History of Graphic Design 15000 BCE - 2000 AD
3500 BCE
15000 BCE
In 3500 BCE Sumerians started to inhabit the western hemisphere along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, due to its rich agriculture which created Mesopotamia. They soon made a society and had farmers, planters, hunters, and traders. Due to it’s growing society the citizens had to make a new form of communication and documentation. They created cuneiform (ideographs), which is a series of over 600 symbols with meaning to each one that are stamped onto a surface with a wedge-shaped stylus.
In 15000 BCE cave drawings, pictographs, and petroglyphs were believed to be present. Cave drawings are closely linked with petroglyphs, both are pictures etched/ painted onto stone that are meant to show a story or visual representation of an occurence. Pictographs are symbols scrathed into small clay tablets that represent a word or phrase. Pictogrpahs were discovered in Egypt and Mesopotamia. These are the first forms of communication that we have discovered.
1500 BCE
Evolution of the
In 1500 BCE the first ever alphabet was formed, called Phoenician. The Phoenicians had come up with this way of communication for trading, due to them being sea-faring trading people. The alphabet was made up of phonetic symbols
Written Word 15000 BCE800 CE 1000 BCE
After Phonecian was made other societies started making their own form of communication. In 1000 BCE the Greeks made their own alphabet. It was based off the Phoenetic alphabet, just a cleaned up version of it. They made it 24 letters, each letter having its own name, made 5 continents into vowels, and changed the geometric sctructures of the letters, altering the strokes. They also invented ‘Boustrophedon’ which is alternating left to right and right to left lines of text. In 850 BCE the Arabics/ Hebrews made the Aramiac Alphabet. It was visually the most In Egypt the first hieroglyphics were found, appealling and ir read right to left. In 750 BCE the which dated back to 3100 BCE. The Egyptians Latin Alphabet was made. It had 26 had followed after the pictogrpahs to make letters, Roman Square their own language of communication, unlike Capitals, and uncials. the Sumerians who had based their cuneiform off of petroglyphs. Their hieroglyphics were a combination of reubus writing and picture elements. It took until 1799 to decode their language when the Rosetta Stone was found. After the Egyptians created hieroglyphics they needed a medium to put it on. They made a delicate paper out of pressed reeds called papyrus.
3100 BCE
250 BCE
Around 250 BCE Asian Influence started to come into interest. The Asians had made major advancements in papermaking, printing, and movable type, which we took our knowledge from. They had started their own way of writing called calligraphy and in 105 CE they developed a way of papermaking that is still used today.
800 CE
476 CE
In 476 CE the reigh of the Roman Empire fell after being ransacked, which plumeted the area into the Dark Ages. All progress from that time including advancements in literacy, architexture, and medicine was crushed. Povery struck, people moved away, and all documents/ability to read/write/letterforms were lost. People turned to faith.
100 BCE
In 100 BCE the Illuminated Manuscript was invented. They are all hand-written decorated texts that are made from gold leaf sheets. The gold leaves were hammered into the sheets, which was a very laborous and time consuming process. For this reason it was not available to the public and took a whole year to complete one book. The end result was worth the wait, the books were gorgeous. Unfourtunatly the practice was almost completely lost after the fall of the Roman Empire. Thankfully it was picked up again, but not as much when the Dark Ages started to end.
In 800 CE there was a shinig light that was breaking apart the Dark Ages. It was the Carolignian Renaissance Period that was led my Charlemange. He helped steer everything right again that had been broken or lost throughout the Dark Ages. He was known as ‘Tha Father of Europe’ and was highly praised. He starts to unite most of Western Europe, spurs cultural and intellectual activity, and brings back all lost letterforms/ has reading and writing make a comeback. He was also the driving force behind the Carolignian Meniscule. The Carolignian meniscule was significantly easier to write, made everything faster to process, and was modeled after late Roman uncials/ the illuminated letter manuscript. Also during this time Textura was formed. Textura, or also known as ‘Blackletter’ or ‘Old English’is a very large and bold font. Unfourtunatly it isn’t very helpful for writing long passages of text because it makes the whole peper seem darker than it is, due to the boldness.
600 CE
In 600 CE the world started to see Islamic Illuminated Manuscripts. It was almost a completely different style of illuminated manuscripts that people had been used to seeing. Their version had a lot more decoration to it, and a lot less words. Unlike the old illuminated manuscripts , the Islamic verion branched out, not just focusing on religious texts only. The Qu’ran is probably the most well-known of all the Islamic Illuminated Manuscripts.
1490
A man named Aldus Manutius kicked off the Old Style typeface in the Garalde/ Renaissance period in this time period with his invention of ‘Aldines’. Aldines were known as his own printing publication at the time. Aldus also invented italics, printed the first book of Aristotle, and designed the first ever italic type.
