History of graphic design

Graphics (from Greek γραφικός) are visual presentations made on a surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone. It includes everything that relates to creation of signs, charts, logos, graphs, drawings, symbols, geometric designs and so on.

Graphic design is the art or profession of combining text and pictures in art, advertisements, publications, or websites. The aim of graphics is to brand, inform, and have a specific effect on its audience.

History of graphics

Hundreds of graphic designs of animals were made by primitive people in Chauvet cave, in the south of France, about 30,000 BC. Also, similar art was done in the Lascaux cave, France, about 14,000 BC. The art of primitive hunters is found in the rocks of Bhimbetka in India, drawn earlier than 7000 BC. Aboriginal rock art in Kakadu National Park of Australia, show that graphics has a long history in many parts of the world. This history (with writing, which emerged in 3000–4000 BC) are the foundation of graphic art.

Rock and cave art

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  Drawing of horses in Chauvet cave
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  Drawing of a horse in Lascaux cave
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  A rock drawing in Bhimbetka, India
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  Aboriginal Rock Art, Ubirr Art Site, Kakadu National Park, Australia

Writing

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  The Lantingji Xu, Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion is the most famous work of Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi, created in the year 353.
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  Scribe's exercise tablet with hieratic text, on wood. Dynasty XVIII, reign of Amenhotep I, c. 1514–1493 BC. Text reads: "Be on your guard... Trust no brother, know no friend, make no intimates".
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  The Papyrus of Ani is a version of the Book of the Dead for the Scribe Ani. This small scene is about not letting Ani's heart create opposition against him in God's domain.
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  A Chinese traditional title epilogue written by Wen Zhengming in Ni Zan's portrait by Qiu Ying

Calligraphy & graphics in books

Religious books have used graphics a lot. Among these books are Bibles that were created in the monasteries in Ireland, Scotland, and England. Spiralling and interlocking patterns, often including small figures, were part of the ancient graphic tradition of the British Isles. From the 6th century onwards these were applied to the decoration of illuminated gospels.

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  A page from the Lindisfarne Bible, 7th or 8th century
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  A graphic decoration from the Lichfield gospel, 8th century
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  A graphic decoration in the Book of Kells, 6th–9th century

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  In this German document the calligraphy suggests a message of importance.
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  Calligraphy adds a mystical dimension, a quality which a religious text tries to convey.
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  The art of calligraphy in China goes back to 2000 BC.
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  Calligraphy came to Japan in the 3rd century BC from China (Warring States Period). Japanese used calligraphy to write haiku.

Graphics in the Quran

In Islamic countries the graphic designs can be found in their holy book, the Quran. The Quran was first written an angled style called Kufi. This appeared in the 8th century, and reached its peak in the 10th century. Later on decoration of margin, page and other graphic techniques were added to beautify the book. In the 12th century the Naskh script was invented: it used curves instead of angled lines. Other styles were added later on.

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  A page from a Persian Quran in the 11th century
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  Graphic art in an Egyptian Quran of the 9th–10th century
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  An Iranian Quran of the 15th century found in Uzbekistan
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  A Quran with the Kuffi alphabet, of the 12th century

Graphics and miniatures

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  This miniature painting of Mary and the baby Jesus is in the Parc Abbey Bible of the 12th century.
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  In this Iranian miniature the beautiful mix of text and design have been used to communicate the message of the story in a clear way.
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  In this 16th-century miniature of Reza Abbasi, the simplicity and harmony anticipate the principles of modern graphic design.
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  This 18th-century miniature shows the influence of 16th century Iranian graphic designers of the Indian court.

Graphic compositions in Asia

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  An 18th C. wood print by Japanese artist Toshusai Sharaku. Japanese wood prints and painting influenced the design of modern posters by such as Toulouse Lautrec.
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  13th C. work of the Chinese painter Ma Lin. The person at the back, of greater importance, is larger. The trees in the form of an X adds to his significance.
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  A Chinese wall painting in the tomb of Li Xian, 7th century. The parallel lines of soldiers' boots and hats are connected by the lines of their rifles.
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  This Vietnamese wood print of the village of Dong Ho creates an aesthetically pleasing graphic design.

Decorative graphic design in pottery

From ancient times graphic design has been used for decoration of pottery and ceramics.

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  This Greek vase depicts a wrestling match between Peleus and Atalanta in the funerary games of King Pelias. Name inscriptions are written in the alphabet of Chalcis in Euboea. 550 BC.
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  In the period 6500–5500 BC, the farming society of Halaf in northern Mesopotamia and Syria produced pottery that is among the finest ever made in the Near East.

Birth of modern graphic design

William Morris had an influence on modern graphics. In the second half of 19th century his Kelmscott Press produced many graphic designs, and created a collector market for this kind of art. In Oxford he was associated with artists like Burne-Jones, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. They formed the Pre-Raphaelites group, whose ideas influenced modern graphic design considerably.

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  This fabric design 'Peacock and Dragon', the work of William Morris (1878), is a beautiful example of decorative graphic design.
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  This is the Morris 'Tulip and Willow' design (1873). The powerful diagonal blue, with a suggestion of orange, creates a harmonious color scheme.
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  This is the first page of The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin, published by Morris's Kelmscott Press. The design was the revival of the Gothic style in graphic design.
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  This book of poetry, by the famous Persian poet Omar Khayyam, is a graphic calligraphy and decorative design by Morris, and painting by Edward Burne-Jones.

