History of Graphic Design

HISTORY OF GRAPHIC
DESIGN
THE FIRST AGE
BMAGD 101: INTRODUCTION TO
DESIGN
Introduction
Graphics (from Greek γραφικός, graphikos ) are visual

statements committed to a surface, such as a wall,
a canvas, pottery, a computer screen, paper, stone, even to
the landscape itself. The term "graphics" relates to the
creation of signs, charts, logos, graphs, drawings, line
art, symbols, geometric designs and so on. Graphic design is
the art or profession of combining text, pictures, and ideas
in advertisements, publications, or websites. In its broadest
definition, therefore, it refers to the whole history of art,
although painting and other aspects of the subject are more
usually treated as art history.
The First Age – Cave Art
Cave paintings, also known as parietal art , are painted

drawings on cave walls or ceilings, mainly of prehistoric
origin, beginning roughly 40,000 years ago (around 38,000
BCE) in Eurasia. The exact purpose of the Paleolithic cave
paintings is not known. Evidence suggests that they were
not merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in
which they have been found do not have signs of ongoing
habitation, and they are often in relatively inaccessible
chambers. Some theories hold that cave paintings may have
been a form of communication, while other theories ascribe
them a religious or ceremonial purpose. The paintings are
remarkably similar around the world, commonly depicting
impressive animals. Humans mainly appear as images of
hands, mostly hand stencils made by blowing pigment on a
hand held to the wall.
Cave of Pettakere, Bantimurung district (kecamatan), South

Sulawesi, Indonesia. Hand stencils estimated between
35,000–40,000 BP.
ON ANIMALS
The most common subjects in cave paintings are large wild animals,
such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human
hands as well as abstract patterns, called finger flutings. Drawings
of humans were rare and are usually schematic as opposed to the
more detailed and naturalistic images of animal subjects. One
explanation for this may be that realistically painting the human
form was "forbidden by a powerful religious taboo.“ Kieran D.
O'Hara, geologist, suggests in his book Cave Art and Climate
Change that climate controlled the themes depicted. Pigments used
in cl u d e red a n d y el l o w o ch re, h em a t it e, m a n g a n es e o x i d e
and charcoal. Sometimes the silhouette of the animal was incised in
the rock first, and in some caves all or many of the images are
only engraved in this fashion, taking them somewhat out of a strict
definition of "cave painting".
Rock paintings from the Cave of Beasts (Gilf Kebir, Libyan

Desert) Estimated 7000 BP
ON HUMAN IMPRESSION
HAND STENCIL, made by placing a hand on the wall and
blowing pigment at it (probably through a pipe of some
kind), form a characteristic image of a roughly round area
of solid pigment with the uncoloured shape of the hand in
the centre, which may then be decorated with lines or
dashes. These are often found in the same caves as other
paintings, or may be the only form of painting in a location.
Some walls contain many hand stencils. Similar hands are
also painted in the usual fashion. A number of hands show a
finger wholly or partly missing, for which a number of
explanations have been given. Hand images are found in
similar forms in Europe, Eastern Asia and South America.
Cueva de las Manos located Perito Moreno, Argentina. The art

in the cave dates between 13,000–9,000 BP
Analysis & Theories
 Henri Breuil, a French Catholic Priest & Geologist interpreted the
paintings as hunting magic to increase the abundance of prey.
 Another theory, developed by archaelogist David Lewis-
Williams and broadly based on ethnographic studies of
contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings
were made by paleolithic shamans. The shaman would retreat
into the darkness of the caves, enter into a trance state, then
paint images of his or her visions, perhaps with some notion of
drawing out power from the cave walls themselves.
 R. Dale Guthrie, who has studied both highly artistic and lower
quality art and figurines, identifies a wide range of skill and age
among the artists. He hypothesizes that the main themes in the
paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting
scenes and the representation of women in the Venus figurines)
are the work of adolescent males, who constituted a large part of
the human population at the time.
 However, in analyzing hand prints and stencils in French and
Spanish caves, Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University has
proposed that a proportion of them, including those around the
spotted horses in Pech Merle, were of female hands.
The First Age – Invention of
Writing
It is generally agreed that true writing of language (not only numbers) was
independently conceived and developed in at least two ancient civilizations
and possibly more. The two places where it is most certain that the concept
of writing was both conceived and developed independent ly are in
ancient Sumer (in Mesopotamia), around 3100 BC, and in Mesoamerica by
300 BC, because no precursors have been found to either of these in their
respective regions. Several Mesoamerican scripts are known, the oldest
being from the Olmec or Zapotec of Mexico.
While neolithic writing is a current research topic, conventional history