1276
The first ever paper mill was brought into the world in Fariano, Italy. The paper mill was popular and spread to Around this time early Europeon block Troyes, France when they printing started to print pictorial established one in 1348. designs on textiles. It was outlawed by the clergy at the time, but people would still do underground printing so much so that it thrived into an industry.
1300
Movable
1501
Italic type was designed in the 1490’s by Aldus Manutius, but was actually made until the early 1500’s when Francisco Griffo physically cut out the typeface into blocks. He had made the italic text out of a pre-existing font named Bembo. Not too long after Griffo got Aldine’s press shop shut down for printing an erotic book.
Type
1200 1900
1450
In this time a man named Johann Gutenburg made a device that would revolutionize printing. He made the printing press which was a cylinder/ rotary press that used small, steel carved blocks of letter arracnged in sentences to print. Only a few years after Gutenburg invented movable type, then a mystery man called, ‘Master of the Playing Cards created copperplate engraving.
1460
At this time the Humanist Form took over the Venetian period. This style of type was the first true Roman type face and lasted from 1460-1470. It had been created by Nicholas Jensen. The font had - Some contrast between thick and thin strokes - Angled axis or stress - Flat terminals - Thick, bracketed serif - Rising cross bar - Oblique serif - Centaur and Jenson are two fonts still around that are well known - Centaur: - Some contrast between thick and thin strokes - Angled axis or stress - Flat terminals - ‘light bracketed serif - Rising crossbar - Oblique serif
1530
IAt this time Claude Garamond comes around and establishes the first type foundry. During this same time Garamond also created his own typeface, which is still popular today, called ‘Garamond’. This typeface was so legible it opened up many new possibilities for type designers,
1722
William Caslon invents his own typeface called ‘Caslon’. Caslon liked and based his typefaces off the Old Style fonts, but his typeface ‘Caslon’ was characterized as a transitional typeface. The typeface was sturdy in structure/ texture, easy to read, and was not decorative. His font became extrmely popular and was used for the next 60 years in all English printings.
1757
John Baskerville invents his own typeface called ‘Baskerville font’. His font was known as the epitome of all transitional fonts. In this font the letterforms were wider and the contrast between thick and thin strokes were increased. John Baskerville’s font started to get popular and soon blew up when he printed on ‘wove paper’ a copy of his famous edition of Virgil. His font is still commonly used to this day.
1784
The Modern Type period gets started with the ‘Didot’ typeface. This typeface was created by Marlene Didot. It was a refined typeface that had contrast between think/ thin strokes and bracketed serifs. It was beautiful, but unfourtunately it wasn’t very legible so it didn’t catch on like other typefaces had.
1790
1692
Transitional type ( typefaces containing elements of both humanist and old style) took over at this time thanks to Romain Du Roi, which was a typeface known for bringing order to typography. This transitional typeface was created for King Louis by his scholars when he ordered them to create a font for all his documents. They created this type based on a mathematic grid system composed of 2000 little squares. The first book printed in all Romain Du Roi was released in 1702
Giambattista Bodoni during this time was making a new and refined typeface, called ‘Bodoni’. It had light, thin strokes and increased contrast with the thick/thin ration of the strokes. It’s sharp quiality was highly liked and is still used today.
1827
1760
This year Ambrose Applegath developed a 4 cylinder steam-powered press that could produce 4000 sheets an hour with imressions of both sides which was the most powerful printing press ever made. Also during this year typography made some leaps. Darius Wells experimented with hand-carved wooden type and launched a mass manufacture of wood types for display printing. The wood-type lettering was durable, light-weight, and less than half as expensive as large metal types. In only a year the industry for wood-type sprang up and expanded to all parts of the world.
The Industrial Revolution begins with the perfection of the steam engine. It started in England and was an extreme process of social and economic change. As a result of the changes the demand for product communication and advertising skyrockets. The supply-demand cycle first introduces graphic communication as a solution for the marketing needs. Unfourtunately around this time printing was still extrmemly limited and not many graphic designers existed yet. The most pressing issue for the marketing was that there Lord Charles Stanhope produced a printing press made of cast iron which was a very lmited amount of typefaces that changed the printing game of that could be used. time.
1800
1810
Industrial Revolution 1760 1900 1765
At this time, due to the need for more graphic communication typography started to make advancements. William Caslon and his heirs Joseph Jackson and Thomas Cotterell started up typography by sand-casting large, bold display letters that got up to 12 lines of pica. The letters were supposed to be eye-catching and attract potetial customers.
1803
Friedrich Koenig, a German printer, made a patent for his new and improved printing press. It produced 400 sheets and hour, the best at the time was only 250 sheets which was Stanhope’s press.
