Archeologists in the year 2520 uncovering the buried ruins of a major city in the world will no doubt find text on billboards, storefronts, and traffic signs in the languages we know and use today. These words however will probably not be understood by 26th Century scientists because languages of today will eventually become obsolete and forgotten. Luckily, there will be an energetic and tenacious researcher with a well-used digging tool who will find along the viaducts and abandoned highways in the old cities evidence of writing that will be instantly recognized and easily read. For amid the buried rubble of civilizations long past will be elaborated and brightly colored signs and symbols created by graffiti artists that will last through the millennia. This often scoffed and criminalized form of visual communication will in the future become the one, universally accepted language. Therefore, the future of mass communications will not rely on the preservation of pens, paper, computers, smartphones, or satellites. In the vast future, we will understand ancient civilizations because of compressed paint in spray cans.

(Lester, 2017, pp. 459–460)

Imagine you have invented a device that will in all likelihood make you wealthy beyond your imagination and most probably will change the world (no, it’s not a version of Pokémon Go).

Unfortunately, for several years you had to borrow a tremendous sum of money from several individuals to pay for basic research, numerous and expensive experiments, costly materials, fabricated and untested equipment, a support staff, your workshop and living expenses, and even a herd of cattle. Understandably, you didn’t want word leaked of your creation so you only gave the moneylenders just enough information to convince them to give you the funds you desperately needed. However, obtaining feasible results took much longer than you anticipated. Consequently, your supporters became nervous that you wouldn’t pay back your loans. Without a viable timeline for the introduction of the invention you called the “secret art,” you were sued for failure to keep up with your interest payments. Ironically, just when you were about to make your creation known with plans for sales, a foreclosure hearing concluded that you must surrender your products and all of the contents of your workshop to your chief investor. Devastated and defeated, you never recovered from your loss.

The man who won the lawsuit didn’t prosper much better. After he took possession of your invention, he took credit for its creation, and attempted to sell it throughout Europe. Fatefully, during his travels that took him to Paris, he caught the bubonic plague and died. Nevertheless, a once trusted assistant and his grandsons successfully made the invention known and contributed to the success of one of the most important technological advances that benefited and heralded the modern world.

But alas, you died practically penniless and worse, your achievement was largely unrecognized outside the town where you lived. As another insult, no one thought to paint a portrait of you during your lifetime. After you died, your body was buried in a cemetery next to a church that were all later destroyed. You only became famous for your influence on history many years after your death. After his success with Hamilton, perhaps Lin-Manual Miranda’s next project should be a musical based on this convoluted tale.

Johannes Gutenberg and the Birth of Typography

The story of the birth of typography includes Johannes Gutenberg’s unique personality, his invention of the mechanical moveable typeface press, Johann Fust’s foreclosure proceedings that resulted in his award of the device and the finished books, and Peter Schoeffer’s partnership with Gutenberg and later with his father-in-law Fust that resulted in their printing logo included in the finished pieces without mention of Gutenberg’s contribution (“Johannes Gutenberg,” 2016). This cautionary tale in the field of visual ethics is particularly associated with conflicts of loyalties.

Associations or relationships that are based on promises to yourself, other persons, organizations, companies, countries, and concepts are considered loyalties. As such, they are intricate and intimate components of what makes you, you. In many ways the role-related responsibilities, whether in personal or professional settings, that make your “job” requirements unique are closely associated with the loyalties you treasure. If your responsibilities are mainly to yourself, family members, and co-workers, you are likely more loyal to those individuals especially if part of your role demands that they rely on you for financial support. Consequently, you may hesitate to quit a job you don’t like or complain to a superior if you notice bad behavior. However, if your role requires you to act ethically in a work situation, your loyalty probably leans more toward your profession. You may then be compelled to become a whistleblower and notify the media of your company’s unethical behavior despite the harm it may cause to your income. Of course, loyalty also has a dark side. You can be loyal to a cause that promotes awful behavior. Wars have been fought and millions of lives lost by those who with unflinching loyalty have followed leaders with evil intent. The keys in understanding the difference between praise-worthy and blame-worthy behavior is knowing fully your role-related responsibilities for a specific situation and how those commitments form loyalties that contribute positively to your own and society’s development.

