History of Graphic Design

The invention of writing

• Use tool was a major step in the human species journey form a primitive to an
organize state….

Pictographs: the animals painted on caves. Elementary sketches, the dawning of visual
communication.
Cuneiform:

Petroglyphs and ideographs:

petroglyphs: carved or scratched signs or simple figures on rock.
Ideographs: many petroglyphs can also be pictographs or ideographs, which are
symbols to represent ideas or concepts.

The cradle of civilization:

Ancient Mesopotamia
The Sumerian influence

Evolution of writing:
Pictographs
Cuneiform
Rebus writing
Difficult to learn
Writing elevated…

Libraries
Literature
Sense of history
Standardization of weights and measurements
Law
Hammurabi’s code

Mesopotamian visual identification:

Mesopotamian
Cylinder seals.

Egyptian hieroglyphs:
Egyptian rebus: represent of picture and sounds
The Rosetta ston

Papyrus and writing: writing on one side with olive oil.

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Major step in visual communication
Scribes

Illustrated manuscripts:
Egyptians also combined words and pictures to communicate information

Egyptian visual identification:

Scarabs

Conclusion:
3000 years

chapter 2
The alphabet: a set of visual symbols of characters used to represent the elementary
sounds of a spoken language.
North Semitic alphabet:
Semite: a member of a number of people of ancient SW Asian including akkadians,
Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs.
Semitic refers to the language family…

Aramaic alphabet: origin from syria

First used by the tribes from Aram
Become d
Dominant in the near East
Predecessor to modern Arabic and Hebrew.

Hebrew and Arabic languages:

Square Hebrews to Modern Hebrew
kufic
Naskhi
Aramic and India

The Greek alphabet:

Greek civilization
King Cadmus of Phoenicia
Votive stela
Boustrophedon: reading left to right, right to left.
Uncials: rounder writing with all caps….

The Latin alphabet:

The rise of Rome
Roman serifs

The Latin alphabet:

Capitalis Quadrata
Capitalis rustica: no space, even on wall writing
Wall writing
Parchment and vellum: cattle or cat skin. Vellum.
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Codex: a early book

Conclusions: alphabetic writing slowly transformed western society. Alphabetic writing

was easy to learn and literacy was put with in reach of ordinary people, in contrast to
the Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures.

Chapter 3
Chinese contribute:
Relief printing block print
Invention of paper
Chops

Calligraphy:
• A purely visual language
• Invented by Ts-an Chieh

Logogram:
A graphic character or sign that represents an entire word

Early forms of Chinese calligraphy: four phases

• Chia-ku-wen: bone or shell script
• Chin-wen: bronze script: food
• Hisao chuan
• Chen-shu
Chinese calligraphy:
Bone-size authority
Blood texture of ink
Muscle –spirit or vital force
The invention of paper:
Invented by ts’ai lun
His process for making paper stayed almost unchanged until nineteenth-century
England mechanized it.
The discovery of printing:
Relief printing: parchment.
Chops: made out of jade, ivory, silver, or gold. For legal document, contrast, and trade.
Ink rubbings:
Currency and religious texts
Confucian classics and playing cards

Moveable type:
Invented around 1045 AD.

Chapter 4
Two great traditions of manuscript illumination: combined detailed typography with
pictures, color, and used presets material: gold, silver, leather, and jewel.
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Eastern in Islamic country
Western in Europe

Scriptorium:
Scrittori= art director
Copist=letterer
Illustrator=illuminator

The classical style:

Vatican Vergil: collection of poetry by Publius Vergillius Maro

The medieval era:

The 1000 year medieval era lasted from the 5th century fall of Rome to the 15th century
renaissance.