1815
William Cowper introduces his new printing press, which precedes the others. He makes his press with curved, stereotyped plates that are wrapped around a cylinder. This press can produce 2400 impressions an hour which equals out to 1200 cheets with impressions on both sides. Also in this year the Harper Brothers (James and John) established their printing firm in NY.
In this year Robert Thorne created the first ever ‘fat-face’ typeface which had a ratio of 1: 2.5 or 1:2. The ‘fat-face’ typeface was a Roman type with contrast and weight increased by expanding thickness of strokes. It became extrmely popular for its time. After Thorne’s death William Thorowood put out a book of 132 pages that contained all of Thorne’s type specimens.
1822
1830-1834
During these years printing exapnded and newspaper, book, and jobbing printers proliferated. William Leavenworth this year combined pantograph with router which allowed new wood type to be produced fatser and easier. Thanks to this any customer could bring in their own hand-made fonts to be made.
Joseph Niepce creates a new and better way than drawing to make plates for photography, which was the original way to produce photographs, invented by him in 1622 with his release of a small box-like camera, His new method including coating a pewter sheet with a light- sensitive asphalt called bitumen of Judea. The bituman of Judea hardens when exposed to light, then contact prints a drawing. He named this process heliogravure. A few years later in 1826 he put one of the pewter plates in the back of a camera which allowed him to take a picture directly from nature. It took all day to expose it, but it came out making it the first picture taken.
1881
1839
In this year Louis Jacques Daguerre invented the daguerreotype prints. Daguerreotype is the first commercially successful photography process in pho tography history. It’s an image in a silver-pewter plate. This lasted up until 1840 when calotype started to take over. Calotype is another sucessful photographic process that coats a plate in silver iodide.
1845
William Thorowgood and Company copyrighted a modified Egyptian typeface called Claredon. It was similar to Iconic, condensed with stronger contrast betwen thick/ thin strokes and lighter serifs. They loosely based it off of Stephenson Blake foundry’s
1850
The Harper Brothers (James, John, Wesley, and Fletcher) started producing pictorial magazines. Their first one was ‘ Harpers New Monthly Magazine.’ The magazine serialized English fitction. They put out varous others up until 1879, Some of them included ‘ Harpers Weekly’, ‘Harpers Bazar’, and ‘Harpers oung People.’
The first commercial production of half-tone printing plates by Frederick E. Ives were invented. A half-tone is a reproduction of a photograph or other image in which the various tones of gray or color are produced by variously sized dots of ink. By the 1890’s Ayer and Sons could provide a complete spectrum of copywriting, art direction, production, and media selection. Also during this time Kate Grennaway, poet and Howard Pyle launched the illustrator, releases her first book Golden Age of American in this year called ‘Under the Illustration with his remarkable Window.’ He style captured the gifts of teaching and ability to imagination of the Victorian Era broadcast his influence. In all idealization, influence on he published over 3300 childrens fasion, and graceful illustrations and 200 texts. book design
1890
1879
1869-1870
In 1869 Ayers and Sons established and opened their own graphics and printing firm. In 1870 wood-etching started to decline rapidly as lithographic printing was taking over.
1865-1866
Walter Crane, the earliest and most influential designer for childrens books published his first book in 1865 at the age of 20. It was called the ‘Railroad Alphabet.’ His style took inspiration from the style of different eras. Just a year later in 1866 Caldecott, a bank clerk, started to take a passion in drawing and took evening classes. After prompting he moved to London at age 26to draw for childrens books. His still was based on personification
1886
Ottomar Mergenthaler perfected his linotype machiene. Linotype is a composing machine producing lines of words as single strips of metal, used chiefly for newspapers. It is now rarely used. His new and improved machiene reduced compositers time by 25- 30%. It could do the work of 7-8 compositers and put out thousans of highly skilled typesetters. Linotype was present until 1887 whe monotype took over.
1850
At this time the Arts and Crafts Movement Period began. This period seperated graphic design from printing production and was the period that revived started the renaissance revival of book design. The artists of this period treated the book as a limited-edition art object. Due to this commercial production was influenced greatly. The revival was very effective, but one designer’s book stood steady, William Pickering’s. Unfourtunatly during the 1880’s- 1890’s the arts and crafts movement was underpinned by society and the government.
1884
During this year Morris’s fabric design “Rose” was released and demonstrated his drawing fluency coupled with his studied of botany. Also during this year the Centruy Guild Hobby Horse (which was established in 1882 by Arthur Mackmurdo who was an architect before) began pubication of works. The Century Guild was the first finely printed magazine to be devoted solely to visual arts. It’s trademark was fabric designs, but the designs were before their time so they weren’t too popular. The Hobby Horse treated printing as aserious art form during this period, which wasn’t common before. Morris heard of the firm and joined this year after coersion from Mackmurdo. The first act that the Hobby Horse did was proclaim philosophy and art. They produced all their work with pain-staking care under the teachings of Sir Emery Walker who had been the master printer/typographer at Chiswick Press. The Century Guild Hobby Horse wa the first periodical to introduce the Bristish Arts and Crafts viewpoint to Europe.
