History of graphic design facts for kids

Graphics (from Greek γραφικός) are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone. It includes everything that relates to creation of signs, charts, logos, graphs, drawings, symbols, geometric designs and so on.

Graphic design is the art or profession of combining text and pictures in art, advertisements, publications, or websites. The aim of graphics is to brand, inform, and have a specific effect on its audience.

History of graphics

Hundreds of graphic designs of animals were made by primitive people in Chauvet cave, in the south of France, about 30,000 BC. Also, similar art was done in the Lascaux cave, France, about 14,000 BC. The art of primitive hunters is found in the rocks of Bhimbetka in India, drawn earlier than 7000 BC. Aboriginal rock art in Kakadu National Park of Australia, show that graphics has a long history in many parts of the world. This history (with writing, which emerged in 3000–4000 BC) are the foundation of graphic art.

Rock and cave art

Drawing of horses in Chauvet cave
Drawing of a horse in Lascaux cave
A rock drawing in Bhimbetka, India
Aboriginal Rock Art, Ubirr Art Site, Kakadu National Park, Australia

Writing

The Lantingji Xu, Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion is the most famous work of Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi, created in the year 353.
Scribe's exercise tablet with hieratic text, on wood. Dynasty XVIII, reign of Amenhotep I, c. 1514–1493 BC. Text reads: "Be on your guard... Trust no brother, know no friend, make no intimates".
The Papyrus of Ani is a version of the Book of the Dead for the Scribe Ani. This small scene is about not letting Ani's heart create opposition against him in God's domain.
A Chinese traditional title epilogue written by Wen Zhengming in Ni Zan's portrait by Qiu Ying

Calligraphy & graphics in books

Religious books have used graphics extensively. Among these books are Bibles that were created in the monasteries in Ireland, Scotland, and England. Spiralling and interlocking patterns, often including small figures, were part of the ancient graphic tradition of the British Isles. From the 6th century onwards these were applied to the decoration of illuminated gospels.

A page from the Lindisfarne Bible, 7th or 8th century
A graphic decoration from the Lichfield gospel, 8th century
A graphic decoration in the Book of Kells, 6th–9th century

In this German document the calligraphy suggests a message of importance.
Calligraphy adds a mystical dimension, a quality which a religious text tries to convey.
The art of calligraphy in China goes back to 2000 BC.
Calligraphy came to Japan in the 3rd century BC from China (Warring States Period). Japanese used calligraphy to write haiku.

Graphics in the Quran

In Islamic countries the graphic designs can be found in their holy book, the Quran. The Quran was first wriiten an angled style called Kufi. This appeared in the 8th century, and reached its peak in the 10th century. Later on decoration of margin, page and other graphic techniques were added to beautify the book. In the 12th century the Naskh script was invented: it used curves instead of angled lines. Other styles were added later on.

A page from a Persian Quran in the 11th century
Graphic art in an Egyptian Quran of the 9th–10th century
An Iranian Quran of the 15th century found in Uzbekistan
A Quran with the Kuffi alphabet, of the 12th century

Graphics and miniatures

This miniature painting of Mary and the baby Jesus is in the Parc Abbey Bible of the 12th century.
In this Iranian miniature the beautiful mix of text and design have been used to communicate the message of the story in a clear way.
In this 16th-century miniature of Reza Abbasi, the simplicity and harmony anticipate the principles of modern graphic design.
This 18th-century miniature shows the influence of 16th century Iranian graphic designers of the Indian court.

Graphic compositions in Asia

An 18th C. wood print by Japanese artist Toshusai Sharaku. Japanese wood prints and painting influenced the design of modern posters by such as Toulouse Lautrec.
13th C. work of the Chinese painter Ma Lin. The person at the back, of greater importance, is larger. The trees in the form of an X adds to his significance.
A Chinese wall painting in the tomb of Li Xian, 7th century. The parallel lines of soldiers' boots and hats are connected by the lines of their rifles.
This Vietnamese wood print of the village of Dong Ho creates an aesthetically pleasing graphic design.

Decorative graphic design in pottery

From ancient times graphic design has been used for decoration of pottery and ceramics.

This Greek vase depicts a wrestling match between Peleus and Atalanta in the funerary games of King Pelias. Name inscriptions are written in the alphabet of Chalcis in Euboea. 550 BC.
In the period 6500–5500 BC, the farming society of Halaf in northern Mesopotamia and Syria produced pottery that is among the finest ever made in the Near East.

