History

Of

Graphic Design

Evolution of the Written Word

15,000 BCE -1,5000 CE

4,000 BCE

MESOPOTAMI

15,000 BCE
CAVE DRAWINGS
Many years ago, humans used drawings as
visual communication. They used a palette
of pigments mixed with fat to paint these
images onto cave walls. One form of this
imagery was a pictograph. Pictographs were
an elementary picture or sketch representing
the thing depicted. Similarly a petroglyph is a
carved or scratched sign or simple figure on
rock. With economic progress, technological
and cultural developments, these cave
drawings represented the beginning of
written communication.

Messopotamia was The land between

rivers, which is known as the cradle of
civilization. Sumerians were those who
settled in the lower part of the Fertile
Crescent. The Sumerians who settled in the
lower part of the Fertile Crescent developed
cuneiform, a method of writing in which
a triangular-tipped stylus was pushed into
the clay and formed a series of wedgeshaped strokes rather than a continuous line
drawing. Cuneiform is a form of ideographs,
which are symbols that represents an idea or
concept. Over many centuries this writing
system evolved.

1,400 BCE

Roman letterforms, or majuscules started out as all caps.This was very

hard to read because of the lack of space between the words.
Minuscule letter forms were small or lowercase letterform.
Uncials differ because they are rounded, freely drawn
majuscule letters.

1,100 BCE

LATIN ALPHABET

The Roman alphabet originated from the Etruscans.

Later it was made into a twenty-one letter alphabet
that was pronounced with phonetic sounds. The Latin
alphabet would become the main writing system in
use in the Western world and the most widely used
alphabetic writing system in the world. The fall of Rome
brings on the Medeival Era. During this time almost all
knowledge learned up to this point was lost; writing,
reading, libraries, etc.

For 300 years the knowledge of writing was

kept alive mainly in the remote outposts of
religious cloisters and retreats in the form
of illuminated manuscripts. Illuminated
manuscripts is the term used for all
decorated and illustrated handwritten books
produced from the late Roman Empire
They were called illuminated because of
the vibrant luminosity of gold leaf, which
reflected light from the pages of handwritten
books, gave the sensation of the page literally
being illuminated.

PHOENICIAN
ALPHABET

The Phoenician alphabet was a North Semitic

writing. It was an early alphabetic system of
twenty-two characters written from leftto right.

780 CE
ASIAN INFLUENCE

GREEK ALPHABET

EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS

The Egyptians retained their picture-writing system,

called hieroglyphics where as the Sumerians pictographic
writing evolved into abstract cuneiform. The Rosetta Stone
was discovered August of 1799. Napoleons troops were
digging a foundation in the Egyptian town of Rosetta.
There they unearthed a black slab that had two languages
and three scripts written on it: Egyptian hieroglyphics,
Egyptian demotic script, and Greek. hieroglyphics had
been undecipherable up until this point.

3,100 BCE

ILLUMINATED
MANUSCRIPTS

The Greek alphabet evolved from the

Phoenician, or North Semitic alphabet. The
Greeks changed five consonants to vowels
and applied a geometric structure to the
uneven Phoenician characters. Through
a standardized system of horizontal,
vertical, curved, and diagonal strokes, the
Greeks achieved visual order and balance.
Boustrophedon, (from the Greek to plow
a field with an ox,), was a writing method
developed by the Greeks in which every
other line reads in the opposite direction.
Boustrophadeon was not always in use with
Greek writing.

750 BCE

The eastern hemisphere was much

more advanced with their knowledge of
papermaking, printmaking and letter form.
One accomplisment they achieved was relief
printing. Relief printing is when the spaces
around an image on a flat surface are cut
away, the remaining raised surface is inked,
and the inked image is transferred to the
paper. Asia used movable type but with single
characters. They were made individually in
a mixture of clay and glue. Then, they were
arranged side by side to compose full lines of
text.

105 CE

Evolution of Movable Type

1450 CE

TYPOGRAPHIC PRINTING
Printing was introduced by China with a
technique called relief printing. Johann
Gutenberg invented the first successful method
of letterpress printing around 1450 in Germany.
This was done by casting metal type and then
printing the type on a press. His first large scale
print job was the Gutenberg bible. It was printed
in black ink with textura type. This method
of printing was used until the 1960s. The
invention of Gutenbergs printing press
caught on like wildfire. Printing
firms rapidly populated
Europe particularly
throughout Italy
and Venice.

1439 CE

MOVABLE TYPE

Movable type was responsible for the end

of the Medieval Era, and the rise of the
Renaissance and the Early Modern Age. It
resulted in the rapid spread of knowledge
and literacy in addition to making printed
publications available to the general
public. The invention of movable type and
the printing press ranks as one of the most
important advances in civilization. During
the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococco
period a number of important changes
would occur in typeface design, page
layout, ornaments, illustration, and even
the total design of the book.

