Introduction to the History of Graphic Design

Hallmark

• The above image shows the mark of Hester Bateman registered in 1761 (1708–1794). Ms Bateman, a silversmith of household silverware in London, used her special initials along with the standard hallmarks; the crown signifying a tax is paid to the crown, a lion which identifies the type of metal (sterling silver) and the h, a "date letter" which notes the year of production.

Trade mark

• Shaker's Furniture Mark, USA, 1873

Trademark

Hallmark

• During the Middle Ages European trade guilds began using marks to identify the origin and content of their products. The term “hallmark” comes from the identification marks that metal artisans stamped into metal when exhibiting wares in the guild hall in London.

Why should a graphic designer study handwriting?

• We study handwriting because the first mechanically produced letterforms were designed to directly imitate handwriting —importing the existing manual standards for form, rhythm and spacing into printed type.

• The shape and line of hand drawn letterforms are influenced by the tools and materials used to make them. Sharpened bones, charcoal sticks, plant stems, brushes, feather and steel pens all contributed unique characteristics. Additional factors included the material upon which the forms were written: clay, papyrus, animal skins (vellum and parchment) and paper.

• As civilization evolved from nomadic hunters into a more agricultural society and began trading goods, it was necessary to find a way to record transactions. Small portable clay tokens were fashioned into specific shapes to represent objects in approximately sixteen economic categories—sheep, grain, oil etc.

The tokens were stored in clay ball-shaped envelopes, bullae, which were impressed on the outside with the shapes of the tokens found within. Around 3100 B.C.E. the shaped tokens were replaced by drawing the shapes onto clay tablets.

Cuneiformc. 3000 B.C.E.

• Cuneiform, the earliest system of actual writing, was used in a number of languages between the 34C. B.C.E. through the 1st century C.E. Its distinctive wedge form was the result of pressing the blunt end of a reed stylus into wet clay tablets. The cuneiform characters evolved from pictograms that had been rotated onto their sides, abstracted into symbols and organized into horizontal rows.

• Cuneiform was written from left to right, perhaps as it helped a right-handed writer to see their work as they wrote or to keep the clay from being smeared.

Hieroglyphics 2613–2160 B.C.E.

Hieroglyphics

• The Egyptian writing system is fused with the art of relief carving—the Greek translation of hieroglyphics is "sacred carving." The system was a mixture of both rebus and phonetic characters—the first link to a future alphabetic system.

Hieroglyphics

1. As ideograms, to represent the things they actually depict.

2. As determinatives to show that the signs preceding are meant as phonograms and to indicate the general idea of the word.

3. As phonograms to represent sounds that "spell out" individual words.

Early Greek / 5th C. B.C.E.

• Built on the Egyptian logo-consonantal system, the Phoenicians developed a phonetic alphabet consisting of 22 letters.

Early Roman Lapidary2nd Century B.C.E.

• Following the Greek style, the first Roman stone carved letters were of equal width and without serifs. The Romans added some word spacing to divide the words into single units via dots placed midline.

Painting with a Square-cut Brush, The Origin of the Serif?

• During the 1st century lettering changed in composition from monoline evenness to forms made from thick and thin strokes. Exactly why this happened remains unknown. Type historians have theorized that serifs resulted from stone cutters following the forms left by a square-cut writing implement; not a reed or quill, but a flat stiff brush.

• Above is a late example of Rustic Capitals shown currently on James Mosley's blog Typefoundry, where he quotes the observations of W. R. Lethaby in 1906, "The Roman characters which are our letters today, although their earlier forms have only come down to us cut in stone, must have been formed by incessant practice with a flat, stiff brush, or some such tool. This disposition of the thicks and thins, and the exact shape of the curves, must have been settled by an instrument used rapidly; I suppose, indeed, that most of the great monumental inscriptions were designed in situ by a master writer, and only cut in by the mason ."

Cave painting

• Hundreds of graphic designs of animals by the primitive people in the Chauvet Cave, in the south of France, which were drawn more than 30,000 BC,[ as well as similar designs in the Lascaux cave of France that were drawn more than 14,000 BC,[ or the designs of the primitive hunters in theBhimbetka rock shelters in India that were drawn more than 7,000 BC,[ and the Aboriginal Rock Art, in the Kakadu National Park of Australia,[ and many other rock or cave paintings in other parts of the world show that graphics have a very long history which is shared among humanity. This history together with the history of writing which was emerged in 3000-4000 BC are

The Papyrus

• The Papyrus of Ani is a version of the Book of the Dead for the Scribe Ani. This vignette (small scene that illustrates the text) is Chapter for not letting Ani's heart create opposition against him in the God's Domain.

• (1240s BC).

Use in books

• Many books in the classical world were illustrated, although only a handful of original examples survive. Medieval religious illuminated manuscripts have used graphics extensively. Among these books are the Gospel books of Insular art, created in the monasteries of the British Isles The graphics in these books are influenced by the Animal style of the "barbarian" peoples of Northern Europe, with much use of interlace and geometric decoration.

A page from Lindisfarne Gospels, c. 710

A graphic decoration in the Book of Kells, c. 800

Calligraphy

Calligraphy

• Art of calligraphy in China goes back to 2000 BC. Chinese calligraphy was used to communicate the philosophical ideas ofConfucius and Hundred Schools of Thought (諸子百家 ; zhūzǐ bǎijiā")

Miniatures

Miniature

• In this miniature painting of king Henry I of England, from illuminated Chronicle of Matthew, Paris, (1236-1259), now in British Library,[] many of the principles of the modern graphic design is followed. The 13th-century paintings with their bright and golden colors were influenced by the Byzantine art. After the crusaders'sack of Constantinople in 1204, many works of Byzantine art entered and influenced Western Europe.

Pottery

• This Greek lekythos (used for storing oil, especially olive oil) depicts the scene when Peleus (left) entrusts his son Achilles (centre) to Centaur Chiron (right). White-ground black-figured by the Edinburgh Painter, c. 500 BC. FromEretria.National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Communication

Communication

• Many medical organizations use the rod of Asclepius as their logo, since it symbolizes the healing arts. This kind of sign is calledpictogram The main advantage of a pictogram is that one does not need to be able to read or to understand a particular language in order to be able to understand the information it conveys.

Heraldry

Heraldry is the practice of designing and displaying coat of arms and heraldic badge and is rather common among all nations. For example Romans used eagle as their coat of arms, French used fleur de lis, and Persians used the sign of their god, Ahura Mazda. Historically, it has been variously described as "the shorthand of history" and "the floral border in the garden of history.".

Heraldry

Heraldry

• This is the imperial Coat of arms of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. From the time of Otto the Greatonward, the various German princes elected one of their peers as King of the Germans, after which he would be crowned as emperor by the Pope. The last emperor to be crowned by the pope was Charles V; all emperors after him were technically emperors-elect, but were universally referred to as Emperor.

Emergence of the print and design industry

• Around 1450, Johann Gutenberg's printing press made books widely available in Europe. The book design of Aldus Manutius developed the book structure which would become the foundation of western publication design. With the development of the lithographic process,invented by a Czech namedAlois Senefelder in 1798 in Austria, the creation of posters become 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.