ABSTRACT
Graphic design slowly emerged as a term and profession in Norway from the late 1950s. Many of the first self-proclaimed graphic designers found their way into publishing houses. Even though the actual act of designing books wasn’t new, their arrival was described as a new phenomenon in the Norwegian context. They represented a transformation and professionalisation of design practices, which constituted a shift in Norwegian design cultures. Using the publishers Gyldendal Norsk Forlag and H. Aschehoug & Co as case studies this chapter is an investigation into this phenomenon. Placing particular emphasis on designer’s role in the ‘paperback revolution’ and the expanding schoolbooks departments, it examines who these designers were and what they did, and how their arrival was tightly connected to ongoing changes and transformations in the publishing industry, printing industry and emerging consumer society, as well as to the 1960s and 1970s political ‘awakening’ and extensive educational reforms carried out in the Norwegian school system during the post-war years.
