America’s form of capitalism has molded society, culture, and politics in this nation and has enabled an elite fraction of the population to prosper disproportionately relative to its whole. In the 20th-century design became a valued tool for corporate America, creating brands, packaging, and marketing for consumer goods, graphic designers became an integral part of the free market system by contributing to the creation of wealth in society. Today, the primary focus of American design is through the lens of capitalism. The designer is valued more as a business asset to champion the merits of a corporation’s wares to its target audience than as a contributor to cultural progress. American business’s relentless pursuit of the next sale has led to design in America constructing and influencing the visual identity of the American experience through which we live and navigate.
My thesis aims to document the ways in which capitalism has built the visual identity of America. This book guides you through this nation’s commitment to the economic systems in place to build wealth and the extent that the function of design is used to accomplish this task. Compiled in three broad themes, privatizing the public sector, designing the American landscape, and the exponential consumption of goods. Capitalism: The Visual Identity of America, highlights the most common and mundane design artifacts that we encounter everyday in the United States, including the subway system, billboards, malls, suburbs, and products.