Arts and Crafts Movement 1850 1941
1853
During this year William Morris started going to Exeter College and soon became friends with Edward Burne-Jones. Morris was a pivotal figure in histiry or deisgn, but at first had planed to enter the ministry with Jones. In 1855 he decided he no longer wanted to be a clergyman and started to study art instead with Jones. A few years later in 1861 he opened up an art-decorating firm with a few other people which was called Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & company.
1890
1888
In this year the Century Guild Hobby Horse firm was disbanded and Charles R.Ashbee founded the Guild of Handcraft which sparked off the Private Press movment. The Private Press movement was the movement of printing and design. It pushed for beautiful books amd sought to regain design standards. Two years later in 1890 the Private Press Movement leased the Essex House and formed the Essex House Press from the Kelmscott Press.
1900 - 1903
In this year the Private Press movement gained a new and impactful esigner. Bookbinder T.J. Cobden-Sanderson joined up with Emery Walker in the movement and made the Dover Press. The Dover Press bible was relased three years lter by Cobden. In 1902 the Private Press movement published a psalter, which was their deisng masterpiece. After this they were able to move to rural village, Chipping Campden. In 1907 they went brankrupt and much of their movement was lost. Also in the early 1900’s their was a book deisgn revolution led by Sjoerd H. de Roos and Jan Van Krimpen. They wanted to revive printing arts and incorporate traditional standards back into it. De Roos ended up splitting off in 1903.
In this year Frederick Goudy, who was a typeface designer and loved letterforms, started working in Chicago as a book keeper. In 1894 he started Camelot Press with a friend, then the next year he set up a booklet press, which didn’t last long. He ended up becoming a free-lance designer in Chicgo in 1899 after his presses didn’t work out. Also during these years, in 1895 Ashendene Press was accepted into the Private Press movement. This press made semi-gothic types. These type had a ringing elegance and straight-forwrd legibility. Lastly during thre 1890’s a new American book designer started to be known, Abert Bruce Rodgers.
1920
During this year William Addison Dwiggins, who was a student of Frederick Goudy, used the term ‘graphic designer’ to descibe his professsion. He was the first ever to coin this name to describe what he and others before him did for their professions. Also during this year De Roos ended up designing a 21 book Palladium series.
1928 - 1932 1916
During this year Rodgers went to England to collaborate with Emery Walker. Walker didn’t end up wanting. but Rodgers decided to stay for a while anyway.
1910
By this time Abert Bruce Rodgers had fallen in love with book design, moved to book shop to work as a typographer in Boston, joined Riverside Press of thw Houghton Mifflin Co, and designed 60 limited editions. Two years later in 1912 he became freelance book designer and left Roverside. In 1915 he created the Centaur typeface which was widely loved and used.
During these years Abery Bruce Rodgers worked in England a second time. He was commissioned many times, his most notabe commision being the Oxford Lectern Bible design.
1938
In 1938 William Addison Dwiggins designed the typeface Caledonia. It very quickly became one of the most widely used book faces in America. It soon spread throughout the world.
1919
Rodgers waiting in England paid off and he bcame a consultant to Cambridge University Press.
1935
In this year Morris Fuller Benton finished designing 225 different and unique typefaces. In the past he had designed important reivals of Bodini and Garamond. He had aslo collaborated with Thomas Cleland ro make the well- known ATF’s Garamond. Lastly he had revived Nicolas Jenson’s type ‘Cloister Family’.
1603
In this year Ukiyo-e started to come about. This period in Japan was also reffered to as “picture of the floating world” and was their version of the art noveau movement in their Tokugawa period (1603-1667). I their version of art noveau they blended realistic narratives of emaki ( traditional picture scrolls) with influences from the decorative ats. Their earliest examples were screen printings then they embraced the In this year Cheret opened wood-block print which changed eerything. a printing firm in Paris with The first master of Ukiyo-e print was Hishikawa Moronobu. The most renowned and Eugene Rimmel and his new mastery of color lithogrphy. famous artist of that period was Katsushika Hokusai, who produced 35000 works. He also was the first to introduce single-leaf polychrome prints. Ando Hiroshige was the last great master of Ukiyo-e and inspired European impressionists. In 1870 Cheret started to grow away from the Victorian style complexity. He simplified all of his designs and increased the scale of his major figures and lettering.
1866
1870
Art Noveau 1600 1925
1854
1795
During this year full-color prints were introduced. The prints were from numerous wood blocks that were each printed in a different color. The person who introduced them was Suzuki Harunobu.
