Designers use their work to articulate their own identities as visual producers--whether they define themselves primarily as artists, activists, fans, or members of the profession of graphic design.

A reaction against modernism erupted around Danne & Blackburn's logo for NASA, designed in 1974.

The Minneapolis firm Duffy Design launched successful revivals of quaint commercial styles beginning in the mid-1980s.

The New York studio M&Co. pursued its own approach to the vernacular during the 1980s.

The 1994 redesign of Federal Express's public image canonized a phrase from everyday speech.

Globe Poster Printing Corporation has created music promotions for black communities in the Baltimore/Washington region since 1929.

The word vernacular is useful for thinking about graphic design insofar as it suggests the existence of visual languages addressing different cultures.

The design profession encompasses its own range of subcultures.

The languages of corporate cultures, mass cultures, subcultures, and design cultures have become increasingly fluid, with members of each world poaching upon the territory of the others. The styles and symbols of graphic design, whether invented by professional consultants or taken off the supermarket shelf, give people and products an identity, making them visible to various audiences.

© Copyright 1996 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum