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This article analyzes a piece of graphic production from Stefan Sagmeister. The analysis takes the point of view of a theoretical article by graphic designer Lorraine Wild. The aim is to focus on ideology and its critical impact on graphic production. The analytical methodology follows the movement of the notions, from theory to practice. This presupposition allows for an expansion of the analysis of these interactions with the notional and ideological substrata of poststructuralism. How are critical and practical stances influenced by theory? In which ways can the notions involved move between the environments of science, politics, or ethics? How do they guide the practice or determine the framing of graphic design? Societal, technological, and political transformations have deeply affected the work of graphic design, which lost its role as a service provider during the 1980s. The stances that lie at the heart of functionalism derive much of their ideological substrata from political ideology (be it the positivist technological progressivism of socialism or the kind of progressivism advocated by neo-liberal capitalism). Postmodernism overturns a certain balance between forces, mainly in terms of the relations of production, a domain in which it makes a new perception possible that is supported by new conceptual, philosophical, and esthetic framing. This article describes these filiations in order to draw a map of theoretical influences on practices and their qualities.