During this year a well- proclaimed graphic artist, Jules Cheret, moved to London to find work as a catalog artist or furniture. Cheret was known as the father of the modern poster and had been a lithographic craftsman and rendurer for several firms. He was convinced that pictorial lithographic posters would replace typographic letterpress posters. He was believed to be the catalyst that helped transition the Arts and Crafts Movement to the Art Noveau Period.
1858
1881
In 1881 Cheret and Eugene Grasset sold their printing firm to a larger firm which was called Imprimerie Chaix. They both become artistic directors to the firm they sold theirs to. Eugene Grasset was proclaimed as the first illustrator and designer to rival the works of Cheret in popularity. Grasset had studied medeival art and it greatly influenced his own works. Asian art also influenced his designs for specifically furniture, stained glass, textiles, and books. Theophile- Alexandre Steinlein, a designer, during this year met Grasset at a nightclub and was inspired by him. Due to his inspiration he moved to Paris at the age of 22 to start his desgning career. Most of his works were similar and based off LauTrec’s style, until he got to Paris. From then on he was obssessed with cats and including them in his works. His first commisioned piece was “Le Chat Noir”
1880
In this year Cheret started using a black line with primary colors in his designs. With this he achieved a graphic vitality using bright colors and subtle overlapping.
1883 During this year Eugene Grasset made
In this year Cheret produced a blue and brown poster for Offenbach’s Operetta. It was called “Orphee aux Enfers” In this same year he moved back to London and mastered more avanced English color lithography.
great advancements and achievements in both graphic design and printing technology. He made these steps with his publication of “Histoire des quatre films Aymon” (Tale of the four sons and Aymen). It was printed in an aquatint-grainand color photo relief process from plates that were designed by Charles Gillot. This printing metod transformed Grasset’s line and watercolor designs into subtle full- color printed book illustrations.
1886
Grasset received his first poster commision in this year. Grasset adopted and used his new ‘color-book style’ for the commission. His ‘color-book’ style was similar to medeivl stained glass windows. After this commission he started to explaore designing wallpaper, fabric designs, stained glass, typefaces, and printed ornaments.
1891
In 1891 Henri de Toulouse Lautrec released a ground breaking poster called “ La Goulue au Moulin Rouge”. In his career he produced 31 posters and various amounts of music and book jackets. His style was drawing directly from lithographic stone. He worked solely from memory.
1892
During 1892 Aubrey Beardsley, an english art noveau designer became famous with his illustrations and binding for a new edition of Malorys Morte d’ Arthur. The book had influence from Kelmscott. His style was primarily a striking pen line, vibrant black and white detailing, and shocking exotic imagery. He also was known for using big black dominant forms in his designs. He was nicknamed “ the black spot” because of this. Also during this year Henri Van de Velde ( an architect, painter, designer, book binder, metalworker, jewelry designer and educator) released an important essay called “ De/blaiement d’art”. It was about the idea of contemporary and decorative art.
1884
In this year Cheret’s posters started to be produced in sizes up to 2 m eters. The posters were joined on the wall by afficheurs.
1885
In this year the first full color poster was produced by TheophileAlexandre Steinlein.
1890
1896
In 1896 art noveau spread to Germany. They called thier version of this movement Jugendstill. It started and was founded by Geord Hirth in Munich.
In this year Cheret was named to the Legion of Honor by the French government for creating a new branch of art. This new branch advanced printing and several major needs of commerical industry. He then retired in the city or Nice where they created a mueseum for him, ( Jules Cheret Mueseum). Also by the early 1890’s Steinlein had become a prolific illustrator, had developed radical political views, had made socialist affiliations and had adopted an anticlerical stance. Due to these changes he was lead to social realism style, which is a style that depicts poverty, eploitation, and the working class. For these designes he did black and white lithographic prints that were colored in a stencil process. He made over 2000 magazine covers and interiors, 100 book illustrations, and 36 large posters with his new style.
1899
In this year Van de Velde released the only poster he ever made which was for a concentrated food product, Tropon. His style for the poster used symbolic form and color instead of depictions.
1908
In 1908 Henri Van De Velde made book designs for Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘ Also and Ecce Homo’. His work for this was considered masterworks.
1925
In this year Henri Van de Velde was named director of Institut Superieur des Arts Decoratifs in Brussels by the Belgian government.
1890
In this year “ The Four” in the Vienna Secessionalist Period got together, “The Four: were Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margret Mcdonald, Frances Mcdonald, and Herbert McNair. They formed their group in Gkasgow School of Art. They had a geometric styling and a symbolic imagery/ organized form feel to their designs. They liked using bold and simple lines with flat planes of color. Also in this year Peter Behres who was a German artist, architect, and designer abandoned social realism and embraced Jugendstill. Behrens was an advocate for the sansserif typeface and was known for making a course for deisgn in the 1st decade of the new century. His most notable works come from his AEG product advertisements. Lastly during this year the first electric underground railway opens up in London, which Frank Pick ran the design section of it. This is the year he started the Underground posters and maps.
