Key Dates of Graphic Design History
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- 15,000-10,000 BC
- I see many reds and oranges and seems to be depicting a story through art work. It is pretty cool to hear that teenage boys feel into this cave not too long ago.
- The first known visual communication, with pictographs and symbols in the Lascaux caves in southern France.
- 3,600 BC
- Looks like a stone that they chiseled into instead of using charcoal like the first instance of graphic design. Once again seems to be an extension of storytelling rather than a recreational activity.
- The Blau Monument, the oldest artifact known to combine words and pictures.
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- 105 AD
- Paper drawings used for the first time is interesting to see. Reminds me of a shrine today with many pictures all surrounding one main guy that has the biggest picture.
- Chinese government official Tsiai Lun or Cai Lun credited with inventing paper.
- 1045 AD
- The class got to see this process being used in the video we watched on Helvetica. It was a fun process to see in the video, but it is even cooler knowing just how old it was. I wonder what a magazine would have looked like in 1045! They look like small rubber stamps or squares that would print letters.
- Pi Sheng invents movable type, allowing for characters to be individually placed for printing.
- 1276 AD
- Looks very old, as it is very old, but incorporates a lot of wood in the mill. There is some gooey liquid in with the wood but I can not make out what it is,
- Printing arrives in Europe with a paper mill in Fabriano, Italy.
- 1450 AD
- Reprinting of books was a huge technological advancement and furthered society. In the YouTube clip, he had to wet the paper and move many pieces to print one page. It was a lot of work for 1 page just imagine how long it would take for a whole book! The bible was very popular to reprint and that is a lot of pages.
- Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenburg credited with perfecting the system for printing type in books.
- 1460 AD
- This discovery further advances storytelling. It took ten years for them to go from printing these books to adding illustrations. I wonder how the process we watched in the YouTube clip mentioned above differed when adding illustrations.
- Albrecht Pfister the first to add illustrations to a printed book.
- 1470 AD
- The typeface fits perfectly with the Medieval Times he was designing in. The upper case letters seem to pop with the typeface.
- Nicolas Jenson, considered one of history's greatest typeface designers, sets news standard for Roman type.
- 1530 AD
- This font reminds me of what is on Apple computers. His last name is very memorable and is the name of his font.
- Claude Garamond opens first type foundry, developing and selling fonts to printers.
- 1722 AD
- Clean, simple, serif type font. Much more optimistic than the typeface designed by Nicolas Jenson. Shows we were in better times.
- First Caslon Old Style font developed.
- 1760 AD
- With the extra technology that the Revolution brings, the graphic design production begins to boom. It grew with the Revolution.
- Industrial Revolution begins, setting the stage for advances in graphic design production.
- 1860 AD
- Design made a big push in the middle of the 19th century
- Arts and Crafts Movement- John Ruskin, William Morris, Gustav Stickley.
- 1861 AD
- The rise in design led to the first decorating firm to open.
- William Morris, who became a highly influential figure in design history, sets up art-decorating firm.
- 1880 AD
- Very advanced for its time. A mysterious combination of colored dots make up different colors.
- Development of halftone screen allows for first photo printed with a full range of tones.
- 1890 AD
- A change of art movement began with Art. Commercial design started to become a focus.
- Art Nouveau movement begins and changes design, making its way into all types of commercial design and utilizing all types of arts.
- 1901 AD
- Wright opened the industry to basic principles that raised the quality of everyone's work.
- Frank Lloyd Wright- 'The Art and Craft of the Machine'; basic principles of modern industrial design; future designers create prototypes for machine production.
- 1910 AD
- This is a big step for the world's graphic design.
- AEG (German General Electric). This is the beginning of 'corporate image'.
- 1919 AD
- This is the base of what design is today. Cool to see it in Germany of all places.
- The Bauhaus, a German school, is founded, eventually providing the framework for modern design.
- 1919 AD
- Europe is pushing art but America has yet to really contribute.
- Constuctivism movement originated in Russia. El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Taltin, Naum Gabo.
- 1932 AD
- The infamous font that every student knows and dreads is more modern than I would have guessed. I am not surprised it originated in London.
- Stanley Morison oversees design of Times New Roman font, commissioned by the Times of London
- 1947 AD
- Many dark colors incorporated including lots of black and an almost blood red.
- Swiss design: Armin Hofmann, Emil Ruder.
- 1950 AD
- I am not really sure what the New York School is but this is the first time America seems to join the art phenomenon.
- The New York School: Paul Rand, Alexey Brodovich, Henry Wolf, Herb Lubalin, George Lois.
- 1956 AD
- One of the first iconic logos was created in America for a top American company,
- Paul Rand designs IBM logo using City Medium typeface
- 1957 AD
- The most iconic and popular font goes through a name change to help out us Americans.
- Max Miedinger designs Neue Haas Grotesk font, later named Helvetica.
- 1960 AD
- A very interesting design is created with this pop art and it looks extremely modern for something designed in the '60s
- Pop Art; Pentagram Design: Colin Forbes, Theo Crosby; Scandinavian Designer: Alvar Aalto.
- 1961 AD
- I am not aware of what the Memphis group movement is or what it did.
- Italian Designer: Ettore Sottsass, Memphis group Movement.
- 1968 AD
- I have heard about this movement for so long in other classes and it is famous, for among other things, connecting with the times.
- Post-Modernism: Wolfgang Weingart, Steff Geissbuhler, Odermatt & Tissi.
- 1969 AD
- Strange to think the mouse might get phased out. But for now it is still used by the majority of people.
- Douglas Engelbart develops first computer mouse, setting the stage for the future tool of graphic design.
- 1970 AD
- Many more graphics that follow many design principals.
- Corporate graphics: Olivetti, CBS, CIBA, Chase, Mobil.
- 1979 AD
- A very 80's style to the art. The three artists listed are huge in graphic design.
- New Wave: April Greiman, Kenneth Hiebert, Paula Scher.
- 1984 AD
- The iconic commercial for the Apple computer was released this year.
- Apple releases first Macintosh computer, featuring bitmap graphics.
- 1985 AD
- This is the time period where modern graphic design was born on the personal computer.
- Aldus, formed by Paul Brainerd, develops PageMaker software. Brainerd coins the phrase Desktop Publishing.
- 1990 AD
- A very basic version of Photoshop comes out and it is still being used today.
- Photoshop version one is released.