Celtic design: use 3 ornamental design with borders, carpet pages, geometric.
The book of Durrow: 680 AD. The book of Durrow is the earliest fully designed and
ornamented Celtic book
Lindisfarne gospels 680-720AD: carpet pages
Interlaces :geometric design made up of ribbon
lacertines: animals
Book of kells:800AD. Detail of a hare and hound(dog).
used spaces between books

The Caroline graphic renewal:

Developed by the king of Franks Charlemagne. He unified writing, lower cap, and
readability, page layout, punctuation further developed.

Spanish pictorial expressionism: combined Islamic design with Christian tradition

Romanesque and gothic manuscripts: letters were very condensed, emphasis

on linear drawing, distorted figures.
The Romanesque period
THE GOTHIC PERIOD 1150-1300AD:
Textura: text are dark, heavy, no space.

The Douce apocalypse: 1265AD

The ormesby psalter-1300’s

Judaic manuscripts: encouraged artstic creativity for educational reason, or adorn

religious objects.
Haggadot:

Islamic manuscripts:
Koran
Aniconish
Islamic society believed that to make a representation n of a living thing was wrong,
only god could create life and we as mortals should not make..

Persian artists

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Safavid dynasty 1502-1736 AD: padishahnamah built a temple for his wife when she
gave birth .

The Limbourgs and Les Tres Riches Heures.

Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced into the early decades of the 16th
century, but with the invention of moveable type doomed this ancient craft to
extinction.

Chapter 5 Printing comes to Europe

Xylography: the technical term for the relief printing from a raised surface that
originated in Asia.

Typography: is the term for printing through the use of independent, movable and
reusable bits of metal, each of which has a raised letterform on top.

Watermark: translucent emblem produced by pressure

Block books: woodcut picture book with religious subject

Block printing: with communication function

Copperplate engraving: printing is incised or cut down. P77

Type punch: engraved each character in the font- small and capital letters, number,
punctuation, ligatures into the tope of a steel bar
Type matrix: a soft copper or brass to make a negative impression of the letterform.

Type mold: to cast individual letter.

European block printing

Devotional prints of saints

Grotesques
In art a grotesque is a decorative form with interlaced garlands and strange animal
figures. Popular 1250 through the 15th century
The ars moriendi
Manual on the art of dying.

Moveable type and Johann Gutenberg

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1450 the first book printed in printing press: bible
Type mold

The Gutenberg bible

11.75x15 inch, 42line bible, 2 Columns, 2500 characters, 1282 pages

Colophon: end of the book. Psalter in Latin was the first book with colophon.

Chapter 6 the German Illustrated Book

Typography is the major communications advance between the invention of writing and
20th century mass electronic communication.

Incunabula : the cradle or body’s linen or beginning caused 17th century book makers
to adopt it as a name for books printed from Gutenberg’s invention of typography to
the end of 15th century
1450-1500

Albrecht pfister 1460AD became to illustrated book.

Nuremberg becomes a printing center:

“Nuremberg chronicle” made by Anton Koberger with Latin and roman language.

Exemplars: handmade model layouts and manuscript texts used as guides for woodcut
illustrations, typesetting, page design, and creation of books.

Albrecht durer: publish Latin and German book” the four horseman of the apocalypse”
“ The Life of the Virgin” his books were an example of his mastery in the use of line as
tone.
“Rhinoceros broadside”
“a course in the art of measurement with compass and ruler 1525” geometric,

Broad of martin luther.

Designed marked first step roman typographic that based on humane italic script

William Caxton created first English language book: the game and player of chesse.
90 books.
Woodcut from Canterbury tales.

Spanish style “Great works” White on black

Broadsheet:
Broadside:

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 Chapter 7 Renaissance Graphic Design
1. Renaissance: revial, rebirth. Type design, page layout, illustration
2. Ars Moriendi: the art of dying. Italian style.

3. die cut
4. fleuron
5. humanism
6. can-celleresca
7. renaissance man
8. caracteres de civilte
9. crible

Nicolas: his font is extremely legible, but it was the spacing between the letters that
was the genius of his work. 150 books

Erhard ratdolt:
Calendarium (record book)
He renaissance loved floral decoration.
Elements of geometry 1482

Ars Moriendi: the art of dying. Italian style.