1900
In 1900 Charles Rennie Mackintosh who was one of “The Four” married Margret Mcdonald, another on of “The Four”.
Vienna Secessionists 1890 1972
1893
In this year Frank Lloyd Wright began his independant practice. He rejected historicism in favor of philosophy in his designs. He used organic architecture as his design style. He later opened a basement printing press with an old friend and colleague.
1896
In this year “The Four” were invited by the Arts & Crafts exhibition in London to come and participate.
1897
In 1897 Vienna Secessionalism started in Austria.
1899
In 1899 Herbert McNair ( one of “The Four”) married Frances Mcdonald who was another one of “The Four”.
1916
1901
Frank Pick didn’t like the poster that had come out for the London Underground Railway. He commissioned Edward Johnston to create a new and better sign that would be more professional and eye-catching.
In 1901 Peter Behrens released his first typeface ‘ Behrensschrisft’. It had standardized strokes which was the first in the century to have that.
1904
In this year Behrens switched up his style and turned to a more geometric feel.
1907
In 1907 AEG hired Behrens as an artistic director. His AEG style works has more of a neoclassism impact on it. It was also influenced by Sachlicnkeit.
1908
In this year the underground station sign came about adn was finally released.
1914
In 1914 Behrens stopped working at AEG.
1972
In this year Johnston released his commissioned new poster which was instantly loved by all. He used new hand made typography and a new simplistic and bold design,
1904
1919
In 1919 El Lissitzky released his Ludwig Hohlwein in this most notable piece. “Beat the year released his first Whites with the Reds.” It had a non-representational style and a graphic illustration that was commissioned Russian Constructivism point. His style from this and then on was by Jugend Magazine. His style was primarily based on non-objective political symoblism. Also during this year decorative patterns, Walter Gorpius formed the BauIn this year the Beggarstaffs, verying textures, and haus school. He had his colleage who were two British painter ( symbolic meaning. Ludwig Miers de Rohe help him run James Pryde and William Nichit. The Bauhaus school was for olson), opened an advertising fine arts and crafts and was extrdesign studio. Their design style mely restrictive. It was a20th-cenwas simplistic with flat colors. tury modernist school of architecThey explored other styles as ture and design noted for its use well and eventually created of rectilinear forms, plain unwhat is known as collage. adorned surfaces, and techniques and materials associated with industrial production. In 1909 El Lissitzky started to become popular and began to influence the course of graphic design in that period. He started a new constructivism style as well as combining with it with symoblic style.
1894
The Modernist Era 1890 1955 1900
In 1900 Lucian Bernhard started the modern movement or modernism. Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from widescale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism style is mostly flat colors with simple images that symbolize a message.
1914
1909
1916 - 1918
During these years E. McKnight Kauffer and James Montgomery Flagg both made advancements in their designs for the era. E. McKnight Kauffer in 1916 released his painting “Flight” which was one of the first designs to have a cubist rendition to it. In 1917 James Montgomery released his most well-known poster design, which is still known widely to this day. Also in 1917 Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian founded the DeStijl movement. This movement proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction through which they could express a Utopian idea of harmony and order. It was the “Uncle Same Wants You” recruiting poster. His style for the poster and for most of his works was a sketchy or illustrated feel. In 1918 Kauffer released a poster called “Daily Herold”. It showed the formal idiom of cubism and futurism.
In this year Ludwig Hohlwein’s posters and whole design style radically changed. He started adopting a more fluid and painterly style. With his new style he made posters for the Red Cross.
1921
In this year Alexander Rodchenko, who was a huge communist advocat with a boldblocky style started graphic illustractions. He also created photo montage in this year. Photo montage is photography paired with a flat color layering style.
1920
In 1920 Ludwig Hohlwein ended up making Nazi propaganda posters. They had a powerful, bold, and heavy style to them. Also in this year Kauffer, the the assistance of A.M Cassandre started to help the birth of post cubism pictorial modernism. Pictorial modernism was when the potential of abstractive & reductive drawing, including the simplifying of ornamental flourishes was being explored by designers. Gustav Klutsis in this year started to be recognized for his symbolism with color style, which was the same as Alexander Rodchenko’s. Lastly in this year Piet Zwart, H.N Werkman, and Herbert Matter showed the difference between the Dada Movement and DeStijl. They all had a unique style od photo montage that had a humanistic approach with varying scales in printing.