Loyalty to oneself, a highly hedonistic approach, rules the actions of those thus described. For Gutenberg, his loyalty to himself led him to only work toward his dream to retire in financial comfort. He was not interested in changing the world with his printing press innovation. If he had been in a more sharing and egalitarian mindset, he would have let others know from the beginning the details of his operation. He would have had to borrow less money, he would have completed the task faster, and he would have had Fust, an able businessperson, to help him sell his printed materials to more quickly pay for his condo on the south of France. Fust had an opportunity to do the right thing, but as he was loyal to himself, he decided to lend Gutenberg an impossible amount of money to repay, won a probably pre-planned foreclosure case, and put his name on the books Gutenberg worked so hard to produce (“The Gutenberg Bible,” n.d.). Fust’s only saving grace is that he was also loyal to his family. Peter Schoeffer was the able assistant who learned the printing process from Gutenberg and who mostly likely was the graphic designer responsible for the look of the pages that included the typeface, column configurations, and ornate enlarged letters and border artwork. He married Fust’s only daughter Christina and was most loyal to his family. Their sons, John and Peter continued in the family’s printing business with Peter’s younger son, Ivo heading the third generation of printers.

Calligraphy and typography are closely related – they both are letter-based artwork. For calligraphy, artists draw letters with styluses and brushes on clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, and paper books (“History of printing,” 2017). At least 4,000 years ago, Sumerian scribes lived in the fertile crescent of the Middle East. Over many generations they developed the first written language, cuneiform letters pushed into soft clay with a stylus. Ancient Egyptians configured paper-like papyrus reeds to write their hand-printed letters. Millennia later monastery scribes tediously copied manuscripts by hand while civilizations throughout the world produced aesthetically pleasing illustrated manuscripts that were one of the first examples to combine words and images into a single presentation.

As opposed to calligraphy, typography is the art of selecting and arranging letters that are produced mechanically or digitally for print or screened media. Attempts throughout history and by several cultures used such materials as clay, wood, and metal to aid printing on a variety of substrates. In China, the Song dynasty, around the year 1,000CE, used clay while the choice for the Qing dynasty was wood for constructing letterforms for printing. About 200 years later bronze metal printing was introduced in Korea and adopted in China about 250 years later (remember: before Gutenberg’s press news on innovations traveled more slowly). The challenge with Asian typography is their alphabet contains thousands of letters. Until the written language was simplified in modern times, a commercial printing press was not practical. Therefore, typography as a profession did not begin until the widespread use of Gutenberg’s invention reserved for languages with alphabets of less than 50 letters.

Inspiration vs. Appropriation

Gaining inspiration from an artist’s creation should be encouraged. We should all, within the constraints or freedoms that come from our own brand of creativity called individual style, attempt as much as possible to get inspired by others. It is one of the chief reasons art is made available for public viewing. I am convinced that a 6 × 4-foot finger painting on white butcher paper made by my then 3-year-old twin boys hanging on a wall of their playroom was inspired after a visit to a Jackson Pollock exhibit at a museum. However, taking credit for another person’s work is wrong. Such a practice is not only unethical; it can also be deemed illegal. It is clear that Fust had every right to sue Gutenberg for nonpayment and to accept as remuneration his books and printing materials, but Fust and Schoeffer unethically took credit for the invention of the commercial printing press and the books that were produced. In so doing, they committed an egregious offense – intellectual property theft. As it turns out, such thefts are all too common in the typography and graphic design professions.

For more than 30 years, Steven Heller was the editor of U&lc (Upper and lowercase) magazine, dedicated to the typographical profession. He is also responsible for numerous books on typography and graphic design. When Heller (2005) admits to unethical behavior, all practitioners should take notice. In his article, “Typographica Mea Culpa, Unethical Downloading” for the Typotheque type foundry website, Heller confesses to a common practice by designers: Paying for the use of a typeface, but then sharing it without permission to others. He writes,

Through ignorance or malice, or the malice that comes from voluntary ignorance, many designers that I know simply ignore type licenses and, therefore, cavalierly trade or transfer entire fonts to fellow designers, service bureaus, mechanical artists, printers, lovers, or in-laws. The digital age has made this easy, but as I realized it does not make it right. Illicit type sharing betrays an honor system that can only work if we are all honorable.