Giovanni and Alberto Alvise. 1st book believed to have fleuron.

Renaissance humanism: was a philosophy of human dignity and worth that defined
man as capable of using reason and scientific inquire to achieve both an
understanding of the world and self meaning.
Aldus Manutius: printer
Francesco da bologna-aka griffo: art designer.
They created the type Bembo at 1495 is still used today.

The dream of poliphilus.

Vergil’s Opera: The first book set in italic font, which is modeled after can-
celleresca
, a slanted handwriting style favored by scholars.

Renaissance men: Geoffrey Tory loved letterform.

Pot Casse : his trademark of his ten years old died daughter.
Illustrated crible technique: tiny dots at background to add unity.
Book of Hours:1525
Champ Fleury: ideas of proportion of letterform.

Claude Garamond: was the first punch cutter to work independently of printing firms.
He virtually eliminated Gothic style from Europe.

Robert Granjon: developed character de civillite: the first book of fabulous stories.

Christophe Plantin: his contribution to ..

The Whole Book of Psalms: first book to north America.

Chapter 8
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 Romain du roi:1692, transitional type style. quare grid. Frech king. Two people
created this type: Philippe Grandjean- punchcutter. Louis Simonneau- engraver.
Romain du roi initiated a category of type called transitional roman of antiques. The
calligrapher was replace by the engineer

Rococo era
Rococo related to the fanciful French art and architecture that flourished from about
1720 to 1770
Characteristics: fluid and intricate and composed of a and c curves with scrollwork,
tracery and plant forms derived from nature classical, oriental art and medieval
sources.
Light pastel color..
Pierre simon fourier le jeune.: established the first type family. Regular, bold ,italic.
He had the most the impact in this area, the book “ manual of typography”

Engraving
Business card: calling card.

William Caslon 1692-1766: Caslon old style. He overnight succeeds.

His typestyles were popular mainly because of their legibility. Instead of reducing the
texture to the lighter lines of the remain Romain du Roi, he made them slightly heavier.
This added to their visual interest and appeal.

John Baskerville: engraver of gravestone slate: his type is lighter than Caslon style.
No floral design, purely graphic style. Used hot press paper/smooth.

The origin of information graphics: by William playfair.

The foundation of information graphic is analytical geometry

The modern style

Giambattista Bodoni: redid romain style. Clean, machine-like.

Francoise Didot: granddad of French type style.

Typography from a prospectus for la gerusalemme liberata
Their experimentation led to the extended and condensed fonts of our time

The process that involved casting duplicated of a relief-printing surface by pressing a

matrix against it and the molding material in

William Blake: songs of innocence.

The epoch closes

Thomas Berwick: father of wood engraving.

England was the center of the beginning of the industrial revolution.

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 Chapter 9
The Victorian Era
Sentimentality, nostalgia, and an ideal of beauty were expressed through the printed
images of children, maidens, puppies and flowers.
Traditional values of home, religion and patriotism were symbolized with sweetness and
piety.

Owen Jones: the grammar of ornament.

Chromolithography
Louis Prang:
• A collection of graphic materials printed by chromolithography.
• The father of American Christmas cards.
• Most contribution is the art education for children.
Walter crane:
Development of children design
Randolph Caldecott:
Kate Geenway: used white space in her design

The rise of American editorial and advertising design:

• James and John Harper -1817: One of the printing and publishing forms in the
world.
• Harper magazine: monthly magazine
• Harper weekly: Thomas Nast was the illustrator: the father of American political
cartoon.
• Publisher Frank Tousey: comic book

The bridge to the twentieth century

• The industrial revolution: the impact of industrial technology upon visual
communications.
• Modern is a style of typeface developed in the late 18th century that continued
through much of the 19th century.
• Vincent Figgins: slab serif

Friedrich Koenig: steam powered double cylinder press 1814. 1100per hour.

