They think that Victorian ‘information design’, done before the emergence of professional designers, is an intelligent but little known ancestor of today’s graphic design. They aim to show what can be learned about and from it.

Their project explores three themes: time and travel (such as diagrams and timetables); selling and buying (such as catalogues); and questions and answers (such as tax forms). They analyse these artefacts for production and dissemination, and especially for evidence of reception – reading and its consequences.