He speculates that a justification for this activity might be because type is not viewed as equivalent to images. “As fundamental as it is to visual communication,” he writes,

type is not considered sacrosanct in the same way as, say, a photograph or illustration. The principle of ‘one-time usage’ or ‘one-person licensee’ seems foreign when it comes to type. Yet it should not take a lot of additional soul-searching to conclude that violating the ‘industry standard’ licensing agreement is also unfair to the people who have worked hard to make the type that we all use.

He concludes his article with,

For years I have allowed designers working for me to infringe the agreement that I have failed to read. Forget about legality, without adherence to the fundamental principal, we place our colleagues in financial jeopardy and we become much less ethical in the bargain.

After careful consideration, Heller changed his loyalties from himself, his workmates, and his friends to those who created the original work and, perhaps more importantly, to his profession. Such is the power that comes from a personal, ethical analysis.

Another ethical issue that involves typography is a bit more sinister – psychological manipulation. In 1994, the Microsoft Corporation released one of the most ridiculed typefaces ever devised, Comic Sans (Johnston, 2013). With its breezy, fun, and informal style, designer Vincent Connare intended the typeface to be used to convey information to children. Controversy erupted when it was used by careless designers for serious subjects such as “a Dutch war memorial, printed advice for rape victims, blog posts by a law firm, and for résumés.” Using a light-hearted visual message for a dreadfully serious subject can be judged unethical, but also in poor taste, or an example of bad etiquette.

But it gets worse. Several researchers have discovered that you can actually manipulate persons through the use of typeface choices. Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (2015) reported that the use of Comic Sans “makes readers slightly less likely to believe that a statement they are reading is true” than the same statements presented in more formal typefaces. Furthermore, a study based on one conducted by Carnegie Mellon University researchers concluded that a survey that asks for personal, even embarrassing information from users will more likely get honest answers if the typeface is Comic Sans. John Timmer for the Ars Technica website writes, “In short, an unprofessional-looking interface seemed to loosen participants up in the same manner that approaching a question indirectly did” (Hill, 2010). The next time you are asked to complete an online survey, take notice of the typeface used before you commit yourself. If the pollsters’ loyalties don’t match your own, you may be susceptible to manipulation.

Combining pictures and words on substrates from stone to monitors defines the field of graphic design. Although typefaces are highly symbolic line drawings with emotional impact, typography describes their singular use in layouts. Graphic design uses typography and images in static and dynamic displays for maximum visual impact. When cave artists painted or scratched on cave walls or rock outcroppings animal representations and the united them with enigmatic and mostly undefined symbols, graphic design was born. Much later, the Egyptians produced illustrated manuscripts and wall decorations that combined their hieroglyphic writing system with illustrations. The Book of the Dead (2300–1200 BCE) contains excellent examples of illustrated scrolls (Mark, 2016). In ancient Greece, the founder of the Academy in Athens and one of the most important figures in Western philosophical thought, Plato and the writer, architect, and engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio expressed a “dynamic symmetry” composed of natural shapes found in the world: the square, the triangle, and the circle that inspired design concepts in print, clothing, and architecture (Mark, 2009 and Cartwright, 2015). With technological advances in the nineteenth century such as lithography, faster printing presses, photography, and halftone printing, the time was right for graphic design to be considered a vital element in the communication of visual ideas. Designers influenced by movements such as art nouveau, dada, art deco, de stijl, bauhaus, pop art, punk, new wave, hip-hop, and others, elevated design into a respected art form through book and magazine covers, posters, cartoons, music, fashion, furniture, architecture, and films. Nevertheless, these art movements are not without their ethical dilemmas. Art nouveau designers were accused of copying the flowing style of ancient Asian pieces as seen on vases and wall hangings. Dada, de stijl, and punk artists dared to break the established rules of aesthetic values and angered the establishment. The art deco, bauhaus, and new wave movements were criticized for their tame, commercial-centric designs. Pop artists were viewed as aesthetically flippant and socially sarcastic. Finally, hip-hop artists endured disapproval by those who disliked the emphasis on graffiti and charges of vandalism. Reviewers with loyalties to traditional art movements and their subjects prevented them from seeing the value in new works. Over time, of course, criticisms and those who make them are forgotten while the work endures.