Birth of modern graphic design

William Morris had an influence on modern graphics. In the second half of 19th century his Kelmscott Press produced many graphic designs, and created a collector market for this kind of art. In Oxford he was associated with artists like Burne-Jones, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. They formed the Pre-Raphaelites group, whose ideas influenced modern graphic design considerably.

This fabric design 'Peacock and Dragon', the work of William Morris (1878), is a beautiful example of decorative graphic design.
This is the Morris 'Tulip and Willow' design (1873). The powerful diagonal blue, with a suggestion of orange, creates a harmonious color scheme.
This is the first page of The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin, published by Morris's Kelmscott Press. The design was the revival of the Gothic style in graphic design.
This book of poetry, by the famous Persian poet Omar Khayyam, is a graphic calligraphy and decorative design by Morris, and painting by Edward Burne-Jones.

Mondrian's minimalism revolution

The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian in the years 1920–21 courageously introduced the style of minimalism in painting. His simple geometric compositions, together with the use of only three basic colors, blue, yellow, and red, in combination with black and white created a new venue for the graphic designers. He demonstrated that with simple relocation of these colors, and experimenting with the proportionality of various square surfaces, one can achieve extremely different ambiances and various feelings. For the graphic designers who intend to convey a message with a minimum interference from the extraneous elements his experiment in minimalism was a valuable gift.

A Mondrian-like work

Communication with pictures

This is a Spanish sign for 'No dogs here'. This kind of sign is a pictogram and an ideogram. It uses a picture and an idea. One does not need to be able to read, to get the message.
A rebus is a kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words, such as "T,4,2" instead of "tea for two". This rebus says: "I love coffee". Rebuses played a role in creation of alphabets.
This is the heraldic sign of the Bourbons of Spain. Heraldic signs were created under strict rules and traditions.

Logos and trademarks

A trademark, identified by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, company or other entity to identify its products or services and to distinguish them from those of other producers. A trademark is a type of intellectual property, and typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements.

Coca-Cola by Frank Mason Robinson in 1885. This logotype has been around for more than a century: a successful design creates a sense of loyalty among its customers.
Google logo was created by Ruth Kedar. The design is simple. "The colors evoke memories of child play... The texture and shading of each letter [lifts] it from the page, giving it... weight and lightness".

Signs of culture and peace

This flag of the Olympic Games, by Pierre de Coubertin. It is symbolic: the linked rings are the five continents, and the six colours are from national flags.
This peace sign for the Middle East uses "Salaam" (in green) and "Shalom" (in blue). Those words mean "peace" in Arabic and Hebrew respectively.
This is the UNESCO flag. Using minimalist principles, this flag uses a simplified Greek design. This suggests education, science and culture.
In this flag of Zuid-Holland the color composition and a minimalist approach have created a pleasing impact.

Information signs: Isotype and the Viennese method

In 1921, Otto Neurath, an Austrian social scientist, introduced graphic design to help the understanding of social and economical data. In 1925, the Museum of Economy and Society used such graphics for the public. This style of presentation at the time was called the Viennese method, but now it is known as Isotype charts.

Typical Isotype chart showing social statistics.
Pages from the book Basic by Isotype by Otto Neurath, 1937. The book showed graphics for Basic English words.
Isotype signs, such as this sign of rowing, help to communicate to people who speak different languages.
Isotype fire hazard symbol.

Dynamic designs, and computer animation

This animation was created from photos taken by Eadweard Muybridge in 1887.
Archimedes' screw: computer graphics helps deelop images from simple line drawings to three-dimensional reconstructions of data.
A cube is seen from various angles. This can be useful in study of objects.
The art of computer graphic designs is still at its infancy. With modern techniques the horizon has been expanded for graphic designers.

Placards and posters

Placards and posters existed from ancient times. The Greek axons and the Roman Albums, with their decorative designs and announcements, were quite similar to today's posters. In ancient Greece the names of athletes and games schedules were written on columns that were slowly turning on an axis. Romans used whitewashed walls in their markets in which sellers, money lenders, and slave traders wrote their announcements and advertised for their products, and to attract the attention of customers they added an attractive design.

With the invention of printing, in 1440, and particularly the development of the lithographic process, invented by a Czech named Alois Senefelder in 1798 in Austria, creation of posters became feasible. Although handmade posters existed before, they were mainly used for government announcements. William Caxton, who in 1477 started a printing company in England, produced the first printed poster.

