History of Graphic Design

MCJ 312 GRAPHIC DESIGNLijie Zhou

We will talk about…The Birth of Graphic Design: 30,000 years ago; 550 years ago; 19th CenturyModernism: 1908-1933Postmodernism: 1970s

The Birth of Graphic Design

Newspaper Rock, Utah2,000 years ago Photo credit: Lijie Zhou

(a) 30,000 years: Cave painting

Irrigation System Map, Turpan, China475BC-221BC

Photo credit: Lijie Zhou

Photo credit: Lijie Zhou

Johannes Gutenberg (1395?-1468)

(b) 550 years ago: Guenberg’s invention of the printing press and its use of movable type

*(c) 19th Century: Art Nouveau The Industrial Revolution:

Growth of population centers, industry, economy

Machines and large-scale production1824 The first photographic metal engraving1852 The first halftone screen1868 The first automated steam press for lithography1893 Color printing technology1906 The first offset press

Interrelationship of materials, process, and philosophy

Needs for the dissemination of information

Poster Advertising for the Palais de Glace on the Champs Elysees By Jules Cheret

Pen-and-ink drawing for an illustration in Oscar Wilde’s Salome By Aubrey Beardsley

Cover illustration for Success 1901 By Maxfield Parrish

Advertising poster 1908By Ludwig Holwein

Trade card: Early form of business cards

Arts and crafts movementRejected mass-produced, inhuman product of the machineEmphasized quality over quantityFavor of good craftsmanship and clean design

By William Morris 1894

Modernism (1908-1933)Movements:

CubismFuturismPlakatstilSuprematismDadaDe StijlThe BauhausConstructivism

Futurism (1909): the machines of Industrial Age would lead to a better future

Armored Train in ActionBy Gino Severini 1915

Dada (1916): Questioning meaningChallenging criteriaCrating unexpected visual effectsPhotomontage (important distribution)Intentional disorder

By Hannah Hoch 1919 Cover of Der Dada , 1920

Constructivism (1917)The Russian RevolutionCombination of political propaganda and commercial advertising.Goals of Soviet society

Film poster for Kino GlazBy Aleksandr Rodchenko 1924

By El Lissitzky 1929

Bauhaus (1919)The School of Applied Arts and Crafts (1906) closed during WWIReopened as Bauhaus school in Germany in 1919Graphic, product, furniture and architecture designSimple, clear and functional designEqual importance of arts and craftsPersonal expression is less important than order and clarity

Bauhaus in graphic designJosef Albers: color and structural relationships, color is relative to the colors surrounding it.

Bauhaus in graphic designLaszlo Moholy-Nagy: photography with typography as illustration. Camera as a design tool Herbert Bayer:

Typeface

Using extreme contrast of weight and size to establish a visual hierarchy instead of using capital letters

By Emil Ruder

Emil Ruder: Layout design (using formal grid elements)

Poster for Kunstgewerbe museumBy Josef Muller-Brockmann 1960

* Poster for AEG light bulbs By Peter Behrens 1901

Art deco (1925)Figurative image with

Rich colors, Bold geometric shapesLavish ornamentation

By A.M. Cassandra

SurrealismThe unconscious mind in dream imagesIrrational, fantastic designWith incongruous subject matterDifferent from Dada

The False Mirror 1928By Rene Maritte

Advertising poster for Chemidai Bank By Matt Zumbo

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte By Georges Seurat

Postmodernism (1970s)Question the modernist concept of constant innovation and progress.Not following any rational order, formal organization, and traditional conventionsRetro, Techno, Punk, Grunge, Beach, Parody, and PasticheOne unified graphic styleMore ways to go against the system

By Tadanori Yokoo

Visual complexity of Japanese postmodernism

The FiferBy Eduoard Manet

Michelangelo’s Medici tombs

The Development of Computer Graphics

The Moving Dot (1953): Display of a bouncing ball to calculate and show military targets (By MIT for Defense Department of the United States)First light pen (1962): A light pen touched to screen and could draw a line (By MIT).Animation:

Invention of tweening3-D animation with Depth cueing (1970s)

Painting and drawing (1980s)

By David Em 1979

Layered Design (1980s): Layered structureImage overlapRich visual texture

Cranbrook recruiting poster By Katherine McCoy 1989