Graphic Means, a documentary on the evolution of graphic design production, premieres this week

Graphic Means, a major new documentary charting the evolution of graphic design production, will premiere on 15 April 2017 at ByDesign film festival in Seattle. The film by Briar Levit marks around 30 years since desktop publishing revolutionised the graphics industry, and explores the progression to this point from the 1950s.

The film features interviews with a host of influential names in the graphic design industry, including Steven Heller, Ellen Lupton, Ken Garland, Malcolm Garrett, Cece Cutsforth, Adrian Shaughnessy, Ian Swift, Frank Romano, Lucille Tenazas, Tobias Frere-Jones and Art Chantry.

“It’s been roughly 30 years since the desktop computer revolutionised the way the graphic design industry works,” Briar says on the documentary’s website. “For decades before that, it was the hands of industrious workers, and various ingenious machines and tools that brought type and image together on meticulously prepared paste-up boards, before they were sent to the printer.

“I had some vague knowledge about production before the Mac…it occurred to me that if I knew so little, my graphic design students know even less! So with this, I set out to document the tools, processes, and people, of this brief moment in the design world.” Briar is assistant professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University.

Funds were raised for the film via Kickstarter, and now the film is being screened at various events and festivals before its DVD and streaming release later this year. It’s expected to reach iTunes and Amazon by early 2018 and is campaigning for release on Netflix.