In 1870, the advertising poster emerged.

Art nouveau posters and the impact of graphics on painting

The fin de siècle English artist Aubrey Beardsley created highly decorative posters, based on flowing lines and elongated figures.
Alphonse Mucha designed posters with elegant, joyous young women surrounded by decorative flowers. He used a soft pastel coloring scheme in his posters.
Graphic design influenced paintings in the works of Art Nouveau artists like Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh and her brother Frances Macdonald.
The works of Gustav Klimt are a clear example of the influence of graphic design on painting. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

Posters after World War II

After the Second World War, with the emergence of new color printing technology and particularly appearance of computers, the art of posters underwent a new revolutionary phase. People can create color posters on their laptop computers and create color prints at a very low cost. Unfortunately, the high cost of sophisticated printing processes can only be afforded mostly by government entities and large corporations. With the emergence of the internet, the role of posters in conveying information has greatly diminished. However, some artists still use chromolithography in order to create works of art in the form of print. In this regard the difference between painting and print has been narrowed considerably.

This political poster by Tiocfaidh Ár Lá, about Ulster, is a low-cost, effective poster with only a few basic ink colors.
A magazine cover from a poster by Guity Novin. The artist uses only two colors (orange and green) on a yellow background.

Graphic design in modern life

Today graphic design has penetrated into all aspects of modern life. In particular modern architecture has been influenced by graphics.

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970) on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. With black basalt and earth from the site, he made a design 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide.
This chair is a 3-D graphic design by Gerrit Rietveld. Today the design of many household appliances as well as kitchen utensils are influenced by graphics.
The Steigenberger Hotel, El Gouna, Egypt. The 3-D geometric composition and monochromatic coloring gives a memorable result.