1928
1922 - 1924
In 1922 Lazlo Moholy-Nagy created photograms. Photograms are pictures produced with photographic materials, such as light-sensitive paper, but without a camera. In 1923 A.M Cassandre started the revitilization of French advertising. He reduced figures to iconographic symbols. His style was simple, monolithic, and had a strong quality. He kept the revitilization going until 1936. In 1924 Austin Cooper, who used primarily cubism in his works started the transition in graphic design to geometric style. He made great impacts in the history of graphic design by doing this. Also in 1924 Erte, a Paris illustrator and set designer started to work at Harpers Bazaar. Harper’s Bazaar was a luxury fashion magazine published once a month
1927
In 1928 Lucian Berhard was contacted by the American Type Founders to join them. Also in 1928 Jan Tschiold, who was a typographer and book designer that rejected decoration wrote a book on how to set up typography correctly. The book was named “Die Neue Typographie” and it influenced the Bauhaus school. Eric Gill in this year started making his Gill Sans Series that was inspired by the Johnstons Railway Type. It included 14 different styles or type and was created from 1928-1931. Lastly in 1928 Rudolf Koch, who was a typographer created the typeface Kabel. It was a skinny type that was easy to read in small amounts.
In 1927 Paul Renner, a proficient typographer, created the typeface Futura. Futura was a a clear and simple typeface that was good for signs .
1925 - 1926
In 1925 Herbert Bayer, who had a flat and geometric style made an universal alphabet. In 1926 Lazlo Moholy-Nagy started to inspire visual communications in the Bauhus school. He also released his most notabe piece “Pneumatik” which was tempura and photo collage. Also a little later in the year Herbert Bayer became the head of the graphic design department in the school of Bauhaus. Also in 1926 the Container Corporation of America (CCA) was founded by Walter P. Paepcke. CCA was the nation’s largest producer of packaging materials. It’s visual signature was the vision of the designer and a supportive client.
1930 - 1931
1938 - 1939
In 1938 CCA released a strong messaged poster. It was described as ‘hypnotic’. By 1939 Lester Beall, a designer and wood type printer whose style was flat planes of color , icons, and strong characters, had moved to Chicago from Kansas city. In this year his posters were amoung the first to be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art. Also in 1939 Joseph Binder made and released a poster for the New York World’s Fair. It symbolized America’s coming of age on the eve of WW2. With the poster he changed his entore style to pictorial imagery. Lastly in 1939 Jean Carlu, a European graphic designer who had traveled to America and made significant contributions to the design of the time started working at CCA.
1933 - 1934 In 1933 Henry C. Beck, who was a designer that used a geometric style with bright colors, submitted a design proposal that replaced geographic fidelity with a diagrammatic interpretation. Beck also made maps for the Johnston Railway Type. In 1934 Alexey Brodovitch became the art director for Haper’s Bazaar. Joseph Binder, a designer, came to the U.S. and transitioned cubist style to stylized realism.
1940 - 1943
In 1940 Ben Shahn, a typographer and illustrator who used intense graphic forms and Nazi brutality in his style, released paintings that addressed political and economic injustice during the depression. In 1943 he produced a strong messaged poster for the U.S. Office of War Information that symbolized the Nazi brutality during the time. In 1941 Jean Carlu received the top award from the New York Art Directors Club Exhibition. He were given this award due to the “America’s, answer! Production” poster for the Office of Emergency Management. It was his most famous work.
In 1930 A.M Cassandre worked for Harper’s Bazaar as their designer for a very brief period until in the same year he became the advertising designer for CCA. A.M Cassandre in 1931 released his most notable poster, “L’atlantique”.Also in 1930 Gustav Klutsis started dedicating most of his art to be advoated for Joseph Stalin. Erte and Alexey Brodovitch, a contemporary designer and typographer who liked sharp type on clear, open pages with a musical feeling in the text, helped to bring European Modernism to American graphic design.
1918
In 1918 Ernst Keller, a lithographer, lettering artist, and designer whose work focused on diverse issudes/solutions and style was expressive lettering, bright colors, symbolic imagery, simplicity, and geometric forms, joined Zurich Kunstgewerbushule ( School of Applied Arts). He also in this year started to initiate a period of excellece in Swiss graphic design.
Age of Information 1900 2000
1931
1906
Akzidenz Grotesk, a well-known typographer, finished his series of typeface he started making in 1898 for the H. Berthold AG foundry in this year. His typefaces had elegant weight contrast and was very
1926 - 1928
1950
In this year Joseph Muller Brockmann, an Max Bill, a designer and artists, in accomplished graphic designer whose style this year started to embracea new includes propaganda techniques, the golden art concept ‘art concret’ (concrete mean ratio, mathematic grids, and neuart). It inspired most of his work tral photos with heavy text, started making from then on. His style then was accomplishments to the Swiss movement. mathematically perfect grids and His objective/ impersonal presentations for art conret/ planes and colors. ‘universal’ graphic design made him famous. Max Bill, in this year established the Institute of Design in Ulm, Germny. Also in this year In 1934 Bradbury Thompson, the typeface Palatino was released. Palatino a printer and typesetter was designed by Herman Zapf. It had broad whose style is print layering, letters, strong serifs, elegant proportions, large, bold organic/geoand a large x-height. Lastly in this year Herb metric shapes, organization, Lubalin made a new way to make typogravisual flow, specific form, phy, with metal type. Lubalin was an advervisual patterns, and move- tising/ editorial designer, typeface designer, ment achieved mastery of and a poster/package designer. he focused his complex then became mainly on space and surface in his style. He one of the most influential was hailed to be the typographic genius of graphic designers of postwar his time. America.
