History of Graphic Designing
Graphic designing as a formal tool of visual communication has a relatively short history, but the practice of human beings communicating visually goes back at least to the cave paintings at Lascaux, which date back some 16,000 years. Wood block printing was used on textiles in China as early as the fourth century A.D. The graphic design industry as we know it today began to emerge in the 19th century with the advent of large-scale industrial printing and the separation of applied art from fine art.
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Beginnings
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At its heart, graphic design uses a combination of words and images to communicate a desired message. From the dawn of prehistory, human beings developed their picture-making skills in order to communicate narrative themes, ownership and group affiliations, for example. As civilization emerged, an early form of writing was created almost 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia to assist in tracking agricultural productivity. Around 2600 B.C., Egyptian hieroglyphics began the link between written symbols and an alphabet. By the time of the Roman empire, the alphabet we know today began to emerge. With the invention of movable type and the Gutenberg press in the 15th century, the stage was set for artisans to combine the written word and illustrated elements in eye-pleasing designs for the printed page.
Modern Typography
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With the Renaissance, type designers worked to create elegant type faces that were easy to read. Claude Garamond was a type designer and printer who moved typography away from the look of hand-drawn calligraphy. He was the first type designer who sold type faces to other printers. During the Enlightenment, the tradition was continued by designers such as Jean Jannon, Gambattista Bodoni and William Caslon.
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The Printed Word
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There were several early forms of books, including ancient scrolls. Early Christians and Mesoamericans both hit on the form of the codex, where a sheet of paper was folded to create four pages; multiple sheets could be bound together to create books. In the Middle Ages, monks created lavishly illustrated illuminated manuscripts, combining typographic and illustrative elements. All these early books were hand written, however. Johannes Gutenberg perfected the printing process in the 15th century, famously producing multiple copies of his Gutenberg Bible. Later, with the mechanization of the 19th century, newspaper publishing exploded and the printed word entered the daily life of the masses.
Design as Business
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With the industrial revolution, graphic designing emerged as an industry with artists such as William Morris. Morris was an English architect and designer who created images for stained glass, tapestries, wallpaper, furniture and many other applications. In the 20th century, the booming economy of the post World War II era created a demand for graphic design for advertising, packaging and publishing.
Design Styles Emerge
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Modern art movements have exerted an influence on graphic design styles. The Art Nouveau style pioneered by artists such as Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Van de Velde is popular with illustrators and poster designers. The Bauhaus school of designer and educator Walter Gropius was of primary influence on contemporary graphic design, with its clean lines and dynamic sans serif typography. The noted designer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was responsible for much of the Bauhaus typography. The style and imagery of the best know modern artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Miro and Dali frequently find their way into graphic design.
The Digital Revolution
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The most significant change in graphic design in recent decades is the switch from photo mechanical production technology to computer-based digital design. Up until the 1980s, most designs were executed with tools such as the graphic arts camera, (also known as the stat camera), graphic art knives, color separation overlay film and photo typesetting machines. With the advent of the personal computer and graphics software programs, the tools of graphic design changed completely in the space of less than a decade. The revolution continues today as the internet challenges print as a primary communication medium, and design becomes more interactive.
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