Graphic design is so ubiquitous that we can no longer imagine everyday life without images. This development began 120 years ago. A contemporary witness, Justus Brinckmann, the founding director of The Museum for Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, acutely observed the exploding world of images and untiringly collected examples of them. In doing so, he assembled a unique collection comprising over 15,000 works on paper. Posters, but also book titles and calendar sheets, postcards and letterheads were also pertinent themes at that time. Their designers range from such leading artists as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Henry van de Velde to Peter Behrens. In addition to biographies of nearly two hundred leading graphic artists, this opulent, copiously illustrated book provides a survey of international developments and features introductions to the most significant aspects of commercial graphic design and its stylistic attributes.