1400-1700 CE

1496 CE

1439-1798 CE

OLD STYLE

Old style: Garalde, Renaissance. Typeface

designers naturally began to refine the
letterforms gradually moving away from the
humanis style and more towards a cleaner easier
to read letter style. Francesco Griffo created a
more authentic typeface in 1496 called Bembo.
It was so successful that it is still in existence
today. Claude Garamond, another famous type
designer, created beautiful typefaces that created
a greater contrast between thick and thin
At the same time as Bodonis innovations
strokes, bracketed serifs, and an axis stressed
in Italy, the Didot family of France was
slightly to the left.
beginning to build a legacy of printing
publishing, printmaking and typefounding.
Both Bodoni and Didot pushed each other
as rivals to get a perfect typeface. Didots
letterforms were lighter and the serifs were
unbracketed. These modern fonts were
great for headlines but hard to read for large
areas of text.

1783 CE
DIDOT

1465 CE
HUMANIST

The first Roman type called Humanist appeared

during the 1460s and 1470s. It is also referred
to as Venetian because it was developed by a
Venice printer. Nicolas Jensen (c. 14201480)
is credited with developing the first true
Roman typeface. Jensons type, while based on
geometric Roman letterforms continued to
retain the humanist feel of the hand and broad
nib and angle of the written letter. He also
spaced the letters and words more evenly on the
page.

MODERN (ROCOCO)
While more transitional styles were being
developed in England, an impressive
Modern style type was emerging in Italy
and France. Giambattista Bodoni evolved
and redesigned typefaces which resulted in
a new category of Roman type identified as
Modern. The serifs became hairlines that
formed sharp right angles with upright
strokes.

TYPE
CLASSIFICATIONS

During this timespan, typeface design would

drastically change and 4 type classifications
of Roman serif letterforms would emerge that
would remain until this day as the standard
system for type classification. Humanist
(Venetian), Old Style (Garalde, Renaissance),
Transitional (NeoClassical), and Modern

1798 CE

1760 CE

TRANSITIONAL

The typefaces of this period are called Transitional, as they

represent the initial departure from the characteristics of
Old Style classification into modern typefaces. Transitional
typefaces are precise and refined. John Baskerville refined
Old Style into the Transitional style by creating wider
letterforms with more contrast between thick and thin
strokes. His letters possessed a new elegance and lightness.

The Industrial Revolution

1800-1890 CE

1836 CE
BEGINNING OF
ADVERTISING

1827 CE
WOOD TYPE

1800 CE

WHAT WAS IT?

The industrial revolution influenced and

shaped the beginnings of the graphic
design field. By the 20th century enough
innovations and technological advancements
were in place for the profession of graphic
design to make a lasting impact on the
western world. These advancements took
place during the Industrial Revolution.
This invention of the spinning machine set in
motion the inevitable progress of humankind
and our ultimate dependence upon machines
to replace human labor. As a result, factories
and cheap production increased. People
moved from agrarian life to the city life.

The need for bigger prints for billboards

and such, posed a printing problem. This
problem was solved in 1827, when Darius
Wells invented a special wood drill which was
capable of cutting letters on type-high-endcut wood blocks. Wood type was faster and
cheaper to produce than metal type, and for
the first time, this allowed designers to custom
design typefaces to fit their product. This was
the beginning of graphic design or customized
design.

The industrial revolution and the mass

production of cheap goods also ignited
consumer revolution. By the end of the
seventeenth century, everyone demanded
consumer goods that indicated their status.
With this, a need for advertising these
consumer goods increased. Prints were
now being made for newspapers, posters,
billboards, labels and broadsides. They were
no longer limited to books and religious
documents. Advertising progressed from
typographic wood type posters and full color
lithography to highly stylized look of the art
nouveau period.

1890 CE

NEW TYPEFACES

Decorative fonts and new fonts were being created. The

creation of fat-faces began in the early 19th century by
designer Robert Thorne. Fat-face type style is characterized
as Roman typeface with a higher contrast in stroke weight.
Another invention of the 19th century was the typeface,
Egyptian (slab serif/antique) which was created by Vincent
Figgins. Contrast was reduced, the serifs were thinner, and
the x-height was increased for legibility at smaller sizes.

German printer, Friedrich Koenig had plans

for a steam-powered printing press. His
press used a steam engine and printed 300
sheets per hour. He was paid to improve
his press and developed a double cylinder
steam-powered press that was capable of
printing 1,1000 impressions per hour.

1812 CE

KEY INNOVATIONS
PRINTING

The hand fed Gutenberg printing press was

still in use 300 years after it was invented.
During the Industrial Revolution, inventors
tried making mechanical innovations that
would hopefully increase the hand press
efficiency. Printing presses were influential
to graphic designers where thousands of
William Caslon IV was the first type designer
posters, flyers and signs could be produced
to invent sans-serif type, which was initially
per hour where printing was used primarily
called Two Lines English. It was used to offset
for religious documents and books. It fueled
the boldness of the fat faces and Egyptians being peoples imaginations, and offered them
used for headlines. Sans-serif fonts would not
information and entertainment.
take off in popularity until the 20th century.

INVENTION OF
SANS-SERIF

RISE OF DISPLAY FONTS

With the need for more casual printing projects, people were
looking for a typeface that stood out to the viewer. From this,
a display font was created. This is a font that can be used in a
headline but cannot be used in a block of text as it would be
illegible. Then the more traditional font could be used for the
subtitles, or less important information.

FRIEDRICH KOENIG

1816 CE

Evolution of Printing

1803 CE

PAPERMAKING
The industrial revolution influenced the
printmaking world drastically. Due to the mass
production of prints, large amounts of paper were
also needed. Paper manufacturing was invented
by Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier in 1803. This
machine poured a suspension of fiber
and water into a thin stream above a
vibrating wire-mesh conveyer belt
which produced an unending
sheet of paper.

1815 CE

WILLIAM COWPER
William Cowper invented a printing press using
curved plates wrapped around a cylinder. This
machine was capable of making 2,400 impressions per
hour and could print 1,200 double sided. Cowper and
his partner were commissioned, and created a four
cylinder steam powered press that utilized the curved
stereotyped plates as well. This machine was capable of
printing 4,000 double-sided sheets per hour.

1840 CE

1796-1886 CE

CHROMOLITHOGRAPY
This is the technique of printing in colors. The
printing industry intoxicated the world with
lush colorful hues. By the 1800s, the method of
printing images was either wood engraved block
or chromolithography. Chromolithography was
great for producing vivid realistic colorful prints.
It was not a method that could be used in printing
publications like books or newspapers. Around
the 1930s chromolithography would disappear in
favor of the photographic process but the method
of separating colors and printing in cyan, magenta,
yellow, and black is still in use today on offset
presses.

1886 CE

1826 CE

HELIOGRAPHY

Heliography was a method used by

Frenchman Joseph Niepce,where he coated
a sheet of pewter with bitumen of Judea that
hardened when exposed to light. He then
oiled a drawing that made it transparent.
Later he applied it to the sheet, and exposed
it to sunlight creating a contact print.
However, the exposure took several days
which can be seen as the light from the sun
lights up both sides of the building.

DAGUERREOTYPE

LINOTYPE

Typesetting still slowed down the entire

printing operation. Typesetting was
slow tedious work where every letter of
every words had to be set individually
and in reverse order. In 1886, Ottmar
Mergenthaler developed a typesetting
machine called a Linotype. This
replaced hours and hours of setting type
by hand. When one of the ninety keys
were pressed on the Linotype, a matrix
slid down a tube and into position,
which formed one line of type. Then,
hot metal was poured over the matrices
and a line of type was produced. The
type could be melted down and reused.

1833 CE

Louis Daguerre further developed the

photographic process in 1833. He used a
highly polished silver-plated copper sheet
that was sensitized by placing it, silver side
down, over a container of iodine crystals.
The plate was placed in the camera and
exposed to light coming through the lens
to produce a latent image.

1796 CE

LITHOGRAPHY

A printing process, called lithography,

achieved realistic results was invented
by Aloys Senefelder. The lithographic
process was when one printed from a flat
surface instead of having a plate with a
raised surface.

1830 CE

CAMERA OBSCURA
Photography would be one of the greatest achievements and
would open up new avenues for the fledgling graphic design
industry. The camera obscura was a darkened box with a
convex lens or aperture for projecting the image of an external
object onto a screen inside. This example is in the historical
apparatus collection at Transylvania University, and is of the
form used by William Henry Fox Talbot for his experiments
with photography in the 1830s.

Evolution of Graphic Design

1850-1888 CE

1880-1910 CE

ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

1850 CE
MAGAZINES

Magazines launched the graphic design

business. It began as cheap fast runs, but
eventually developed into a main stay for
designers. The Harper brothers-James,
John, Wesley, and Fletcher became the
largest printing and publishing firm in the
world (1850). The printing and publishing
firm started the Harpers New Monthly
Magazine, weekly newsmagazines, a
womens publication named Harpers Bazar,
and a publication for younger audiences.
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom ruled Thomas Nast was hired by Harpers Weekly
and illustrated deep-rooted social and
during two thirds of the 19th century. The
political concerns.
Victorians sought to convey their strong
moral and religious beliefs, optimism, and
proper social conventions through their
design aesthetic. The Victorian aesthetic
used the Gothic period as an influence. Louis
Prang was the most influential and popular
illustrator and is considered the father of the
Christmas Card.

A movement evolved in England that eventually swept across Europe and into the U.S. called the Arts
and Crafts Movement. This movement brought on a reaction against the mass production of
cheap and poorly designed products such as books, posters and typefaces. It was essentially a
reaction against social, moral and artistic confusion of the Industrial Revolution. It was a
resurrection of the classics as well as aesthetics and craftsmanship. Revival of book
and publication design. Anti-Industrialism and anti-machinery. The philosophy
behind the movement was based on the renewal of aesthetics and hand
crafted pieces. It was started by two significant people, English writer,
John Ruskin and artist William Morris.

Morris designed a book and typeface design

and established the Kelmscott press. This
was a private printing company dedicated to
printing incunabula inspired books that were
articulate and beautifully crafted with hand
made papers and wood block illustrations.

1837-1901CE
VICTORIAN ERA

1888 CE

BROWNIE CAMERA
American, George Eastman, invents roll
film and made photography available to the
general population with his hand held Kodak
camera, otherwise known as the brownie
camera. This was unlike anything that had
been available before because everyone
had the power to create images. It came
loaded with 100 exposures that needed to be
sent back to the factory by processing and
reloading once the roll was finished.

KELMSCOTT PRESS

1891CE

CENTURY GUILD

WILLIAM MORRIS
Morris was artistically talented in many
areas and while decorating his own home,
he would discover and fall in love with
Victorian products and furniture design.
He began to assemble teams of craftsmen
that eventually included furniture, cabinet
makers, weavers, dyers, stained glass
Designs of the Victorian Era focused more towards children
fabricators, potters and tile makers. In 1861
especially with the invention of the toy book. This was a colorful he would establish the art-decorating firm
picture book for preschool aged children. The design and content Morris, Marshall Faulkner and Company.
of the childrens books changed from morals and lessons to
This company provided beautiful, handpurely entertainment. Walter Crane was one of the earliest and
crafted products and furnishings for homes.
most influential designers of childrens picture books. Randolph
Morriss wallpaper designs were especially
Caldecott designed illustrated books that caught the attention of ornate and intricate and would have lasting
children worldwide. Kate Greenaways another childrens book
appeal.
designer, was well-structured and gracefully designed. She used
white space and soft colors in her illustrations, and the children in
her books influenced childrens fashions at the time.

TOY BOOKS

1886 CE

A group of young artists lead by Arthur

Machmurdo, would band together to
establish the Century Guild in London. The
goal was to elevate design to its rightful place
besides painting and sculpture as an artform.
While the group was dedicated to featuring
mostly medieval imagery they were also
heavily influenced by Japanese art which was
popular at the time in Europe. This group
believed that the painter or designer of
something as mundane as a flowerpot should
have the same status as a famous painter.
This concept wouldnt be fully explored until
the anti-art Dada movement of the early
twentieth century.

1882 CE

Arts and Crafts Movement

1826-1930 CE

1930 CE

1890-1910

FALL OF THE ARTS AND Art Nouveau (Continued)

Its popularity swept across Europe and America
CRAFTS MOVEMENT
The reason the movement ended was a bit of a
philosphical paradox. Hand-labor was intensive
and the end product was way too expensive
for the working class to purchase. The
movement influenced typography, and
now, publications were designed with
aesthetics in mind rather than just
saving money. Over time,
humans get tired of the
same look and want
something new.

1875 CE

ARTS AND CRAFTS

MOVEMENT IN GERMANY
AND THE NETHERLANDS
The two most influential contributors of the Arts and
Crafts Movement in Germany were S.H. de Roos and
Jan Van Krimpen. Their view on book design was
purely typographic. De Roos was convinced that the
typeface was the foundation of sound book design,
and that it should be practical, beautiful, and easily
readable. Van Krimpen felt the reader should never
be conscious of the typography. He thought it should
be more utilitarian and should be perfectly executed
so that reading was pleasurable. While their book
publications were less decorated, the goal was to not
have the images interfere with legibility.

where each country would have its own name for

it, and their own twist. Art nouveaus identifying
visual quality is an organic, plantlike line. Its
considered a total art style encompassing all
the design arts. It was also influenced by the
vine and decorative borders of the Arts and
Crafts movement, the rococo style, as well as the
swirling forms of Vincent Van Gogh. these style
and movements can be traced back to Japanese
decorative art. Japanese art would mark the end of
realism and the beginning of abstraction and the
dawn of Modernism.

1895 CE

1890-1910
Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international

decorative style that thrived
roughly during the two decades
between the turn of the century.
The new style was a continuation
of the English Arts and Crafts
Movement that emphasized a
return to handcraftsmanship,
traditional techniques and relied
heavily upon nature and organic
forms.

English Art Nouveau

In England, the art nouveau movement was

primarily concerned with graphic design
and illustration. English art nouveau was
also influenced by Gothic art and Victorian
painting. Aubrey Beardsley was a key figure.
He made use of a striking pen line, vibrant
black-and-white work, and shockingly
exotic imagery. He was born in England but
moved to Paris and was said to have been
inspired by Henri Toulouse LauTrecs poster
style.

1890-1910

Art Nouveau in the

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the book was one

of the principal expressive mediums of
Nieuwe Kunst. The work reflected a love of
order and geometry. Some special qualities
of the books design are unpredictability,
eccentricity, openness, and innovation.
Chris Lebeau and Jan Toorop, who was
born in Java, were influenced by traditional
crafts of the Dutch East Indies, such as the
organic designs of batik.

ARTS AND CRAFTS

MOVEMENT IN
AMERICA

Bookkeeper Fredrick Goudy would lead the

Arts and Crafts movement in the United
States. He was inspired by the private press
movement and opened The Village Press.
After it was burned to the ground, he turned
his energy towards designing typefaces
and eventually designed 122 typefaces for
the Lanston Monotype Company. He was
most well known for his Goudy Old STyle
typeface. Its frequently used for packaging and
advertising. Along with Frederick, William
Addison Dwiggins, Albert Bruce Rogers, and
Morris F. Benton were all influential during
the Arts and Crafts Movement in America.

1890-1910

1890-1910

French Art Nouveau

Beginning in Paris in 1881, a new French law lifted
censorship restrictions which led to a booming
poster industry. Jules Chret was convinced that
pictorial lithographic posters would replace the
typographic letterpress posters. His works were
influenced by scenes of Rococo frivolity. He
created vivid poster ads for the cabarets, music
halls, and theatres.

Graphic Design during WWI

1914-1918 CE

THE CENTRAL POWERS

THE POSTER
GOES TO WAR

LUCIAN BERNHARD

1900-1930s

TURN OF THE
CENTURY

Bernhard reduced visual communication to

just a single word and two matches. It was
the beginning of a new form of simplistic
language of shape and sign. He was very
successful and for two decades continued
with this approach to poster design. He
designed over 300 packages for 66 products
using simplistic elementary graphics.

The two opposing sides, The Allies, led by France, Great Britain and the U.S., versus the
Central Power led by Austria, Hungary, and Germany would produce two radically
distinct poster styles-from both a visual and emotional perspective. In AustriaHungary and Germany would create posters in the style of the Vienna
Secessionists along with the simplicity of Bernhards Plakatstil. Words and
images were integrated and the essence of the communication was
conveyed by simplifying images into powerful shapes and patterns that
held symbolic meaning.

Europe and the United States was about

to enter a state of crisis, brought about
by World War I. And at no other time in
history would the graphic design industry
play such an important role in helping to
decide the fate of the world. Designers on
both sides of the war would use posters as
the main means of communication.

THE ALLIES

Many changes in the fine art world changed

at the turn of the century including the
direction of the graphic design industry.
Modern Art Movements including
Expressionism, Dada, Futurism, Cubism,
Constructivism, and Surrealism swept across
Europe and eventually into the United States.
These movements affected imagery, color
and typography of poster design.

LUDWIG HOHLWEIN

WAR PROPAGA

The war poster or propaganda was the most important and most
available means of communicating to the people. During World
War I (19141918), when radio and other electronic means
of communication were not yet widespread, the poster served
as a major communications tool for propaganda and visual
persuasion: recruitment, boosting public morale to maintaining
popular support for the war effort, fundraising to collect money
to finance the war.

Hohlwein is from Munich, Germany. He

would become the most prolific poster
designer for the Central Powers. He
applied more of a rich range of textures and
decorative patterns. His work tended to
straddle between the symbolic imagery of
the Central powers imagery and the Allies
pictorial imagery. Hohlweins career would
continue on and would be commissioned to
design propaganda posters for the emerging
Nazi party and Adolf Hitler. Hohlweins Nazi
posters reflected the triumphant superiority
of the German Master Race and his posters
would further develop a bold militaristic
style of heavy forms and strong tonal
contrast. Consequently, his reputation would
be forever tarnished by his collaboration
with the Nazis.

The Allies approach to propaganda was

more illustrative, using literal imagery
that emotionally tugged at the heartstrings
of its people. British posters stress the
need to protect traditional values. James
Montgomery Flagg and Joseph Leyendecker
would become two of the most prolific
poster designers during the war for the US.
Leyendecker would use popular imagery
such as boy scouts and honor as visual
symbols, or the Liberty clad in the flag to
promote patriotism among Americans. He
would go on to produce 322 covers for the
Saturday Evening Post.

POST WWI POSTERS

After WWI the nations of Europe and

America sought a return to normalcy and
prosperity ensued for the victorious Allies.
Faith in the machine was at an all time high
and cubist ideas about spatial organization
and synthetic imagery inspired a new
direction in pictorial imagery. resource:
Meggs

Pictorial Modernism

1900-1930 CE
1930 CE

AUSTIN COOPER
Cooper made a direct application of cubism
to graphic design in early twentieth-century
England. In a series of three collage-inspired
posters, he attempted to spark memories of the
viewers earlier Continental visits by presenting
fragments and glimpses of landmarks. His most
well-known posters are purely geometric
but effectively depict through square
colors the warmer climate below
during the winter and cooler
temperatures below during
the summer.