The mechanization of typography:

Otpmar Mergenthaler 1886

The inventory of photography

The camera obscura: was a darkened room of box with a small opening or lens in one
side. Light rays passing through the opening.
Joseph Niepce: heliogravure( sun graving) the first man fixed images.
Henry Fox Talbot: photogenic drawing-photogram images made without camera. The
pencil of nature.
Sir John Herschel: created negative.
George Eastman: put picture of every day human living.
F.T. Nadar: took pictures of popular people
Matthew Brady: documentary pictures.

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 Chapter 10 The arts and craft movement

• They stove to create a way of life involving society and its relationship to art itself
• There was a growing reaction to the anti design trend of industry and , which was
part of more general resentment to the tyranny of the machine.
Socialism
1. Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or
governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and
distribution of goods.
2. A system of society of group living in which there is no private property

William Morris 1834-1896

• Fitness of purpose returning to honesty in design not to be found in mass-
produced items.
• Truth to the nature of material and methods of production.
• Individual expression by both designer and worker-talent and creativity of
the individual craftsman.
2 dimensional fabric designer…
John Ruskin: scientist, poet. Believed beautiful things were valuable because
their beauty.
Influenced National education, elderly care.

The century guild: Arthur H.Mackmurdo

• Design was to be elevated to its rightful place beside painting and sculpture.
• They incorporate renaissance and Japanese design ideas into their works.
• Their designs provide one to links between the A&CM and art Nouveau
Hobby Horse: Selwyn image. the first magazine devolved exclusively visual
arts
The Kelmscott Press
Golden typeface: 50 titles

The private press movement

Charles ashbee: Essex House Press: the Psalter of 1922

Doves press: dove press bible

Christopher dresser: contemporary of William Morris, the father of graphic design.

Rudolf Koch: influenced by William Morris: he thought of the alphabet as a supreme

spiritual achievement of humanity and he pursued the medieval experience through the
design and lettering of handmade manuscript.

American connection:
Albert Bruce Rodgers.

Conclusion: The legacy of the arts and crafts movement extends beyond visual
appearances. It’s philosophies became an important inspiration for 20th century
designers.

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 CHAPTER 11

Kitagawa Utamaro : supreme poet of Japanese art

Katsushika Hokusai: 35000 works. He was famous for Red Fuji with 36 views.
Ando Iroshige: Japonisme- the term for late 19th century mania for al things Japanese

Art Nouveau was an international decorative style that was predominant during the two
decades of 1890-1910, identifying quality is an organic, plantlike line, vine tendrils,
flowers, birds, and the human female form were frequent motifs from which this fluid
line was adapted.

Jules Cheret: poster for the Doe in the Woods. Masked Ball
• Father of the modern day poster.

English art nouveau: The Studio

Aubrey Beardsley :black spot. Book Salone. Influenced late twenty designs.
The Beggarstaff Brothers

French art nouveau:

• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Painted after being cripple.
• Alphonse Mucha: Gismonda Poster-a Christmas design. Women with long floating
hair

Art Nouveau Comes to America

• William Bradley: self –taught, influenced by William Morris. Used mechanical
technique. Chop books.
• Ethel Reed: poster for Folly or Saintliness.

Belgium Art Nouveau:

Henri van de velde:
• wrote a paper which stated that a new art would be necessary which would be
contemporary in concept and form but possess the vitality and ethical integrity of
the great decorative and applied arts of the past.
• His work is viewed as a serious effort to develop new forms for the era.
• All branches of art share a common language of form and equal importance to
the human community in his opinion.
German art Nouveau:
Otto Eckmann : Jugend(Youth)

Art Nouveau is one of the attitudes toward materials, process and values rather than
one of it[‘t surface appearance.

