today, was designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978, and it has adapted and changed over the years to better reflect the diversity of LGBTQ+ identities. Together, these histories reveal how queer symbols function as tools of survival, protest, and self-definition, illustrating that visual identity within LGBTQ+ culture is neither fixed nor singular, but continually reshaped through struggle, reclamation, and collective action.
TIMELINE
1871 - Criminal codes enacted in Germany defined homosexual acts between men as a criminal offense.
1885 - Gross indecency laws were enacted in the UK to prosecute sexual acts between men
1892 - Oscar Wilde wears a green carnation as a coded symbol of sexuality
1894 - The Green Carnation is published
1895 - Oscar Wilde is convicted of Gross Indecency
1938 - Nazis force gay men to wear a pink triangle in concentration camps
1950s-1960s - Lavender Scare
1952 - Alan Turing is convicted of Gross Indecency
REFERENCES
Saving Languages
Season 6 · Episode 5
Thursday, October 1, 2026 • Duration 11:30
Graphic design is not merely decorative but operates as a powerful form of cultural and linguistic activism in the fight against language extinction. The relationship between design and language is not new. Dating back to the earliest forms of writing, it is an exercise in taking a spoken language and giving it a physical shape, whether it’s inscribing on soft clay tablets, or writing on papyrus or printing on paper. Languages must be visible, used, and emotionally valued to survive, and graphic design provides the tools to make that possible. Through tools such as typography and infographics, designers can ensure visibility, foster pride, and transform endangered languages into living, public, and emotionally resonant systems. Design is an active force of resistance, revitalization, and cultural survival in the realm of language preservation.
Daniels, B., & Andrea, S. (2022). Indigenous Language Revitalization and Applied Linguistics: Conceptualizing an Ethical Space of Engagement Between Academic Fields. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 25, 1-18. 25. 1-18.
Janse, M., & Tol, S. (Eds.). (2003). Language Death and Language Maintenance: Theoretical, Practical and Descriptive Approaches. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
McIvor, O. (2020). Indigenous Language Revitalization and Applied Linguistics: Parallel Histories, Shared Futures? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, (40), 78-96. Cambridge University Press.
Medical design and illustration is a relatively new field, but medical practices and documentation have roots in ancient civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome. Texts like the Edwin Smith Papyrus (1600 BCE) and the Sushruta Samhita (600 BCE) show early practices in medical documentation, observation, and treatment. Though religious restrictions on human dissections would greatly limit medical advancements, eventual implementation would lead polymaths like Leonardo Da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius to contribute to the implementation of illustrations in medical texts. Rapid medical advancements in the 19th century would create a drastic shift in the approach, and demand of medical illustrations. This need led to the establishment of the field by German Illustrator Max Brödel, whose Carbon Dust technique and training program at Johns Hopkins established lasting principles of accuracy, clarity, and collaboration between physicians and illustrators. His influence extended through WWI and WWII, and to illustrators like Eleanora Fry, who helped define the visual identity of institutions such as the Mayo Clinic. Medical design would also find its place in public health communication, from medieval plague tractates to emotionally driven wartime posters, and large-scale public health campaigns from the Works Progress Administration. These visual strategies laid the groundwork for modern health communication, now seen in digital media, infographics, and global awareness campaigns.
TIMELINE
10,000 – 4500 BCE – Early evidence of medical practices like trepanation
1600 BCE – Edwin Smith Papyrus was created, documenting 48 injuries
600 BCE – Sushruta Samhita in India details surgical techniques and human dissection practices
4th Century – Miasma theory arises, suggesting diseases come from “bad air”
13th Century – Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire permits physicians to perform one human dissection every five years
1348 – James of Agramont creates plague tractates intended for the general public
1440 – Gutenberg invents the printing press, enabling mass production of books and illustrations
1481 – Marsilio Ficino publishes Advice Against the Plague
15th – 16th century – Leonardo da Vinci produces detailed anatomical illustrations
1542 – Andreas Vesalius publishes De Humani Corporis Fabrica, a detailed, illustrated anatomical text
19th Century – Germ theory revolutionizes public health; bacteria and pathogens identified as primary causes of disease
1870 – Max Brödel born in Leipzig, Germany
1885 – Brödel enrolls at Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts at age 15
1888 – Illustrates a detailed anatomical cross-section for physiologist Carl Ludwig at the University of Leipzig
1891 – begins freelance work for Dr. Howard Kelly at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1894 – Develops the Carbon Dust technique for realistic medical illustration
1911 – Medical illustration formally recognized as an academic discipline
1912–1920s – Eleanora Fry joins Mayo Clinic, producing highly detailed medical illustrations.