1920s

ART DECO

The term Art Deco is used to identify the

popular geometric works of the 20-30s. Edward
McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954). An American
who emigrated to Europe to be amid the cutting
edge of modern art, he showed how the ideas
surrounding cubism and futurism could be used
with strong communications impact in graphic
design. Which can be seen in his first propaganda
posters for Great Britain during WWI. For the
next quarter century he continued to produce
a steady stream of poster and would design 141
posters for the London Underground Transport.

1878-1935

KAZIMIR MALEVICH
Kasimir Malevich founded a painting style of basic
forms and pure color that he called suprematism.
He believed the essence of the art experience
was the perceptual effect of color and form. He
created an elemental geometric abstraction that
was new and totally non-objective. The visual
form became the content, and expressive qualities
developed from the intuitive organization of
the forms and colors. He argued that art must
remain an essentially spiritual activity, apart from
the utilitarian needs of society. He and Wassily
Kandinsky believed that art should not have a
social or political role.

1923 CE

EL LISSITZKY

El Lissitzky would influence the course of

graphic design. He developed a painting
style that he called PROUNS, which
introduced three-dimensional illusions
that both receded (negative depth) behind
the picture plane (naught depth) and
projected forward (positive depth) from the
picture plane. Lissitzky also effectively used
montage and photomontage for complex
communications messages. Lissitzky set a
standard of excellence for the designer. His
influence was widespread and enduring.

1895-1944

GUSTAV KLUTSIS

A.M. CASSANDRE

From 1923 until 1936, A.M. Cassandre

revitalized French advertising art through a
stunning series of posters. Cassandres bold,
simple designs emphasize two dimensionality
and are composed of broad, simplified
planes of color. By reducing his subjects to
iconographic symbols, he moved very close
to synthetic cubism. His love of letterforms is
evidenced by an exceptional ability to integrate
words and images into a total composition.
Cassandre achieved concise statements
by combining telegraphic copy, powerful
geometric forms, and symbolic imagery
created by simplifying natural forms into
almost pictographic silhouettes.

1890-1941

1917 CE

RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
COMMUNISM

The Russians would absorb cubism

and futurism and move onto new
innovations. The avant-garde
would coin their movement
as cubo-futurism. They would
experiment with typography,
hand lettering, and printing on
course papers due to the poverty of
peasant society.

The master of propaganda photomontage

referred to the medium as the art
construction for socialism. He was
convinced photo montage was the medium
of the future and that it rendered all other
forms of artistic realism obsolete. He
would be arrested for his beliefs in 1938
under Stalin and die in the labor camps.

1920s

CONSTRUCTIVISM
The Constructivists called upon artist to stop
producing useless things such as paintings, to
break the umbilical cord connecting them to
traditional art. Tectonics, texture and construction
were the three principles of constructivism.
Tectonics represents the unification of
communist ideology with visual form, texture
meant the nature of materials and constructions
symbolized the creative process and laws of visual
organization.

Modernist Era

1900-1950 CE

1950 CE

MODERNISM MOVEMENT IN THE US

1930s

JAN
TSCHICHOLD

Tschichold would assimilate and epitomize

the Bauhaus and Russian Constructivist
typography and new design concepts. And
he explained them to a wide audience of
printers, typesetters and designers. He
designed the Die Neue Typographie which
was like a textbook for designers and lay
people. He sought to find a new asymmetric
It worked to elevate standards of design by
unifying artists and craftsmen with industry typography with the aim to be the delivery
of a message in the shortest most efficient
to elevate the functional and aesthetic
manner which rejected decoration in favor
qualities of mass production, particularly
low-cost consumer products. Lazlo Moholy- of rational design.
Nagy marked influence on the evolution of
Bauhaus because he believed that typography
must emphasize clarity and legibility. Letters
should never be forced into a preconceived
framework. For instance, a square. In graphic
design he advocated an uninhibited use of all
linear directions.

1920s

Primarily self-taught, Lester Bealls extensive reading and curious intellect formed the basis for his
professional development. He experimented with planes of flat color, elementary signs, photomontage,
wood type, and overprinting. Bealls posters were used for the Rural Electrification
Administration, a federal agency responsible for bringing electricity to the less populated
areas of America. He combined photography, graphic signs, and typography and
reduced pro-electrification messages to elemental signs. During the 1950s
and 1960s, Beall became increasingly involved in the corporate design
movement.

THE BAUHAUS
SCHOOL

1917 CE
DE STIJL

Piet Mondrian was a well known artist

during the De Stijl period. He removed
all representative elements from his work
moved cubism toward a pure geometric
abstraction. His work was composed of
horizontal and vertical lines, rectangles and
squares painted in mainly primary colors,
red yellow and red, and neutrals black
and white, gray. His compositions were of
asymmetrical balance with tension between
elements.

