Graphic Design History within Design Education: a View from Italy

The primary role that has been normally assigned to the teaching and learning of the history of design and of graphic design within design schools has been to pass on to new generations of designer a heritage of good visual references end examples. Im reaction to this idea of design history being reduced to "tools for better design", design historian Kjetil Fallan emphasised the need for emancipating design history from design education. There are certainly good reasons to support this position in the field of graphic design and visual communication. However this paper adopts a pragmatic and, at the same time, cautiously optimistic view, one that is based on the analysis of the teaching of graphic design history in the Italian context.