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 Chapter 12 the modern Era

The genesis of twentieth –century design

• Art nouveau proved that invention, rather than duplicating ideas was a successful
way to create.
• Designers moved form the organic drawing

The Glasgow school: the four- the distinguished by symbolic imagery and styled
form. Bold lines define flat planes of color
• Charles Rennie mackintosh
• J. Herbert McNair
• Margaret and Frances Macdonald

Talwin Morris: applied geometric spatial division and lyrical geometric forms of the
Glasgow group to mass communications.

The Vienna secession 1897: key member of the group were painter Gustav Klimt,
architect Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and artist /designer koloman mooser.
Ver sacrum (1898-1903 sacred spring) experienced…

Peter Behrens: father of cooperative design.

Design for the London Underground: Frank Pick.

Their artist explorations and philosophies coursed through design activities in the
decades ahead.

Chapter 13

The influence of modern art

Cubism: figures are broken down into geometric planes and some are viewed from
more than one viewpoint at once. The shapes, textures and values are the real subject
of these early paintings.

Synthetic cubism- the essence of the object was captured.

Composed of fewer and simpler forms, brighter colors were employed for a more
decorative effect.

Futurism-poetry: Filippo Marinet, Italian poet: the manifesto voiced enthusiasm for
war, the machine age, speed and modern life…” we will destroy museums, libraries,
and flight against morals, feminism and all utilitarian cowardice”
Marinetti and his flowers created emotionally charged poetry and defied correct syntax
and grammar.

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Futurism-advertising
Fortunato Depero: they forced poets and graphic designers to rethink the nature of the
typographic word and its’ meaning.

Dada claimed to be anti-art and had a strong negative and destructive element, dada
artists and poets were concerned with the shock value of their work, protest and
nonsense
They rebelled against eh world and all of its war, decadence, and faith in technology,
religion and conventional amoral does.
John heartfiled: used photomontage as a powerful propaganda weapon.

Surrealism
• Surrealism grew out of Freudian free-association and dream analysis. It searched
the world of intuition, dreams, and unconscious realm that Freud explored.
• It looked for ways to make new truths, to reveal the language of the soul.
• Surrealism was not a style, it was a matter of thinking and knowing, a way to feel
and live.

Rene Magritte: mystery means nothing.

Salvador dali: perspective drawing.

Surrealism impact on graphic design has been diverse. It provided a poetic example of
the liberation of the human spirit and pioneered new techniques.
Surrealism showed how fantasy and intuition could be expressed in visual terms.

Expressionism:
Came out of Germany pre WWI as a way to depict not objective realty but subjective
emotions and personal responses to subjects and events.
Line, color and shape were pronounced and color and value contrasts were intensified.
Texture was achieved through thick paint, loose brushwork and bold contours.

Photography and the Modern Movement

Man rays’ camerless prints called “rayographs”

Conclusion: the images, methods, and philosophies from cubism, futurism, dada,
surrealism and expressionism have continued to influence designers, artists, and
illustrators to this day.

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Chapter 14 pictorial Modernism
Plakastil
Lucian Bernhard-self taught artist, developed san-serif style.

The maverick from Munich

Ludwig Hohlwein

Post cubist pictorial modernism.

A.M Cassandre:
Was a lover of typography and he had a special ability to integrate words and images
into a total composition. Combining type, geometric forms and symbolic imagery
enabled him to produce masterpieces such as this poster for a Paris newspaper.
Austin Cooper
Jose binder

Modernist pictorial graphics in Europe focused on the total integration of word and
image, which became one of the most enduring currents of 20th century design.

Chapter 15 constructivism
Suprematism:
Kasimir Malevich-Suprematism
• Basic form and pure color
• He sought the supreme” expression of feeling, seeking and practical values, no
ideas, no promised land.

Constructivism:
Sans-serif test
Colors: red: symbolized revolution, blood-shed
Black: for lettering
Use of grid for construction
Asymmetrical typography: identified with the art of revolution
Use of diagonal lines (text or rules)
Later addition of photomontage
El lissitzky: communisis, advertising design, book “for the voice”. The isms of art
Alexander Rodchenko: did lots of photo matages.