IMMIGRATION TO
THE US
TYPOGRAPHY

THE END OF BAUHAUS

In 1931 the Nazi party dominated the Dessau City Council and
canceled the Bauhaus faculty contracts in 1932. Consequently it
would close August 10, 1933. The growing Nazi persecution led
many Bauhaus faculty to emigrate to the United States where
design theory was much behind Europes forward thinking
progressive. But with the influx of these innovative design
thinkers, America would replace Europe as the most influential
design mecca of the world.

1931 CE

Eric Gill designed Gill Sans in 1928 with

letterforms that have a humanist quality
to them. They are not perfect and have a
machine like quality to them. Paul Renner
designed the Futura typefaces in 1927. This
typeface had 15 variations and became
the most widely used geometric sans-serif
family. Rudolph Koch designed the typeface
Kabel which was another popular geometric
typeface with a medieval feel.

1920s

A migration began slowly and reached a

peak in the late 1930s, as cultural leaders
from Europe, including many graphic
designers, came to America. The design
language they brought with them, and the
changes imposed on their work by their
American experience, forms an important
phase of the development of American
graphic design. Alexey Brodovitch was an
example. He was the art director of Harpers
Bazaar from 1934 until 1958, where he rethought the approach to editorial design.
He commissioned art and photography
from major European artists such as Henri
Cartier-Bresson, A. M. Cassandre, Salvador
Dali, Man Ray, and Martin Munkacsi and
taught designers how to use photography
as a design element through cropping,
enlargement, and the juxtaposition of
images.

1938 CE

THE WPA

As part of President Franklin Delano

Roosevelts New Deal,
the federal government created the Works
Progress Administration
(WPA) in 1935. This was a direct relief
effort for the unemployed. Launched in the
fall of 1935, the WPA Federal Art Project
enabled actors, musicians, visual artists,
and writers to continue their professional
careers. A poster project was included among
the various cultural programs. From 1935
until 1939, when the Federal Art Project
was abolished, over two million copies of
approximately thirty-five thousand poster
designs were produced. Most of the designs
were silk-screened. Silk-screen printings
was composed of flat color combined with
influences from the Bauhaus, pictorial
modernism, and constructivism to produce
a modernist result that contrasted with the
traditional illustration dominating
much of American mass-media graphics
of the era. Government-sponsored cultural
events, including theatrical performances
and art exhibitions, were frequent subjects
for the poster project, as were public-service
communications about health, crime
prevention, housing, and education.

1935 CE

After the War

1900-1930 CE

1941 CE

WORLD WAR II
Americas wartime graphics, commissioned by
the U.S. Office of War Information, ranged from
posters to informational training materials to
amateurish cartoons. In 1941, when Americas
entry into the global conflict seemed inevitable,
the federal government began to develop
propaganda posters to promote production, such
as Carlus famous Americas Answer! Production
poster. Over one hundred thousand copies
were distributed throughout the
country, and the New York Art
Directors Club Exhibition
recognized Carlu with a
top award.

1934 CE

FLIGHT FROM FASCISM

The rise of fascism in Europe created one of the

greatest transnational migrations of intellectual
and creative talent in history. When the Nazis
closed the Bauhaus in 1933, faculty, students,
and alumni dispersed throughout the world
and made modern design a truly international
movement. Will Burtin(19081972),
recognized as one of Germanys outstanding
designers, he fled Germany in 1938 after refusing
to work for the Nazi regime. His work combined
a graphic clarity and directness with a lucid
presentation of the subject matter. Others during
this time period included, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,
Mies Van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Herbert
Bayer, Herbert Matter, and Alexey Brodovitch.

1950 CE

CCA CAMPAIGN
In 1950 CCA set out on its most ambitious
and abstract advertising campaign. A truly
revolutionary moment in marketing history, the
advertisements that were collected in the Great
Ideas of Western Man series removed nearly all
mention of the paperboard industry as well as the
company who paid for the advertisement.

1935 CE
THE CCA

A major figure in the development of

American modern design was the Chicago
industrialist Walter P. Paepcke, who founded
the Container Corporation of America (CCA).
Paepcke recognized that design could both
serve a pragmatic business purpose and
become a major cultural thrust on the part of
the corporation. A new trademark was applied
to stationery, checks, invoices, vehicles, and
signage. A consistent format used sans-serif
type and a standard color combination of
black and shipping-carton tan. Cassandre was
commissioned by art director Charles Coiner
of the N. W. Ayer advertising agency to create
an ad campaign for CCA. The innovative
campaign departed from the conventional
headline and long-winded body copy of most
1930s advertising and featured a dominant
visual supported by a simple statement.

1950 CE

HERBERT MATTER

Matter made significant contributions

to design in work for the Container
Corporation of America (CCA), magazines
including Vogue, Fortune, and Harpers
Bazaar, and for twenty years as a graphicdesign and photography consultant to
the Knoll Associates furniture design and
manufacturing firm.

