THE ROLE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN IN INTERPRETING AND PRESERVING ART HISTORY

Abstract

Graphic design increasingly mediates how audiences encounter, interpret, and remember art history—in museums, classrooms, books, archives, and digital platforms. This paper synthesizes scholarship in design history, visual studies, information design, and heritage preservation to articulate how graphic design functions as (1) an interpretive layer that frames historical meaning and (2) a preservation mechanism that stabilizes, documents, and transmits cultural memory. Using a qualitative literature review and illustrative case analyses (exhibition graphics, cataloging schemas, digitization standards, and data visualization), the study proposes an integrated framework linking semiotics, iconology, visual rhetoric, information design, and digital preservation. Findings indicate that typographic hierarchy, layout, diagramming, and visualization techniques enable non-specialist understanding of complex art-historical narratives; meanwhile, metadata standards, open image protocols, and long-term archival models extend the durability, portability, and citability of art-historical assets. The paper concludes with recommendations for cross-disciplinary curricula, ethically responsible visualization, and standards-aligned workflows that join curators, designers, and conservators.