1914–1918 (WWI) – Medical illustrators document battlefield injuries, standardizing treatments and surgical techniques.
1930s–1940s – WPA commissions posters for public health campaigns in the U.S.
1939–1945 (WWII) – Public health and military posters illustrate hygiene, disease prevention, and venereal disease awareness
Late 20th Century – Medical illustration incorporates 3D modeling, digital rendering, and animations
21st Century – Public health campaigns utilize digital media for awareness.
REFERENCES
Matchbook design
Season 6 · Episode 3
Thursday, September 17, 2026 • Duration 15:06
Matchbooks and matchboxes became influential artifacts in design and visual culture, beginning with early fire-starting tools in sixth-century China, all the way through the development of matches from simply functional to globally standardized packaging shaped by technological innovation. The Swedish safety match and the sliding-drawer box established the foundations of modern match design, while improvements in printing turned matchboxes into miniature canvases for illustration, typography, and branding. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, matchbooks evolved into pocket-sized billboards, showcasing advertisements for hotels, airlines, restaurants, and more. Their designs reflected broader movements like Art Deco and Modernism, capturing cultural identities across countries, from Soviet propaganda to Indian folk imagery and American corporate aesthetics. Although their popularity declined in the mid-twentieth century with the rise of lighters and anti-smoking campaigns, matchbooks have re-emerged as nostalgic design objects. Matchbooks ultimately shifted from ephemera to collectible artifacts, drawing on critic Arthur Danto’s ideas about collecting, matchbooks gained meaning as personal and cultural artifacts, valued for the stories they hold about people, places, and design. Today, boutique hotels, artists, and designers revive matchbooks as historic symbolism. This study shows that matchbooks reveal how design lives in ordinary objects. They demonstrate the power of small-scale design to communicate history and culture in ways that continue to resonate long after their original purpose has faded.
TIMELINE
1827 – The First Friction Matches
1830s–1850s – Industrial Production Begins
1870s – Branded Labels on Matchboxes
1892 – The Paper Matchbook is Patented
1890s–1910s – Rise of Advertising Matchbooks
1920s–1930s – Golden Age of Matchbook Advertising
1940s – Wartime Utility
1950s–1960s – Midcentury Modern & Pop Culture
1970s–1980s – Iconic Branding & Collectibility
1990s – Decline Begins
REFERENCES
The Hobo Code
Season 6 · Episode 2
Thursday, September 10, 2026 • Duration 15:07
The Hobo Code was a shared visual language used by itinerant workers, okies, bohemians, and some famous blues artists in America. In the late 1800s, people (usually men) hopped onto trains and headed into the American West looking for work wherever they could find it. These people, called hobos, developed and used a system of pictograms to leave notes for other hobos passing through. Whether it was to signal that water and food was available in an area, or to alert Hobos of police enforcement, this shared language strengthened a marginalized community. Not all hobos were men. The documentation is sparse, but there are some records of women hopping trains. As some of them were fleeing situations of domestic violence, for them, the hobo code was a lifeline for finding sanctuary in unfamiliar towns and cities. As more people took to traveling the train lines looking for work, a worker’s union emerged along with a publication and what were known as hobo colleges. During and after WWII, there were far fewer itinerant workers and the need for the hobo code declined, but it didn’t go away. It evolved into some of the train graffiti we see today.
TIMELINE
1865 - Civil War ends and discharged soldiers are looking for work becoming the original itinerant laborers.
1869 - Transcontinental Railroad is completed by immigrant laborers which creates a source of transportation for transient workers (hobos and tramps).
1873 - The Panic of 1873 forces large amounts of stable workers onto the road in search of new jobs.
1880s - “Hobo” becomes a formal group to distinguish themselves from tramps.
1890 - The Hobo Code begins to spread across different parts of the west.
1900s - The term Hobohemia becomes a part of white hobo culture
1905 - Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) founded.
1909 - The Little Red Songbook was published by the IWW in Spokane Washington.