1953 CE
HERBERT BAYER

1941 CE
THE WAR
BEGINS

Kauffer was commissioned to

design posters to boost morale
of the Allied Nations. Ben Shahn
addressed political and economic
injustice during the Depression,
reached a larger audience in
posters conveying Nazi brutality.

In 1953, CAA published the World GeoGraphic Atlas, which was designed and
edited by Bayer over a five-year period.
This publication was an important
milestone in the visual presentation of
data.

1950 CE

CCA CAMPAIGN (CONT)

Roughly once a month between 1950 and 1970,

readers of national news magazines would find a
visual rendering of a major philosophical idea as
offered by a famous Western writer. Major artists
such as Rene Magritte and William de Kooning
created these works under the direction of CCA.
The company gave the artists one guideline:
Interpret the quotation in any way you choose. The
results were unmistakably brilliant interpretations
famous writers quotes.

The Digital Era

1950-2000 CE

1971 CE
CORPORATE
IDENTITY

1960s-1970s

THE CONCEPTUAL IMAGE & RETRO DESIGN

During the 1960s, posters would become the craze, fostered by social activism brought on by a reaction
to the Vietnam War, Womens Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Movements. Posters were
hung in apartments more frequently than they were found on the streets. These posters made
statements about social views rather than commercial messages. The first wave of posters
Raymond Loewy recognized the significance
would come from the hippie culture in the form of psychedelic posters due to their
of comprehensive design systems and left an
anti establishment values, rock music and psychedelic drugs, which were
unforgettable mark on Americas history of
prominently displayed in the form of the swirling curves of art nouveau,
visual styling. His streamlined aesthetic can
intense colors, dizzying optical illusions- op-art .
be seen across a range of industrial products,
Helvetica typeface, this new sans serif, has an packaging, architecture, interiors, and
corporate identities. He changed the way
even larger x-height than the font, Univers.
industrial designers engaged with corporate
It was released as Neue Haas Grotesk by
design culture by assuming more control
Edouard Hoffman and Max Miedinger.
When this design was produced in Germany over entire industrial and visual campaigns.
by the now defunct D. Stempel AG in 1961, For example, product designs for blue
chip companies such as BP, Shell, Exxon,
the face was renamed with the traditional
Nabisco, and Lucky Strike were not limited
Latin name for Switzerland. Helveticas
to packaging or industrial products but also
well-defined forms and excellent rhythm
included complete identity designs.
of positive and negative shapes made it
the most specified typeface internationally
during the 1960s and 1970s. However,
because different designers in several
countries developed Helveticas various
weights, italics, and widths, the original
Helvetica family lacked the cohesiveness of
Univers.

1960 CE
HELVETICA

1950 CE

SWISS STYLE
The International Typographic Style, also
known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design
style developed in Switzerland in the 1950s
that emphasizes cleanliness, readability and
objectivity. Ernst Keller, Theo Ballmer, Josef
Muller Brockmann, Max Bill and Max Huber
to name a few were all Swiss style graphic
design artists.

THE DIGITAL ERA

From the mid 80s onward designers became
increasingly fascinated with the potential of
the computer, not only as an efficient tool but
as a potent catalyst for innovation. Graphic
design would be transformed and irrevocably
changed by the continued development of
hardware and software, By the 1990s, digital
Post modernists created works beginning
technology enabled one person operating a
in the 1970s without any set adherence to
desktop computer to control mostor even
rational order and formal organization. They allof these functions.
also seemed to entirely pay no attention to
traditional conventions such as legibility.
Yet, while postmodern design did not consist
of one unified graphic style, the movement
was an expressive and playful time for
Paul Rand, had a thorough understanding of the modern
designers who searched for more and more
movement. Rands strength was in his ability to analyze a
ways to go against the system. Wolfgang
message, reduce it to a symbolic essence, and communicate
Weingart was a well known post-modernist
the message through dynamic visual form. He often altered or
artsist. He sandwiched images and type and
juxtaposed ordinary, universally understood signs and symbols
to reinterpret meaning and support a message, such as the barbed photograph them- basically similar to what
is done in layers in photoshop only with film.
wire on the 1940 cover of Direction magazine. Rand employed
And the results are strikingly similar to a
visual and symbolic contrast, and used collage and montage as
photoshopped images but with much more
a means to bring concepts, images, textures, and objects into a
effort and time involved to achieve the result.
cohesive whole.

POST MODERNISM

THE NEW YORK SCHOOL

1980s

DESIGNERS

Zuzana Licko, Carol Twombly, Laura

Worthington, Jessica Hische, Erik
Spiekermann, Jonathan Hoefler & Tobias
Frere-Jones, Ed Fella, David Carson, Stefan
Sagmeister, Chip Kidd, John Maeda
Nancy Skolos and Tom Wedell, Michael
Bierut and Muriel Cooper are all well known
designers in the graphic design field.

1900s