Working with the history of design involves working with the production of objects made to have a short life, in the fragility of paper, exposed to various dangers: the sun, termites and humans. Working with the history of graphic design is also working with the history of ideas associated to that production, the techniques, the processes, the aesthetic trends, the uses of media. There is no history without an archive and who controls it, controls also the possibilities of making history. The archives dedicated to graphic design are still scarce, incomplete and not always accessible to visit. The possibility of a direct access to the objects, even the artwork and other proceeding records, is still very limited so in most cases we have an indirect access to history: knowing the history by those who told us. A direct access implies another kind of adventures. Those who investigate Portuguese graphic design, for instance, can have contact with the heirs of the collections of several designers, since the most available widow to the most inaccessible great-nephew, the last guardians with access to the material, which can become the most surprising or disappointing, well preserved and organized or thrown into a basement full of dampness. Working with the concepts of History, Archive and Project, the 1st year students of the Master’s degree in Communication Design were asked to develop an investigation to gather complete documentation in order to study a little-known graphic design. The work was not only a compliment to the dark designer, who for whatever reason, history has forgotten, but more than that, a way of working with the design history and doing it from the start, i.e. since the creation of a documental archive. The meeting consisted of several works we have called the exhibition the ideas of The Unknown Designer: Um Arquivo de Possibilidades, assuming the topic of the file (its value, its operation, its shape) and the interest that the file is covered the construction of narrative devices associated with the design of communication and reflection on the modes of cultural production a central role linking up with the theme of the story, allowing for reflection on authorship, narration, production and fiction.
José Bártolo

Créditos