1910-1920 - New Immigration (European immigrants join migratory labor and add to hobo population).
1920s - African American hobos and itinerant works express hardship through music which leads to the start of the blues.
1929 - Stock market crashes leading to the Great Depression (Hobohemia Golden Age)
1930s - Dust Bowl storms displace midwest families and lead to more migration to the west.
1940s - World War II begins, allowing workers to find stable war industrial jobs marking the end of the hobohemian era.
REFERENCES
Elizabeth Friedlander
Season 6 · Episode 1
Thursday, September 3, 2026 • Duration 18:32
Elizabeth Friedlander (1903–1984) was a pioneering German-Jewish graphic designer, calligrapher, and typographer best known as the first woman to have a published typeface. Born in Berlin, she studied at the Berlin Academy under typographer Emil Rudolf Weiss, whose refined aesthetic shaped her early work. Friedlander began her career at Ullstein Publishing House, designing for Die Dame, a leading women’s magazine, before creating her groundbreaking “Elizabeth” typeface for the Bauer Type foundry. Denied work under Nazi rule in 1935, she fled Germany for Italy, where she designed book covers and illustrations for publishers like Mondadori. Still, the rise of fascism, again, endangered her life, prompting her escape to England in 1939. There, she was recruited to design for the British government’s wartime propaganda office, producing forged Nazi documents and counterpropaganda materials. After World War II, Elizabeth Friedlander's work continued to be a source of admiration and inspiration. She built a prolific freelance career, designing book covers, patterned papers, and calligraphic maps for Penguin Books, Thames & Hudson, and other major publishers. Her elegant borders and type designs were widely admired, and her calligraphic skill earned her commissions from institutions such as Sandhurst Military Academy. In the 1960s, Friedlander retired to Kinsale, Ireland, with her lifelong partner, Professor Alessandro Magri MacMahon, turning her creative focus to small crafts like leatherwork and maps. She continued designing for friends until her eyesight failed. Friedlander died in 1984, leaving behind a legacy of innovation and resilience.
TIMELINE
1903 – Born in Berlin
1927 – Designed the Elizabeth typeface for Bauer Type Foundry
1928-1935 – Designed for Die Dame Magazine
1933 – Nazis rise to power
1933 – Italian Under-Secretary of State allows in refugees from allied Nazi Germany as long as they were politically inactive
1935 – Elizabeth’s permit to work as a designer is denied by the Nazi party and she is fired from her job at Die Dame magazine
1936 – Elizabeth flees Germany and settles in Milan
1936-1938 – Works for Mondadori publishing house
REFERENCES
The Mimeo Revolution
Season 5 · Episode 11
Thursday, November 13, 2025 • Duration 29:04
This episode examines the often-overlooked role of the mimeograph in the intertwined histories of print technology, graphic design, and social change. Emerging in the late nineteenth century through the innovations of Thomas Edison and Albert Blake Dick, the mimeograph offered an accessible, low-cost means of reproducing text and images—long before the advent of xerography or digital printing. Its simplicity and affordability placed the power of print into the hands of schools, churches, offices, and, crucially, grassroots organizations and independent creators. By the mid-twentieth century, mimeograph machines had become vital tools in the production of newsletters, pamphlets, and zines that fueled social movements and cultural revolutions. From the Civil Rights Movement’s underground newspapers to the literary explosion known as the Mimeo Revolution, the mimeograph democratized publishing and redefined the relationship between authorship, design, and distribution. Magazines such as The Floating Bear, Fuck You / A Magazine of the Arts, and The Yardbird Reader illustrate how writers and artists used the technology to challenge mainstream publishing, amplify marginalized voices, and experiment with form and content. Though ultimately replaced by photocopying and digital media, the mimeograph remains a critical link in the evolution of design and the politics of independent print culture.