Sometimes ethical issues are common to both typography and graphic design. One point of intersection was discussed in the Gutenberg case study – intellectual property theft or its more socially acceptable cousin, the concept of fair representation. Either one involves not giving credit for a design when credit is due. South Carolinian graphic designer and so-called “street artist” Shepard Fairey borrows from popular cultural images and phrases for his reconstituted art (“Obey Giant,” 2017). His sticker artwork, “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” was taken from a newspaper picture of the wrestler whose given name was André René Roussimoff (you might know him as an actor in one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride). After a sports branding company complained about the use of its trademark, Fairey simply used Andre’s face with and without the slogan “Obey” that came from slogans on billboards as seen in John Carpenter’s motion picture They Live. Consequently, Fairey’s lucrative clothing line was begun. Remixing and repackaging can be ethically defended when any harm to the original work is minimal. However, when the person who created the baseline work is significantly harmed financially, the use cannot be justified.

In 2008, Fairey made a poster that featured a head-and-shoulders portrait of Barack Obama over the word “HOPE” from a photograph taken by Associated Press (AP) photographer Manny Garcia in 2004. Garcia believed he should have been compensated for the work, whereas Fairey argued that the appropriation is a form of “fair use.” Although Fairey and the AP settled out of court, in 2012 the illustrator pleaded guilty in a New York court to one count of criminal contempt as he destroyed evidence in the case. He was sentenced to 300 hours of community service, fined $25,000, and placed on probation for two years (“Shepard Fairey,” 2012).

Independent artists with unique ideas need to be vigilant and have good lawyers. The Spanish fashion chain Zara, the clothing companies Forever 21, Rue 21, and Gucci, and Snapchat were caught copying design ideas from other graphic designers. Zara plagiarized the work of Los Angeles based artist Tuesday Bassen (Evans, 2016). Bewilderingly, Zara’s response to Bassen’s claim of infringement was to dismiss it because the number of emails she received about the intellectual property theft was miniscule compared with the millions of visitors who frequent the clothing company’s website. In two other cases, Izza Sofia (2017b) writing for Design Taxi, a blog that specializes in graphic design issues and examples, reported that the 21s stole a design by the Mexican-born, Los Angeles-based independent artist, Ilse Valfre. “The alleged copies being sold by Forever 21 and Rue 21 appear much too similar to be coincidental. Valfre is currently pursuing legal action with regards to the designs in question,” writes Sofia. In 2017 the international clothing giant Gucci was accused of stealing artist Stuart Smythe’s serpent logo he created for his CLVL Apparel Co. label in 2014 (Sofia, 2017). Smythe wrote on Instagram that Gucci “copied not only the combination of elements together that create this logo, but when I overlay my snake illustration on top of the copy, the scales even line up perfectly.” A California-based graphic designer, Sara M. Lyons discovered that Snapchat, in a Geofilter image, closely copied one of her illustrations because of alert fans that know her style (Sofia, 2017a). Lyons explained, “I might not have noticed it on my own because I don’t use Snapchat every day, but I’m fortunate to have lots of friends and followers who recognize my work.” To its credit, a spokesperson for Snapchat admitted that the designs were similar and “it was removed this morning.”

Because of the ethical violation of ripping off independent artists, New York illustrator Adam J. Kurtz listed stolen designs from different artists and the opportunity to support each designer by buying the original art on the website Shop Art Theft (“Hold Zara accountable,” 2017). Loyalty to a company’s bottom line is often at odds with an artist’s need to be fairly compensated for original art. A graphic designer or a company who reproduces wholesale someone else’s work without credit or compensation is acting unethically and courting legal problems. Designers should be inspired by other work, but not copy it.

