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.
Contents
- History of graphics
- Calligraphy & graphics in books
- Graphic compositions in Asia
- Decorative graphic design in pottery
- Birth of modern graphic design
- Mondrian's minimalism revolution
- Communication with pictures
- Information signs: Isotype and the Viennese method
- Dynamic designs, and computer animation
- Placards and posters
- Art nouveau posters and the impact of graphics on painting
- Posters after World War II
- Graphic design in modern life
- Images for kids
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
Writing
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
-
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.
Graphics and miniatures
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.
Decorative graphic design in pottery
From ancient times graphic design has been used for decoration of pottery and ceramics.
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 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.
Communication with pictures
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.
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.
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.
Dynamic designs, and computer animation
-
This animation was created from photos taken by Eadweard Muybridge in 1887.
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.
Images for kids
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
Notched stone palette from Mississippi region, with incised rattlesnakes.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Albrecht Dürer, St Jerome in his study. Albrecht Dürer was a German painter and printmaker. (1514)
-
Court jester of Emperor Maximilian I. Etching by Daniel Hopfer, (1493).
-
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.
-
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.