TIMELINE
1876 - Thomas Edison patents the electric pen and duplicating press
1881 - David Gestetner founds The Gestetner Cyclograph Company
1884 - Albert Blake Dick incorporates as a lumber business
1887 - The Edison Mimeograph Model 0 hits the market
1891 - Samuel O’Reilly patents the first electric tattoo machine
1898 - Neostyle Company introduces the first rotary mimeograph
1906 - Gestetner opens a manufacturing plant in London
1923 - Wilhelm Ritzerfeld invents the spirit duplicator
1929 - Gestetner hires Raymond Loewy to redesign the cyclostyle
1929-1930 - Yvor Winters publishes Gyroscope, the first mimeographed literary magazine
REFERENCES
Medieval Heraldry
Season 5 · Episode 10
Thursday, November 6, 2025 • Duration 26:48
Medieval heraldry, originally developed in 12th-century Europe, functioned as a complex system of visual identity. Initially created to distinguish individuals—particularly nobility—on the battlefield and in tournaments, heraldry evolved into a hereditary and legally significant tradition. These emblems, comprised of tinctures (colors), charges (symbols), and shield shapes, became early forerunners of modern branding and identity design. Although inspired by earlier forms such as seals and standards from antiquity, heraldry developed its own rules, vocabulary (blazon), and aesthetic logic, emphasizing contrast and clarity for distant visibility. Heraldic symbols adhered to strict conventions, such as the rule of tincture, and made extensive use of symbolic imagery—from lions and fleurs-de-lis to mythological creatures and geometric forms. Over time, the system expanded to include professionals, women, clergy, towns, and even fictional characters, thereby reinforcing the reach of heraldry across medieval culture. Scholars like Michel Pastoureau have recontextualized heraldry as a significant precursor to graphic and identity design, drawing parallels between medieval coats of arms and modern logos. Indeed, contemporary visual identities—such as university crests, sports team logos, and automotive emblems like Peugeot and Porsche—often draw directly from heraldic elements, both visually and symbolically. Heraldry’s enduring legacy highlights its importance not only as a historical artifact but as a foundational structure in the evolution of design, symbolism, and legal identity systems. Understanding heraldry thus offers critical insights into the roots of modern graphic communication.
TIMELINE
Ancient Times (Pre-Medieval) - Seals Used Across Civilizations: Used in Ancient Greece, Rome, China, and Mesopotamia, etc. for legal and practical identity purposes.
1066 – Norman Conquest of England
1066 – Bayeux Tapestry: Shows lance flags with charges, a possible early example of European heraldry.
1100s - First appearance of heraldic systems, first used by noble combatants
1180 - Women begin adopting arms, almond-shaped
1200s - Blazon Language Developed: Formalized system for describing coats of arms in writing.
REFERENCES
Cuban Posters
Season 5 · Episode 9
Thursday, October 30, 2025 • Duration 18:29
Cuban graphic design emerges as a vibrant and politically charged art form, reflecting the resilience and creativity of designers amidst challenging circumstances. Through a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of Cuban posters, this research illuminates the innovative techniques, visual languages, and ideological foundations that characterize the era’s influence on graphic design. The study not only sheds light on the intricate interplay of art, politics, and culture in Cuba but also highlights the far-reaching influence of Cuban designers on global visual communication. Art itself is profoundly influenced by politics and social events, serving as a mirror to societal changes and a medium for expressionism in all forms. The political climate and social movements shape the themes and messages conveyed in artworks, reflecting issues important at the time. Posters become tools for activism, challenging power structures and advocating for change. They capture the emotional and psychological impacts of social events, fostering empathy and awareness. Through this dynamic interplay, graphic design not only documents but also influences public perception and dialogue, highlighting its integral role in both reflecting and shaping the socio-political landscape. By unraveling the threads of history, politics, and creativity within Cuban graphic design, this paper offers valuable insights into impact it had on a worldwide scale. Additionally, this episode examines the transformative power of Cuban poster design in graphic communication, shaping societal narratives and challenging established norms through its messaging. Ultimately, this exploration of Cuban graphic design serves as a compelling case study, enriching our understanding of the intricate connections between design, society, and cultural evolution.
TIMELINE
1902 - Carteles magazine founded; early example of poster design in Cuba, primarily focused on advertising.
1900s–1950s - Posters used for public communication due to low literacy rates; emphasis on commercial advertising.
1933 - Revolt of the Sergeants overthrows Cuban government; Fulgencio Batista appoints himself military commander and becomes de facto leader.
1940 - Batista is elected President of Cuba.
1944 - Batista completes term and moves to Florida.
REFERENCES
1969 - June 28, the Stonewall riots were LGBTQ demonstrations in response to a police raid at the Stonewall in.
1969 - Author and activist Betty Friedan warns of the Lavender Menace (Lesbians)
1970 - on the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the first Pride Parades take place.