assumes that the writing process first evolved from economic necessity in
the ancient Near East. Writing most likely began as a consequence of
political expansion in ancient cultures, which needed reliable means for
transmitting information, maintaining financial accounts, keeping historical
records, and similar activities. Around the 4th millennium BC, the
complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and
writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting
transactions in a permanent form.
The First Age – Invention of
Writing
Amulet of the Tărtăria tablets, the earliest found example of

the Old European script and of human writing in the world
generally, dating to 5500–5300 BC.
The First Age – Proto-
Writing
Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating
limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier
traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early
as the 7th millennium BCE. They used ideographic or
early mnemonic symbols or both to represent a limited
number of concepts, in contrast to true writing systems,
which record the language of the writer.
Example of Jiahu
symbols, found
on tortoise
shells dated around
6000 BCE
Egyptian Hieroglyph
The word hieroglyph comes from

the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικός (hieroglyphikos),
a compound of ἱερός (hierós 'sacred‘) and γλύφω (glýphō 'Ι
carve, engrave‘).
The glyphs themselves since the Ptolemaic period were

called τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ [γράμματα] (tà hieroglyphikà [grámmata])
"the sacred engraved letters", the Greek counterpart to the
Egyptian expression of mdw.w-nṯr or God's words.
In English, hieroglyph as a noun is recorded from 1590,

originally short for nominalised hieroglyphic (1580s, with a
plural hieroglyphics), from adjectival use (hieroglyphic
character).
Egyptian Hieroglyph
The use of hieroglyphic writing arose in the Early Bronze Age,

around the 32nd century BC, with the first decipherable
sentence written in the Egyptian language dating to
the Second Dynasty (28th century BC). Egyptian hieroglyphs
developed into a mature writing system used for monumental
inscription in the classical language of the Middle
Kingdom period; during this period, the system made use of
about 900 distinct signs. The use of this writing system
continued through the New Kingdom and Late Period, and on
into the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of
hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period,
extending into the 4th century AD.
Decipherment of
Hieroglyphs
Knowledge of the hieroglyphs had been lost completely by the
medieval period. Early attempts at decipherment are due to
scholars Dhul-Nun al-Misri and Ibn Wahshiyya (9th and 10th
century, respectively).
The early modern tradition of decipherment attempts begins
with the work of Piero Valeriano Bolzani (1556). The most
famous of the early "decipherers" was Athanasius Kircher. In
his Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta (1643), Kircher called
hieroglyphics "this language hitherto unknown in Europe, in
which there are as many pictures as letters, as many riddles
as sounds, in short as many mazes to be escaped from as
mountains to be climbed". While some of his notions are long
discredited, portions of his work have been valuable to later
scholars, and Kircher helped pioneer Egyptology as a field of
serious study. All medieval and early modern attempts were
hampered by the fundamental assumption that hieroglyphs
Decipherment of
Hieroglyphs
Hieroglyphs – The first stage of
logography
A hieroglyph used as a logogram defines the object of which it

is an image. Logograms are therefore the most frequently used
common nouns; they are always accompanied by a mute
vertical stroke indicating their status as a logogram (the usage
of a vertical stroke is further explained below); in theory, all
hieroglyphs would have the ability to be used as logograms.
Hieroglyph was the first stage of logo design. It actually helped

the next generation to enhance visual communication.
Whatever symbols we use today is a part of the ancient
communication process.
Hieroglyphs – The first stage of
logography
Fun Fact: Conspiracy Theory!!
Any Questions??

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HISTORY OF GRAPHIC

Graphics (from Greek γραφικός, graphikos ) are visual

Cave paintings, also known as parietal art , are painted

Cave of Pettakere, Bantimurung district (kecamatan), South

Rock paintings from the Cave of Beasts (Gilf Kebir, Libyan

Cueva de las Manos located Perito Moreno, Argentina. The art

While neolithic writing is a current research topic, conventional history

Amulet of the Tărtăria tablets, the earliest found example of

The word hieroglyph comes from

The glyphs themselves since the Ptolemaic period were

In English, hieroglyph as a noun is recorded from 1590,

The use of hieroglyphic writing arose in the Early Bronze Age,

A hieroglyph used as a logogram defines the object of which it

Hieroglyph was the first stage of logo design. It actually helped

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