Amazon.com description: Product Description: This collection of essays, written by designers and tecahers of design, strikes a balance between the theoretical approaches of the academics and the realistic considerations of the professionals. This study focuses on both historical and theoretical issues in design, dealing with the relationship between various media and seeing graphic design as a force in social change. It covers the changing role of women in the construction of visual representations, and includes accounts of race, class and gender. The contributors also point out national characteristics in graphic design, semiotics and visual rhetoric.