History of Graphic Design
History of Graphic Design
History of Graphic Design
Pictographs: the animals painted on caves. Elementary sketches, the dawning of visual
communication.
Cuneiform:
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
Egyptian hieroglyphs:
Egyptian rebus: represent of picture and sounds
The Rosetta ston
Illustrated manuscripts:
Egyptians also combined words and pictures to communicate information
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…
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
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
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
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
Colophon: end of the book. Psalter in Latin was the first book with colophon.
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
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,
William Caxton created first English language book: the game and player of chesse.
90 books.
Woodcut from Canterbury tales.
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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
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.
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.
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.
John Baskerville: engraver of gravestone slate: his type is lighter than Caslon style.
No floral design, purely graphic style. Used hot press paper/smooth.
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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.
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
Friedrich Koenig: steam powered double cylinder press 1814. 1100per hour.
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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
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
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.
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 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…
Their artist explorations and philosophies coursed through design activities in the
decades ahead.
Chapter 13
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chapter 16 Bauhaus
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.
Art and technology a new unity: Oscar Schlemmer designed in 1922 Bauhaus seal
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.
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.
WILLIAM ADDISON DWIGGINS: the first book he printed was “ the power of print and
men”. Used abstract.
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:
Many of the designers who came to America from Europe brought design concepts that
enriched not…
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.
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