Mondrian's minimalism revolution

The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian in the years 1920–21 courageously introduced the style of minimalism in painting. His simple geometric compositions, together with the use of only three basic colors, blue, yellow, and red, in combination with black and white created a new venue for the graphic designers. He demonstrated that with simple relocation of these colors, and experimenting with the proportionality of various square surfaces, one can achieve extremely different ambiances and various feelings. For the graphic designers who intend to convey a message with a minimum interference from the extraneous elements his experiment in minimalism was a valuable gift.

A Mondrian-like work

Communication with pictures

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  This is a Spanish sign for 'No dogs here'. This kind of sign is a pictogram and an ideogram. It uses a picture and an idea. One does not need to be able to read, to get the message.
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  A rebus is a kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words, such as "T,4,2" instead of "tea for two". This rebus-like symbolic image says: "I love coffee". Rebuses played a role in creation of alphabets.
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  This is the heraldic sign of the Bourbons of Spain. Heraldic signs were created under strict rules and traditions.

Logos and trademarks

A trademark, identified by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, company or other entity to identify its products or services and to distinguish them from those of other producers. A trademark is a type of intellectual property, and typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements.

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  Coca-Cola by Frank Mason Robinson in 1885. This logotype has been around for more than a century: a successful design creates a sense of loyalty among its customers.
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  Google logo was created by Ruth Kedar. The design is simple. "The colors evoke memories of child play... The texture and shading of each letter [lifts] it from the page, giving it... weight and lightness".

Signs of culture and peace

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  This flag of the Olympic Games, by Pierre de Coubertin. It is symbolic: the linked rings are the five continents, and the six colours are from national flags.
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  This peace sign for the Middle East uses "Salaam" (in green) and "Shalom" (in blue). Those words mean "peace" in Arabic and Hebrew respectively.
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  This is the UNESCO flag. Using minimalist principles, this flag uses a simplified Greek design. This suggests education, science and culture.
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  In this flag of Zuid-Holland the color composition and a minimalist approach have created a pleasing impact.

Information signs: Isotype and the Viennese method

In 1921, Otto Neurath, an Austrian social scientist, introduced graphic design to help the understanding of social and economical data. In 1925, the Museum of Economy and Society used such graphics for the public. This style of presentation at the time was called the Viennese method, but now it is known as Isotype charts.

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  Typical Isotype chart showing social statistics.
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  Pages from the book Basic by Isotype by Otto Neurath, 1937. The book showed graphics for Basic English words.
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  Isotype signs, such as this sign of rowing, help to communicate to people who speak different languages.
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  Isotype fire hazard symbol.

Dynamic designs, and computer animation

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  This animation was created from photos taken by Eadweard Muybridge in 1887.
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  Archimedes' screw: computer graphics helps deelop images from simple line drawings to three-dimensional reconstructions of data.
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  A cube is seen from various angles. This can be useful in study of objects.
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  The art of computer graphic designs is still at its infancy. With modern techniques the horizon has been expanded for graphic designers.

Placards and posters

Placards and posters existed from ancient times. The Greek axons and the Roman Albums, with their decorative designs and announcements, were quite similar to today's posters. In ancient Greece the names of athletes and games schedules were written on columns that were slowly turning on an axis. Romans used whitewashed walls in their markets in which sellers, money lenders, and slave traders wrote their announcements and advertised for their products, and to attract the attention of customers they added an attractive design.

With the invention of printing, in 1440, and particularly the development of the lithographic process, invented by a Czech named Alois Senefelder in 1798 in Austria, creation of posters became feasible. Although handmade posters existed before, they were mainly used for government announcements. William Caxton, who in 1477 started a printing company in England, produced the first printed poster.

In 1870, the advertising poster emerged.

Art nouveau posters and the impact of graphics on painting

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  The fin de siècle English artist Aubrey Beardsley created highly decorative posters, based on flowing lines and elongated figures.
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  Alphonse Mucha designed posters with elegant, joyous young women surrounded by decorative flowers. He used a soft pastel coloring scheme in his posters.
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  Graphic design influenced paintings in the works of Art Nouveau artists like Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh and her brother Frances Macdonald.
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  The works of Gustav Klimt are a clear example of the influence of graphic design on painting. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

Posters after World War II

After the Second World War, with the emergence of new color printing technology and particularly appearance of computers, the art of posters underwent a new revolutionary phase. People can create color posters on their computers and create color prints at a very low cost. With the emergence of the internet, the role of posters in conveying information has greatly diminished. However, some artists still use chromolithography in order to create works of art in the form of print. In this regard the difference between painting and print has been narrowed considerably.

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  This political poster by Tiocfaidh Ár Lá, about Ulster, is a low-cost, effective poster with only a few basic ink colors.

Graphic design in modern life

Today graphic design has penetrated into all aspects of modern life. In particular modern architecture has been influenced by graphics.

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  Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970) on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. With black basalt and earth from the site, he made a design 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide.
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  This chair is a 3-D graphic design by Gerrit Rietveld. Today the design of many household appliances as well as kitchen utensils are influenced by graphics.
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  The Steigenberger Hotel, El Gouna, Egypt. The 3-D geometric composition and monochromatic coloring gives a memorable result.