From Formalism to Social Significance in Communication Design  

At the heart of design is the goal of communication, and instilling a belief in the audience about the past, present, or future. Historically, graphic and advertising design, fields within communication design, have oriented around clients and deliverables, and have maintained a focus on translating written or spoken messages into visual communication. Designers of visual communications—graphic design and the related areas of advertising: brand and identities, Web sites, and posters and photomontages—have largely relied on the designer’s intuition and training to create appropriate visual messages.

Forlizzi, Jodi and Cherie Lebbon. Design Issues (2002). Design>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis

The London Underground Map: Imagining Modern Time and Space  

In one of his short essays in Mythologies, Barthes equated a new Citroën with the great Gothic cathedrals. He based this equivalence not on any physical resemblance, but on similarities he perceived at the moments of their production and consumption. Barthes saw each as 'the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.' I would like to consider the London Underground Map in the context of Barthes’s list of 'supreme creations,' and I would like to adopt his argument as the starting point of my observations.

Hadlaw, Janin. Design Issues (2003). Design>Information Design>Graphic Design