Brief History of Graphic Design

The very first written word of mankind was theMondrian whose innovation has greatly influenced
beginning of Graphic Design! And its native landtoday's modern graphic designer. Though he was
was none other then ancient caves and caverns!not a graphic designer, his uses of grids was the
The very first symbol they had sketched throughorigin of modern day advertisement known as
cave drawings, paintings, markings on boulders,the grid system; widely used by graphic designer
bone, and ivory are the foremost indication andof our century today.
evidence where graphic design was born, nursed,With the decadence of classical style, modern
nourished and grown! Nevertheless, the termgraphic design engrossed in the early 20th century
Graphic Design was named by William Addisonwith designs influenced by fine arts. The
Dwiggins in the early 20th Century.trademark of early modern fonts is the sans-serif
Anthropologists studying prehistoric periods ontypeface. In 1928, the book "New Typography"
cave paintings leads us earlier than the Upperwritten by Jan Tschichold systemized the
Paleolithic period from 40,000 - 10,000 B.C., wherephilosophy of modern typography.
our ancestors were learning how to design signsFurthermore, the fathers of modern graphic
and symbols that could be communicated visually;design are still considered to be typographers
moreover they were successful on leaving theirsuch as Herbert Bayer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and El
marks. The pioneers of graphic design are nonLissitzky as they broke new ground on
other then our own ancestors, who had lived intypography building techniques and stylizing.
the caves and sketched their drawing on rocks.Modern computer technology has changed
History of graphics design roots to our owntypography production altogether, but for the
ancestors of ancient era where civilization wasexperimental and evolutionary approach their
cultured in caves, and left their drawings andcontribution was highly recognizable.
sketches for us on their canvas of cave walls andThe booming and flourishing period for graphic
ceilings.design was after World War II; as the American
The earliest drawings known today are fromeconomy thrived, the demand of graphic design,
6,000 years ago, are that of carved stone andparticularly on advertisement and packaging
pottery containers. Drawings contained in Egyptiansectors blossomed.
pyramids with signs, symbols and letters areI Love NY ad campaign (1973) and a famous Bob
known to all and it leads us back 5000 years.Dylan poster (1968) designed by Milton Glaser are
Furthermore, from 600-250 BC evolution onexamples of applied graphic design culture and its
geometrical shape and structures in Europe playedinfluence. Progressions in graphic design in the
a major role for the development of designingearly 20th Century were mostly enthused by
and sketching. As an applied art of arrangingtechnological expansion in printing and also in
images and text for an attempt of visualphotography. But at the mid of this century, the
communication; the hand written copy of theraising of the computer era in graphic design has
Christian Bible "The Book of Kells", created byfaced little backwards as early computers were
Irish monks in 9th century AD with richfar weaker and computer memory was limited.
illustrations is a good example of the evolution ofHowever, within the end of this century with the
graphic design.immense development of computers and its
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, acorresponding technologies, modern graphic design
German metal-worker and an inventor, introducedhas evolved into a business that is done almost
a printing technology allowing the re-use ofentirely on computers.
individual letters. The first book produced byIn mid 1980, the arrival of desktop publishing and
Gutenberg press was "The Incunabula". This bookthe launching of software applications like
became the standard in the history of bookIllustrator and PageMaker introduced an era of
printing and publishing and was a giant leap fordesigners to computer image manipulation and 3D
printing and publication; though, block stamping onimage creation. Computer graphic design facilitates
sheets of paper with text and signs carved, wasinstantaneous effects of layout or typography
in use in Europe and Asia long before 14thchanges.
century; however, Graphic design of this era wasToday, graphic design the visual communication, is
formatting and we today have named it Old Styleyielded in the rich soil of computer ground,
graphic design.fertilized with latest hardware and software
Guttenberg era of graphic design evolution wastechnologies. Graphic designers worldwide plough
sluggish, until the 19th century, in Britain thethrough computers loaded with the latest gadgets
division created between fine art and applied artand gizmos, software and hardware, academic
boosted this evolution, and they successfullyand technology, information and communication,
published some of the most major graphic designand are generating the new history of graphic
products through the Arts movement. Williamdesign in their design laboratories.
Morris made a great deal of business of publishingWith express elevation of the hi-tech industry, the
books with stylish printings and contributed afuture assures more and today's designer are
significant role to attract the potential market ascontributing their name and effort through their
well as commercializing graphic design; in additioncreativity for the next generation. History yet has
he was the pioneer for the separation ofto write all of her pages for new innovation and
commercial design and fine arts.invention in this field.
Another painter from the19th century was Piet