History of Graphic Design
The history of graphic design may have begun in caves in France and other parts of the world where fur clad men drew pictures of game on the walls to aid their hunts for food.
History of Graphic Design
In caves near Lascaux in France, there are almost 2,000 remarkable paintings on the walls of large caves that were drawn by early man somewhere around 15,000 years ago. Although many people suspect the cave art was used in some sort of religious type ceremony to aid in hunting, no one is really sure exactly why they were created. The history of graphic design may have been said to have started here. Whatever their purpose, the cave artists were using visual impressions to convey information.
Graphic design is the use of typography and visual images to convey information. Its history is as old as mankind itself. The human species is unique in its ability to create art and it is only natural that this artistic impulse found ways to be put to practical use. One of the first examples of graphic design was The Book of Kells. This was done by Celtic monks around 800 A.D. and was a very graphically illustrated version of the Christian Bible.
Modern graphic design got a big boost at the end of the 19th Century when the Arts and Craft movement in the United States and England began as a reaction to the rather stale artistic styles that were being created by the Victorian age and the advent of the Industrial world. There was a revival of historic style and this spread to books and magazines as well as art. The signs that were put into the London Underground Subway system in 1916 are an early example of how graphic design was being used in functional areas.
The "First Things First 1964 Manifesto" by Joshua Walters had a very profound effect on a whole new generation of graphic designers. It called for a more radical and artistic approach to graphic design. Where they had been looking to the past for inspiration and making a virtue of function and simplicity, Walters called for designers to throw off these shackles and look to the future and be bold and experimental in their designs.
The computer has wrought the most important changes in graphic design in its history. It has not only opened up the new and growing field of computer web design, but has given graphic artists the tools to work quickly and experiment with a wide variety of forms without wasting valuable time and resources. Graphic design programs allow the designer to move things around and see how they look, luxuries that early designer did not have.