Images for kids

Hohlwein Karte Corps Germania Munchen
The Ada Gospels are one of a group of manuscripts, known to modern scholars as the Ada School. Its illuminations include an elaborate initial page for the Gospel of Matthew and portraits of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Late 8th century
Opening page of Book of Durrow, 7th century
This is Page 2 of a hand-copied manuscript map from Korea, Chonhado (World Map) from Chonha Chido (Map of the World), mid-18th century.
This is page 2 and 3 of a hand-colored engraving of Reiner Ottens' Atlas maior cvm generales omnivm. Amsterdam 1729. The constellations on this chart are elaborately represented by figures from classical antiquity. In the corners of the chart are illustrations of four European observatories, including that of the noted 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601).
These are Card designs from the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. c. 1500. According to a passage in Ibn Taghri Birdi's HISTORY OF EGYPT, 1382-1469 A.D., the future sultan al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad won a large sum of money in a game of cards. In the Islamic empire playing cards the suits were coins, cups, swords, and polo sticks.
Germans introduced wooden blocks printing
The extinct Ancbacher Nuremberg design (by F.X Schmid).
German single-headed Schwerterkarte playing cards, (by SA)
German art nouveau playing cards printed in Attenburg, 1900.
Traditional English playing cards, James Hardy, London 1827 and Germany C 1810
Latvian playing cards designed by Arturs Dubrus in 1942.
Russian playing cards with Mayan Image, 1960s.
Frescoes in Nerezi near Skopje (1164). The Byzantine graphic art emerges from artists' attempt to convey divine spiritual statements. The graphic represents the Christian narrative of salvation in stylized two dimensional elongated figures.
Mosaic from Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, showing the Emperor Justinian and Bishop Maximian of Ravenna surrounded by clerics and soldiers. Here the graphic statement conveys the unification of the church and state.
Mosaic from the church of Hagios Demetrios in Thessaloniki, late 7th or early 8th century, showing St. Demetrios with donors. Artists used highly decorative, symbolic, and flattened graphical representations of Christian saints by setting small pieces of colored glass into the mortar of the church walls at different angles to catch the light. An heavenly atmosphere was created by using gold backgrounds together with haloed figures.
Two-sided icon with the Virgin Psychosostria (saver of souls) and the Annunciation. Byzantine (Constantinople), early 14th century. One of the most important genres of Byzantine graphic art was the icon, an stylized image of Christ, the Virgin, or a saint, used as an object of veneration in Orthodox churches and private homes alike.
In this miniature painting of king Henry I of England, from illuminated Chronicle of Matthew, Paris, (1236-1259), now in British Library, many of the principles of the modern graphic design is followed. The 13th-century paintings with their bright and golden colors were influenced by the Byzantine art. After the crusaders' sack of Constantinople in 1204, many works of Byzantine art entered and influenced Western Europe.
In this Iranian miniature, based on the tragedy of two lovers Laily and Majnoon by Nizami Ganjavi (second half of the 16th century), the broken perspective, together with utilization of text and design is used to communicate the message of the story.
This Greek lekythos (used for storing oil, especially olive oil) depicts the scene when Peleus (left) entrusts his son Achilles (centre) to Centaur Chiron (right). White-ground black-figured by the Edinburgh Painter, c. 500 BC. From Eretria. National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Art and religion are integral to all Native American indigenous peoples that come from many cultural groups and more than 500 tribal nations. They create designs that have been described as bold and imaginative graphic designs in both ceremonial and utilitarian objects. Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
The Nazca natives of Peru are best known for their polychrome pottery, with colorful graphic designs.
Notched stone palette from Mississippi region, with incised rattlesnakes.
The Codex Borgia, now in the Apostolic Library of the Vatican, is one of the few surviving graphic art manuscripts of Aztecs. It is believed that it is from the central Mexican highlands near Puebla. This is an area which was under Aztec rule at the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
The Codex Borbonicus is a codex written by Aztec priests shortly before or after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Like all pre-Columbian codices, it was originally entirely pictorial in nature, although some Spanish descriptions were later added.
The Dresden Codex is an ancient Mayan book of the 11th or 12th century of the Yucatecan Maya. It is a highly important work of art. Many sections are ritualistic (including so-called 'almanacs'), others are of an astrological nature (eclipses, the Venus cycles). It was probably written just before the Spanish conquest.
This detail from an Ethiopian painting with its line drawing, and coloring scheme anticipates many of the techniques used in modern posters. (end of the 17th century).
Handbuilt pottery made by women, including those from the Kabyle, an older, probably indigenous tradition, dates back 2000 years before the birth of Christ. The vessel depicted here originates from earlier prototypes. To this day, Kabyle women coil and decorate pottery with painted geometric designs for their own household use and for sale.
The disconnect between the divisions of the painted surface of this mask and the underlying carved form is an aspect of African art that has been described as striking and first entranced Western audiences. This is a mask created by Tsogo peoples of Ogowe River region in Gabon. (Late 19th to early 20th century).
Like Western heraldry, Japanese mons were initially held only by aristocratic families, and were gradually adapted by commoners. Japanese traditional formal attire generally displays the mon of the wearer. Commoners without mon often used that of their patron or the organization they belonged to. This the coat of arm of Gion Mamori of Japan.
