The call for this special issue invited research papers on both participant and ­collections-based research. Our double-blind peer review process applied to give students and recent graduates an opportunity to experience the publication process, with some concessions made in terms of the number of artifacts or participants expected within the scope of study. Generalizability is often a challenge for design research, as findings from both participant- and artifact-based research are always specific to the materials studied. From a methodological point of view, this collection — through its variety of approaches to literature review, visual analysis, and participant research — demonstrates the importance of multiple methods in our field. And the importance of multiple lines of inquiry to explore different facets of visual communication, its evolution and how it is experienced.