In 1926 Theo Balmer, a graphic designer, worked briefy at Dessau Bauhaus under the tutalige of Klee, Gropius, and Meyer. He adopted grids into his designs and applied DeStijl to his graphic design works. In 1928 his post designs achieved a high degree of formal harmony because he used an ordered grid system to construct visual
1934
1940 - 1946
In 1940 Paul Rand, a graphic designer whose style is manipulation of visual form and space, symbolism, and sensual visual contrast, started to initiate an American approach to modern graphic design. He released a design in this year to help him do that. He made a magazine cover for ‘A Direction’ that showed his style of symbolism. In 1942 Max Huber who was a chaotic designer released his most notable work. It was a book cover that had type allignment going downwards. His style was always on the edge of chaos. but still kept a form of order in layering his type, shapes, and pictures. In 1946 Saul Bass, a designer and editor, moved from New York to California. Bass made simple forms, used pictorial messages and symbolism in his designs. He also hand drew his decorative fonts. While in California Bass started making motion picture deisngs.
1954
In 1954 the typeface Univers was made by Swiss designer Adrian Frutiger. Univers is a series made of 21 sans serifs that vary is strokes and decoratives. It was made for the Deberny & Peignot type foundry.
1957 - 1958
In 1957 Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar, two well-known designers who used strong forms symbolic manipulation, and images/ symbols combined with a surreal sense of dislocation in their styles , worked for a firm in New York. They made advancemets in strong aesthetic backgrounds and developed a postwar corporate identity. In 1958 the typeface Optima was released. It was made by Herman Zapf and it had thick-thin sans serifs and tapered strokes, It was a “serif-less Roman” typeface and had been originally been intended to be a display font.
1960 - 1961
In 1960 Saul bass released his motion picture advertisment poster for ‘Exodus’. It became one of his most popular posters. In 1961 the typeface Helvetica by Max Miedinger and Edouard Hoffman was released. It was a refinement of the typeface Grotesk and soon became the most popular typeface to be used due to its legibility.
1979
1980
Erik Spiekermann , a well-known typographer, establishes MetaDesign, the largest German design firm known to date. He then founded FontShop in 1988.
1972
In this year April Greiman established a studio in Los Angeles with her friends/colleages. Her style focused on color, photography and manipulation. She achieved depth in her typographic page setus.
1965
In this year Massimo Vignelli, an achieved graphic designer that liked to use grids in his style established an international design firm in Chicago with Ralph Eckerstrom and James K. Fogleman. In this firm they rejected individualistic designs and they standardized graphic design.
1970
1971
Vignelli, in this year, founded the Vignelli Associates firm when his office in New York closed.
1984
In 1984 Paula Scher formed the Koppel & Scher studio. It was best known for it’s decoraative fonts it produced.
1987
In 1980Joseph Muller Brockmann holds an exhibition and releases a poster that revealed the nature of his grid system for his designs. Also in this year Louise Fili, a photographer, designer, and typeface designer, started to make his appearence. Fili used eccentric letterforms, textured backgrounds, and decorative elements in his elegant and refined works. He also liked using modernistic sans-serif typefaces and sillouheute photographs in his works. Lastly in this year Neville Brody, a graphic designer, started designing graphics and album covers for rock music bands. He usually used hand-lettered typefaces in his works and was influenced by Russian constructivism. He reinvented past styles in his own.
1989
Jonathan Hoefler, a famous typographer began the Hoefler Type Foundry and in that same year Tobias Frere-Jones, another well-known typographer joins his firm.
In this year Zuzana Licko stated a partenership with Rudy VanderLans for Emigre Graphics where she became an advanced designer of typefaces.
1990
In 1990 Carol Twombly designed typefaces for Adobe, which were released in 1992.
In 1970 psychedelic posters started to be seen. These posters had intensified color and value contrasts and symbolism. They are best known for their abstract qualities. Also in this year Paula Scher started working for CBS records. Paula Scher was an outspoken designer that used color, space, and floating weightlessness in her constructivist style. Lastly in this year Wolfgang Weingart starts up the new wave of typography at the Basel School of Design.