Astrnomical charts have a long history. For instance, an engraving of an ancient Egyptian diagram of the heavens from the Temple of Dendara, depicts the sky on the date of the founding of the temple in 54 BC. The above chart is an astronomical map of the sky drawn by Nicholas Copernicus in 1543 that replaced an earlier chart by Cellarius showing the Earth centred universe.
In this 3-D dynamic design a house is studied from various angles. These types of animations can be very useful in the study of various objects. They can also be used to study the evolution of a process through time.:
This Persian rock relief depicts Ardashir I Coronation scene; the first king of the Sassanid Empire of Iran. Ardashir receives the ribboned diadem (cydaris), the symbol of kingship, from the spirit of Darius I of Persia of the Achaemenid dynasty. Under the horse of the King Ardashir lies the last of the Parthian Kings, Artabanus. Under the horse of King Darius lies Gaumata the usurper, a Magian,. The relief of Ardashir is, therefore, the legitimization of the new Sassanian dynasty by the pre-Alexander Achaemenid dynasty. The inscription in Persian, Parthian, and Greek, reads: This is the image of the Hormizd-worshipping Majesty Ardashir, whose origin is of the gods.
Sassanid king Shapur I of Iran in this relief at Naqsh-e Rostam, celebrats his victories over the Roman emperor Publius Licinius Valerianus. Iran, City of Marvdasht, Province of Fars. According to his records: "Just as we were established on the throne, the emperor Gordianus gathered in all of the Roman Empire an army of Goths and Germans and marched ... against us. On the edges of Assyria,... there was a great frontal battle. And Gordianus Caesar perished, and we destroyed the Roman army. And the Romans proclaimed Philip emperor. And Philip Caesar came to us for terms, and paid us 500,000 denars as ransom for his life and became tributary to us".
This shrine stela from the early part of the Amarna Period depicts an intimate family moment of Pharaoh Ankhenaten, his wife Nefertiti, and Princesses Meretaten, Mekeaten, and Ankhesenpaaten worshiping the Aten as a family. While Akhenaten leans forward to give Meretaten a kiss, Mekeaten plays on her mother's lap and gazes up lovingly. At the same time Ankhesenpaaten, the smallest, sits on Nefertiti's shoulder and fiddles with her earring. At the top of the composition, the sun-god, Aten, represented by a raised circle, extends his life-giving rays to the Royal Family.
Aristotle printed by Aldus Manutius, 1495-98 (Libreria antiquaria Pregliasco, Turin)
A page from Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, printed by Aldus Manutius
The printer's device of William Caxton, 1478.
A woodcut from William Caxton's second edition of the Canterbury Tales printed in 1483.
Theodor de Bry (1528 – 1598) was an engraver, goldsmith and editor. An engraving portrait of Theodorus de Bry, by himself and confirming his origins from Liège, in Latin "Leodiensis", between brackets: (a city at that time belonging neither to Flanders or Wallonia, or even to Belgium).
Albrecht Dürer, St Jerome in his study. Albrecht Dürer was a German painter and printmaker. (1514)
Ecce Homo, Engraving, 15th century, by Martin Schongauer(c. 1448 – 1491). He was a German engraver and painter, and was the most important German printmaker before Albrecht Dürer.
Matthäus Merian, View of Frankfurt, between 1612 and 1619. Merian was a notable Swiss engraver.
Court jester of Emperor Maximilian I. Etching by Daniel Hopfer, (1493).
Gardener with basket, c. 1612, Etching by Jacques Bellange . He was an artist and printmaker from Lorraine, now in France.(c. 1575 - 1616).
William Blake's Ancient of Days, etching/watercolour, (1794).
Andrew Pavlovsky poster of Poet MAYAKOVSKIY (2003). This poster is a graphic illustration of a true interest to Constructivism in Russia today. This Art Movement (Constructivism) was almost always in demand in Russia and it can become one of principal trends now. Some of the contemporary Russian artists and art historians have already suggested the new term - Additive Constructivism. It emphasizes the return to modernism, which starts to significantly push out the postmodern art practices. It's not a postmodern performance. The Constructivist color solution proves that so it is.
This advertising flier from 1806 is for a traditional medicine called Kinseitan. Display in the Edo Tokyo Museum.
This is a 19th-century advertising poster for the hydrotherapic baths of Bagnoles de l'Orne (France).
This is a playbill for Perham's Opera Vocalists, 1856.
This poster from the second half of the 1880s advertises for Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, advertising "Miss Annie Oakley, the peerless lady wing-shot".
This is a German poster by Fritz Rehm for Laferme Cigarettes (published 1896-1900)
Circus poster, 1899. "Forepaugh & Sells Brothers Shows Combined. The world famed Hanlon Troupe in the most astonishing mid-air achievements ever accomplished."
"Drink Coca-Cola 5¢", an 1890s advertising poster showing a woman in fancy clothes (partially vaguely influenced by 16th- and 17th-century styles) drinking Coke.
With nothing to lose, Lucian Bernhard entered a poster contest for the Priester Match Company. The judges, found this poster bizarre, and ignored it. However Ernst Growald, sales manager for Berlin's leading proto-advertising agency and poster printer, saw the discarded poster and exclaimed: "This is my first prize. This is genius!" Bernhard had won both the contest and a long-term benefactor.
Born near Stuttgart as Emil Kahn, he changed his name to Lucian Bernhard and left home for Berlin at the age of 18 in 1901. He became the protege of Edmund Edel, an established artist, who brought him into contact with the printing company and poster publisher Hollerbaum & Schmidt. His first poster, for a match company, became an immediate success. In 1903, he opened his own studio in the center of Berlin. He left Berlin in 1922, and set up a studio in New York City.
In 1910 the Berthold Foundry brought out a new type face in "block" letters based on Bernhard's poster lettering, which displayed a remarkable anticipation of the "Sans Serif" lettering of the 1920s. The Flinsch Type Foundry followed with the production of Bernrnhard "Antiqua", "Kursiv", "Fraktur", and half a dozen others.
Pierce-Arrow auto ad, from advertisement in Life magazine, 1919
The London Underground Electric Railway Company Ltd published this poster in 1924.
This is an official soccer poster for World Cup in Uruguay, 1930.