Balancing Loyalties

A typographer and a graphic designer must balance three conflicting approaches – utilitarianism, hedonism, and the golden mean. The philosophy of utilitarianism stresses the educational benefits of a publication. A design should be readable, legible, and useful. Being too loyal to yourself and concentrating on the hedonism philosophy may lead to designs that attract attention only for the purpose of satisfying commercial interests, shocking viewers, or expressing a personal statement. Graphic artist Milton Glaser, responsible for the design of New York magazine and the “I [HEART] NY” logo, among others, warns, “There’s a tremendous amount of garbage being produced under the heading of new and innovative typographical forms” (Lester, 2013). Despite the criticism of typefaces being designed solely for the amusement of a particular graphic artist, the prevalent use of typographical computer programs produces ways of thinking about the use of type never before imagined.

Glaser could be referring to graphic designer David Carson (2017), for many years the innovative art director for Ray Gun magazine. He has been called the founder of grunge typography because of his non-traditional displays of text on a page that includes lines of type that overlap, columns of varying lengths on the same page, and an interview with the musician Brian Ferry he considered so boring that he set the text in the symbol set known as Zapf Dingbats. Jonathan Hoefler, who created typefaces for Sports Illustrated and other magazines, likes “unusual fonts that challenge typographical assumptions After all, design is about breaking the rules. Rule-breakers become rulers” (“Fonts by Hoefler,” 2017).

The graphic designer Saul Bass, who created such designs as the AT&T logo to the opening title credits for Martin Scorsese’s movie Casino, would probably concur with Hoefler (“The Saul Bass poster,” 2017). “Sometimes,” Bass said, “we design for our peers and not to solve communications problems.” Between the two extremes expressed by Glaser on the side of readability and Hoefler and Bass who stress innovation is the golden mean approach, which advocates design decisions based on a “middle way” between the two display styles. To achieve Aristotle’s golden mean philosophy, then, a designer must reach a difficult compromise by juggling the purpose of the piece, the need for it to be noticed, the intended audience, the idea that it should be pleasing to look at, and the desire to create a unique style. The world is certainly large enough to support both dynamic, cacophonous displays and quiet, traditional typographical presentations. However, innovation seldom comes from designers who follow this compromising approach. Sensitive to conflicting ethical philosophies is one of the reasons that the field of design is challenging and rewarding. Whichever path you decide, make sure your loyalties are solid and easily articulated when the inevitable critic questions your intentions.

No other statement acknowledges the complexity of a profession than an established code of ethics. Author Paul Nini (2017) consolidated statements from the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design and the International Association of Business Communicators into five responsibilities. According to the organizations, a designer should know the needs and concerns of audience members and clients, never confuse or mislead a viewer, treat all, especially members of vulnerable communities with dignity and respect, promote the well-being of the general public, and maintain credibility by open communication in times of misunderstandings. As you should note, the values expressed by the trade groups are audience-centric – they recognize how trust links the designer, the design, and the consumers. Lamenting the fact that the connection between a design and the audience is seldom stressed in educational environments, Milton Glaser said,

Because design is linked to art, it is often taught as a means of expressing yourself. So you see with students, particularly young people, they come out with no idea that there is an audience. The first thing I try to teach them in class is you start with the audience. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you can’t talk to anybody.

Regardless of the field of visual communication you eventually enter, loyalty to your audience should be of primary concern. If you always consider your audience, your choices, whether based on your personal vision or inspired from the work by someone you admire, will more likely be effective, admired, and ethical.

