These are the notes from week 1 to 6! This course provides an overview of the history of graphic design, with
an emphasis on modern and postmodern design. It also takes into account
key theories and methods of analyzing graphic design and its
relationships with wider cultural, social, technologi...
Historical Background to Graphic Design
Monday, September 12 2022
Early Inscriptions (15000-10000 BC)
- Writing is about consolidating memory. Stabilising truth.
- Inscriptions mostly consist of animals, trees, objects and people etc. Creating a narrative and language.
Writing itself is considered the root of civilization and preservation of culture. (Oral culture)
- We see roots of modernity within prints
Egyptian Hieroglyphics
- First to produce illuminated manuscripts. (impt to print culture)
- Rosetta Stone: Decree issued in Memphis, Egypt using hieroglyphics and demotic
scripts - and ancient greek.
- Abstraction of pictures. Related to modern ways of understanding pictures too.
- Phoenician inscription: adopted characters to reflect sound. →
- Politically: aligned with democracy and rise of the nation state.
The Invention of Printing
- Huge importance to development of writing and graphics. First invented by the Chinese. (Bi Sheng
invented movable type printing)
- Mechanisation of book production. Shaped our brains, who we are and who we become. Democracy
relied on this. Mass Media. This “success” changed the way we live and think. Mass Education became
very important.
Christian Illuminated Manuscripts
- Manuscripts communicating word of God. (narrative, stories) Largely dependent on pictures.
- Gold leaf gave manuscripts a dazzling effect. This drew people to Christian belief, giving the public a
sense of wonder of God. (Aesthetic pleasingness/attractiveness/desirable aspect of manuscript moved
people) → Democratic Influence.
Caslon Type
- Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I in London, or inspired by his
work. → considered reliable, serious, sober and most importantly persuasive and believable.
Something that carries weight and that people would believe in.
Going back to Illuminated manuscripts…
- William Blake published the Book of Thel - painted each page with watercolour. This is graphic design
to the extent that it relies on words and image.
The Industrial Revolution and Visual Communication
1760-1840 Describes conversion from an agricultural society to an industrial society made possible when
energy was mechanised.
The Factory System - Mass communication was a direct outcome of factory systems. The way people moved
into cities. However, this period experienced exploitation of people and machines.
- Karl Marx - argued that people were driven to engage in alienated labour as a result of
industrialization. (Devaluation of humans was what Karl was preoccupied with. The constant making
, of goods in mass quantities devalued people; workers had been torn from land driven into factory
systems) Worker’s labour is appropriated and transformed into a commodity.
- Prior to industrialisation, design and production were unified. Marx argued that this phase in
economic development resulted in a changed relationship between maker and objects.
Regarded capitalism as upheaval …
1703 The business (The Enschede type foundry) became Haarlem’s official printer of newspapers and
banknotes. Johannes Enschede printed its first banknotes for the Dutch East and West Indies in 1810 and 1814
banknotes for the Dutch International Bank.
1866 Creation of stamps depicting King William lll; the business continued to produce stamps, banknotes,
cheques, visas and certificates.
Photography
- Early 1800s came early experiments of photographic printing involving the use of camera obscura
(photographic images).
Arts and Crafts Movement
- Becomes critical to development of design because then a persona is developed from the designer.
ex. William Morris believed in the notion of good taste. Creating images of harmony.
- The Industrial Revolution was a rather chaotic environment. With the growing demand of jobs
in the city filled with a town of labour workers and people at or below the poverty line…
Victorian Design was also ‘cheap and nasty’ (according to my professor)
- Design arises from concern of speed associated with the growing Industrial Resolution. (Huge demand
of Graphic Design filled with posters everywhere)
Private Press Movement
- Small private presses and the Doves Biblen issued 5 volumes to a list of subscribers. Each volume
contained a large amount of hand-lettered initials and used calligraphy and typography.
Wednesday September 14, 2022
During the 19th century,
Broadsides and Handbills
- These both encouraged a communal reading experience.
- Broadsides are a single sheet printed on one side : carried notices, advertising, poetry ballads. (Early
newspapers) People used these to pass on legends, urban myths etc.
- Handbills were smaller and printed on both sides and distributed by hand. Carried political messages
and advertising.
- The handbill, pamphlet and broadside were significant forms of street literature.
City as Spectacle
A spectacle is something that engages you - a spectacle of a city is captivating due to graphic design. Another is
the use of light through neon signs. Another is architecture, and the flow of people. The power and the force of
graphic design circulating around the city cannot be excluded.
● Graphics in public space - integrated into urban fabric. Always characterised as being temporary. The
function of this ranges from consumerism, politics, information, wayfinding… The reach of graphic
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