De stijl (the style)

Theo van Doesburg: the worked in an abstract geometric style to seek laws of
equilibrium and harmony for art, which could then be a prototype for a new social
order.
Piet Mondrian: inspired by van go.
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 • Composition with RED, yellow, and blue.
• Pure geometric abstraction.

Chapter 16 Bauhaus

• The early Bauhaus sought a new unity of artists and craftsmen

to build for the future.
• Workshops were taught by an artist and a craftsman and were organized along
medieval lines-master, journeyman, and apprentice.
• Workshops, not studios, were to be the basis for Bauhaus teaching.
• Teachers in the fine as art areas were called “masters of Form” while instructions
in the crafts areas were called “workshop masters”

Johannes Itten: the master of the art of color. Again any materials.
Vorkurs: this course required six months

Master of Form
Wassily Kandinsky—Russian artist who attempted to identify a language of vision.
These shapes represent Kandinsky’s attempt to prove a universal correlations between
color and geometry.
Icon of Bauhaus: yellow triangle, red square, blue circle.

Moholy-Nagy: conservative, practical man with practical meaning on teaching. Self-

taught.
He described typography “as a tool of communication. It must be communication in its
most intense form. The emphasis must be on absolute clarity…legibility –
communication must never be impaired by an a priori esthetics.”
He wanted to be rule free in his use of typography and have typographical composition
exclusively dictated by the inner law of expression and the optical effect.

Typophoto: To communicate information immediately.

Art and technology a new unity: Oscar Schlemmer designed in 1922 Bauhaus seal

Herber Bayer designed famous cover for Bauhaus.

Jan Tschichold: Apply new design solution to problem design. Not belong to Bauhaus
but its ideas influenced him. The elementary of typography. Book “the new
typography”. San-serif typography is important, rule used for structure, white space.

Paul Renner 1924: invented Futura-san-serif font.

Stanley Morison 1931: invented the times font/ roman style, the widely font in 20th
century.
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 The Isotype Movement
Otto Neurath-Innovator of pictograph: birth vs. death.

The Netherlands connection

Willem Sandberg
Herbert Matter: the Swiss, photomontage, modern art

Chapter 17 modern art and the U.S.A.

WILLIAM ADDISON DWIGGINS: the first book he printed was “ the power of print and
men”. Used abstract.

Lester Beal: from Chicago, self –taught artist, influenced by Dada.

Alexey Brodovitch: from Russia. with his use of white space and sharp typography he
wanted to attain a “musical feeling” in the flow of text and pictures.

Joseph Binder:

WPA: work progress administration

Will Burtin: from Germany in 1939, 3D model.

Walter P. Paepcke: A PATRON OF DESIGN. The founder of CCA: container

cooperation of America. CCA’s new visual identity was based o two principles, the vision
of the designer and a supportive client.

Herbert Bayer: world gfographic atlas. 350 pages.

Many of the designers who came to America from Europe brought design concepts that
enriched not…

Chapter 18 pioneer of the movement

Cons : critics had complained that is based on formula ns results in the same solution
Pros: others argue that it purity has given the designer the means to achieve a
perfection of form.

• Visual unity of design achieve by asymmetrical organization of the design

elements on a mathematically constructed grid.
• Ss type is used in a flush left ragged right alignment and visual elements, which
are clear and factual.
• Grids and SS type was used because it was felt that they reflected the spirit of the
age.

Max Bil: student of Bauhaus.

New Swiss sans-serif typefaces

Adrian Frutiger: created the Univers font.
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Edouard Hoffman: created the Helvetica
Hermann zapf : developed Palatino
Emil Ruder : he taught his student that legibility and readability are primary concerns.
Taught negative space

Design in Basel and Zurich.

Josef Muller-Brockman: the leader of this movement. He sought to portray an objective
and impersonal communication to the audience.

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