Case Studies

Case Study One

Every spring young boys and girls take to their local baseball and softball diamonds to “play ball!” Many of them do so sporting jerseys with names like, “Yankees,” “Rangers,” “Padres,” and “Red Sox,” monikers of Major League Baseball Teams. They are allowed to do so because, as the official web site of Little League Baseball explains, “Major League Baseball has never restricted any Little League teams from calling themselves ‘Mets,’ ‘Yankees,’ ‘Cardinals,’ ‘Angels,’ or any of its other trademarked names.” This is by agreement with Little League. However, and this is the catch, teams who use major league names must also,

note that unauthorized use of any trademark, including those belonging to Major League Baseball, may result in civil liability by the manufacturer of items bearing those trademarks. So, even though a local Little League that uses shirts with unauthorized Major League Baseball trademarks will not be held liable, it is likely that the business that provided the shirts would be.

What does this mean? It means that if a team decided to call itself the Angels, for example, after the Anaheim Angels, it couldn’t just use any Angels logo, but would have to exactly match the colors and writing of the team from California. If it didn’t do so, and Major League Baseball found out, they could sue – not necessarily the kids and their parents, but the printer who sold them the shirts. So what seems on the surface like a nice deal for everyone, might really be called a closed deal between Little League and the Major Leagues, and the only way Tommy can play on a team called the Tigers (his favorite animal, not necessarily the club from Detroit) is if he joins a league that pays dues to the national Little League office.

“Use of third party trademark names and logos.” (2017). Little League Baseball. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.littleleague.org/learn/rules/positionstatements/UsingTrademarkedNamesLogos.htm.

See Appendix B for the 10-Step Systematic Ethical Analysis Form.

Case Study Two

Some fonts are meant to do more than simply communicate words, but show the power of symbols. In April 2017, NYC Pride, New York’s LGBT Film and Media Art Organization’s NewFest and marketing firm Ogilvy & Mather released a special font to celebrate Gilbert Baker, the designer of the rainbow flag. Baker had recently died. In creating the font, the designers hoped to honor Gilbert’s many contributions to the LGBTQ community as both an artist and activist.

Robertson, M. (April 26, 2017). “New font celebrates Gilbert Baker, designer of rainbow flag.” SFGate. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/New-font-celebrates-Gilbert-Baker-designer-of-11099049.php.

See Appendix B for the 10-Step Systematic Ethical Analysis Form.

Case Study Three

In April 2017, Khloe Kardashian was sued for a copyright violation for having posted a photo to her Instagram account of … Khloe Kardashian! The lawsuit was brought by Xposure Photos, a U.K.-based photo agency. The picture was taken by one of their photographers, Manuel Munoz, and showed Kardashian and one of her sisters going out for dinner. Munoz had licensed the shot to the newspaper The Daily Mail – but not to Kardashian. As such, argued Xposure, Kardashian had no right to use it without paying for it, even though she was the subject of the photo. Xposure claimed Kardashian’s use was infringement, and asked for damages of at least $25,000. Kardashian, on the other hand, might claim that Xposure is appropriating her likeness for profit, and that she has every right to use photos of herself on her own Instagram account.

Gardner, E. (April 26, 2017). “Khloe Kardashian sued for posting a photo of Khloe Kardashian on Instagram.” The Hollywood Reporter. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/khloe-kardashian-sued-posting-a-photo-khloe-kardashian-instagram-997650.

See Appendix B for the 10-Step Systematic Ethical Analysis Form.

Annotated Sources

Nini, P. (2004). In Search of Ethics in Graphic Design. AIGA.

There is a lack of established professional guidelines for ethics in the field of graphic design. The author argues if graphic designers put themselves last and put the audience first, an ethical model might follow. In following this guideline, the author lays out six points titled “The Designer’s Responsibility to Audience Members and Users.”

Typeright. (2013). The TypeRight Guide to Ethical Type Design. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.typeright.org/getd_print.html.

TypeRight is a website whose mission statement is “to promote typefaces as creative works and to advocate their legal protection as intellectual property.” This page lays out the history of type face design, the state of the typeface design industry, the role of the designer, and legal information on copyright. The role of the designer includes, but is not limited to, originality, respect for others work, and “remixing” other type faces.

References

Cartwright, M. (April 22, 2015). “Vitruvius.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.ancient.eu/Vitruvius/.

“David Carson Design.” (2017). Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/.

