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Thematic archive · Design and advertising

Design and the visual languages of everyday life

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1960s

Spanish dress, media, and social life from 1940 to 1970

A reading of fashion in Spain from the post-war years to the 1970s as material culture: garments, accessories, photographs, fashion plates, and magazines make it possible to study both dress and the channels that made it visible.

1990s

The 1990s and the New Conversation About Board Games

The 1990s are often identified as a turning point for the board-game industry and its study. Rather than offering a closed history of successes and labels, this article examines what the available evidence supports: a broader supply, the popularisation of Eurogames, new meeting spaces, and historical research that remains fragmented.

1980s

A Century of Spanish Toy Heritage in Objects, Industry, and Memory

Toy collections, exhibitions and museums make it possible to understand these objects beyond nostalgia. Drawing on sources about Spanish toy heritage, this article examines what objects can document, how museums put them in context, and the limits required by a rigorous reading.

1980s

How the IBM PC 5150 Made Compatibility the Basis of an Ecosystem

Launched by IBM in mid-August 1981, the IBM PC 5150 entered an already active personal-computing market. Its importance does not lie in being the first personal computer, but in the expansion of an architecture that other manufacturers could adopt and that helped establish the PC as an industry reference.

1970s

Grapus and the Poster as Public Friction

The available evidence places the French studio Grapus between 1971 and 1991 and describes social and political posters that combined recognizable symbols contradictorily to produce discomfort and attention.