1970 - Tom Doerr introduced the lambda as a symbol for the Gay Activists Alliance
1974 - The Lavender Rhinoceros is introduced in Boston, Massachusetts, as a symbol of visibility for the LGBTQ community
1978 - Gilbert Baker designs the rainbow flag, 8 colors
1979 - The Rainbow flag is reintroduced with 6 colors
1986 - The Silence Equals Death Collective adopts an inverted version of the pink triangle for their message
1987 - National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights poster uses pink triangle
1987- Gross Indecency laws were repealed in Canada
1988 - The National Coming Out Day logo is very geometric and includes multiple references to Lavender triangles and at least one pink triangle
1994 - Mile-long Pride flag, created by Gilbert Baker, is carried down 5th avenue in Manhattan
1999 - Transgender flag introduced
2003 - The gross indecency provisions were repealed in UK
2005 - Black and pink organization in Massachusetts adopts a variation of the pink triangle for its logo
2021 - Progress Pride flag introduced
Campbell, A. (2019). Queer X design : 50 years of signs, symbols, banners, logos, and graphic art of LGBTQ (First edition.). Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Cole, S. (2000). Invisible Men?. In ‘Don We Now Our Gay Apparel’: Gay Men’s Dress in the Twentieth Century (pp. 59–70). Oxford: Berg. Retrieved October 1, 2025, from http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847888679/DWNOGA0008
Matthews David, A. (2018). Tainted Love: Oscar Wilde’s Toxic Green Carnation, Queerness, and Chromophobia. In J. Faiers & M.W. Bulgarella (Ed.). Colors in Fashion (pp. 127–142). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved October 1, 2025, from http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474273701.ch-012
Tapp, N. (1989). The Impact of Missionary Christianity Upon Marginalized Ethnic Minorities: The Case of the Hmong. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 20(1), 70-95. Cambridge University Press.
Brenna, C. T. A. (2021). Post-mortem pedagogy: A brief history of the practice of anatomical dissection. Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal, 12(1). https://www.rmmj.org.il/issues/48/articles/1152
Biener, L., Nyman, A. L., Kline, R. L., & Albers, A. B. (2004). Adults only: The prevalence of tobacco promotions in bars and clubs in the Boston area. Tobacco Control, 13(4), 403. https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2004.007468
Lewis, J. (1962). Printed ephemera; the changing uses of type and letterforms in English and American printing. W.S. Cowell; distributed by Faber and Faber, London.
Allsop, K. (1967). Hard travellin’; the hobo and his history. New American Library.
Clayton, O. (2023). Vagabonds, Tramps, and Hobos. In Vagabonds, Tramps, and Hobos: The Literature and Culture of U.S. Transiency 1890–1940 (pp. i–i). half-title-page, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dreyfuss, H. (1972). Symbol sourcebook : an authoritative guide to international graphic symbols (First edition.). McGraw-Hill.
Dyl, J. (2014). Transience, Labor, and Nature: Itinerant Workers in the American West. International Labor and Working Class History, 85(85), 97–117.
Hall, J. (2010). Sisters of the Road?: The Construction of Female Hobo Identity in the Autobiographies of Ethel Lynn, Barbara Starke, and “Box-Car” Bertha Thompson. Women’s Studies, 39(3), 215–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497871003595828
Wanderer, J. J. (2001). Hobo Signs: Embodied Metaphors and Metonymies. American Journal of Semiotics, 17(4), 131–146. https://doi.org/10.5840/ajs200117476
1937 – Paid 200 marks for her Elisabeth typeface
1938 – Italy passes racial laws. Elizabeth seeks to emigrate to the US
1939 – Elizabeth learns her visa application cannot be expedited. She obtains a Domestic Service permit for Britain.
1941 – Mynell hires Elizabeth for his advertising firm
1942 – Final attempt to emigrate to the US before settling in Britain. World War II begins.
1942 – Howe recruits Elizabeth to his black propaganda unit
1945 – WWII ends. Elizabeth chooses to become a naturalized British citizen
1946-1949 – Worked on “Britain in Pictures”
1948 – Begins working for Penguin Books, designing book covers and patterned papers. Designs the Flexocase.
