Although created to fulfill ephemeral needs, great works of graphic design often become memorable cultural icons representing the times and places of their origins. Design Literacy presents ninety-three "object lessons," specific histories examining the contexts in which well-known, unknown, and anonymous works have made decisive contributions to the evolution of graphic design.

Steven Heller and Karen Pomeroy create a mosaic of design stories that offer a series of valuable lessons in how design works and an engaging history of graphic design from the late nineteenth century to the present. Tracing the development of each work, Heller and Pomeroy explain its role in design history and how it relates to the cultural milieu from which it emerged.

Design Literacy is a quick remedy for designers and students of design suffering from a diet of too much "eye candy" and hungry to understand the forces at work behind the visual power of great works of graphic design.