Evans, D. (July 29, 2016). “Talking with Tuesday Bassen about her David vs. Goliath battle against Zara.” The Cut. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://www.thecut.com/2016/07/tuesday-bassen-on-her-work-being-copied-by-zara.html.

“Fonts by Hoefler & Co.” (2017). Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://www.typography.com/.

“The Gutenberg Bible.” (n.d.). Harry Ransom Center. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenbergbible/.

Heller, S. (March 5, 2005). “Typographica mea culpa, unethical downloading.” Typotheque. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://www.typotheque.com/articles/typographica_mea_culpa_unethical_downloading.

Hill, K. (August 30, 2010). “Use Comic Sans to get people to reveal their most sensitive private information online.” Forbes. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/08/30/use-comic-sans-to-get-people-to-reveal-their-most-sensitive-private-information-online/2/#40b2c2ab33be.

“History of printing timeline.” (2017). American Printing History Association. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://printinghistory.org/timeline/.

“Hold Zara accountable for art theft.” (2017). Shop Art Theft. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://shoparttheft.com/.

“Johannes Gutenberg.” (2016). Biography. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://www.biography.com/people/johannes-gutenberg-9323828.

Johnston, C. (June 20, 2013). “Hate Comic Sans? Blame this Microsoft virtual assistant.” Ars Technica. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://arstechnica.com/staff/2013/06/hate-comic-sans-blame-this-microsoft-virtual-assistant/.

Lester, P.M. (2013). Visual communication images with messages, 6th edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, p. 172.

Mark, J.J. (March 24, 2016). “Egyptian Book of the Dead.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Book_of_the_Dead/.

Mark, J.J. (September 2, 2009). “Plato.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.ancient.eu/plato/.

Morris, E. (May 18, 2015). “How typography shapes our perception of truth.” Co.Design. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://www.fastcodesign.com/3046365/errol-morris-how-typography-shapes-our-perception-of-truth.

Nini, P. (2017). “Paul J. Nini.” The Ohio State University. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://design.osu.edu/people/nini.1.

“Obey Giant/The art of Shepard Fairey.” (2017). Obey Giant. Accessed June 29, 2017 from https://obeygiant.com/.

“The Saul Bass poster archive.” (2017). Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.saulbassposterarchive.com/.

“Shepard Fairey, creator of Barack Obama ‘Hope’ poster, admits destroying evidence.” (February 25, 2012). The Telegraph. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9105364/Shepard-Fairey-creator-of-Barack-Obama-Hope-poster-admits-destroying-evidence.html.

Sofia, I. (June 23, 2017). “Gucci under fire for ripping off two artists’ designs in its latest collection.” Design Taxi. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://designtaxi.com/news/393825/Gucci-Under-Fire-For-Ripping-Off-Two-Artists-Designs-In-Its-Latest-Collection/?utm_source=DT_Newsletter&utm_medium=DT_Newsletter&utm_campaign=DT_Newsletter_23062017&utm_term=DT_Newsletter_23062017&utm_content=DT_Newsletter_23062017.

Sofia, I. (a). (June 5, 2017). “Snapchat accused of ripping off an artist’s design for one of its filters.” Design Taxi. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://designtaxi.com/news/393423/Snapchat-Accused-Of-Ripping-Off-An-Artist-s-Design-For-One-Of-Its-Filters/?utm_source=DT_Newsletter&utm_medium=DT_Newsletter&utm_campaign=DT_Newsletter_05062017&utm_term=DT_Newsletter_05062017&utm_content=DT_Newsletter_05062017.

Sofia, I. (b). (June 2, 2017). “Forever 21 is under fire for copying iPhone case design from indie brand.” Design Taxi. Accessed June 29, 2017 from http://designtaxi.com/news/393396/Forever-21-Is-Under-Fire-For-Copying-iPhone-Case-Design-From-Indie-Brand/?utm_source=DT_Newsletter&utm_medium=DT_Newsletter&utm_campaign=DT_Newsletter_02062017&utm_term=DT_Newsletter_02062017&utm_content=DT_Newsletter_02062017.