1949 – Is finally paid for her Flexocase design
1951 – Chosen by the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, to inscribe the Roll of Honour for officers of the Armies of the Commonwealth who fell in WWII
1951-1960 – Designed several of the covers for the “Penguin Classics” series
1961– Moved to Kinsale Ireland
1958 – Designs the “Freidlander Borders” for Monotype
1967-1972 – Becomes the official Sandhurst calligrapher
13th & 14th centuries - Religious communities adopt arms
14th & 15th Centuries - Printed Heraldry Appears: Woodblock and engraving techniques introduced. Hatching methods used to represent tinctures in black-and-white printing.
1484 — The College of Arms was created in England
1696 - Armorial Général was created as a registry of arms for taxation in France
18th Century - Some scholars dismiss the study of heraldry as outdated or meaningless
1722 - Alexander Nesbitt defends heraldry’s role in social identity.
1922 - Porsche created its first logo using heraldic imagery
Anonymous. (n.d.). The Manual of Heraldry; Fifth Edition : Being a Concise Description of the Several Terms Used, and Containing a Dictionary of Every Designation in the Science. Project Gutenberg.
Beerisyourfriend. (2013, March 13). Z is for zymurgical heraldry. BEER IS YOUR FRIEND.
Pastoureau, M. (1997). Discoveries: Heraldry. Harry N. Abrams.
Pastoureau, M. (2009). Black : the history of a color (English language edition.). Princeton University Press.
Pastoureau, M. (2014). Green : the history of a color. Princeton University Press.
Pastoureau, M. (2017). Red : the history of a color (J. Gladding, Tran.). Princeton University Press.
Pastoureau, M. (2018). Blue : the history of a color (M. Cruse, Tran.; First edition.). Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691251356
Thiry, S., & Duerloo, L. (2021). Heraldic Hierarchies : Identity, Status and State Intervention in Early Modern Heraldry. (1st ed.). Leuven University Press.
Woodcock, T., & Robinson, J. M. (1988). The Oxford guide to heraldry.
1952 - Batista returns to Cuba, leads a military coup, cancels elections, and declares himself president/dictator.
1950s - Batista’s regime marked by corruption, censorship, and repression; Cuban society suffers from severe inequality.
1959 - Fidel Castro overthrows Batista, marking a dramatic political and cultural shift in Cuba.
1959 - Cuban graphic design shifts from commercial to social and political messaging—literacy, public health, and motivation campaigns.
1959 - ICAIC (Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos) founded by Saúl Yelin and Alfredo Guevara.
1960 - ICAIC opens its own screen-printing workshop, ushering in the “golden age” of Cuban poster design.
1963–1982 - Antonio Reboiro works as a designer at ICAIC, opposing Socialist Realism and promoting creative freedom in revolutionary art.
1966 - OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America) founded after the Tricontinental Conference.
1969 & 1971 - René Mederos travels to Vietnam to document the war; creates vivid poster series from firsthand experience.
1960s–1970s - OSPAAAL posters highlight international struggles, e.g., Lázaro Abreu’s “Solidarity with the African American People”; feature work by Emory Douglas of the Black Panther Party. Posters produced in multiple languages (Spanish, English, French, Arabic) and distributed via Tricontinental magazine. Posters focus on anti-imperialist solidarity, with themes supporting Vietnam, Black Americans, the Congo, and more.
1980s–2000s - Political and technological changes mark the decline of the golden age of Cuban poster art.
Bardellotto, L., & De Mattio, P. (2016). Cinema in the Cuban graphics: posters from the Bardellotto Collection. Silvana.
Cant, A. (2012). “Land for those who work it”: a visual analysis of Agrarian reform posters in Velasco’s Peru. Journal of Latin American Studies, 44(1), 1–37.
Casals, M. (2020). Chilean! Is This How You Want to See Your Daughter? The Cuban Revolution and Representations of Gender and Family during Chile’s 1964 Anticommunist “Campaign of Terror.” Radical History Review, 136, 111–127.
Corrigan, L. M. (2014). Visual rhetoric and oppositional consciousness: poster art in Cuba and the United States. Intertexts (Lubbock, Tex.), vol. 18, no. 1, 71–91. https://doi.org/10.1353/itx.2014.0006
Cushing, L. (2023). How Poster Art of the “Long 1960s” Fueled International Solidarity. Brown Journal of World Affairs, 29(2), 1–18.
Cushing, L. (2003). Revolución!: Cuban poster art. Chronicle Books.
