1. History of Graphic Design
A short story

2. Visual communication Visual communication has a long history.
Footprints were visual evidence of the presence of an animal – graphic signs representing something that was not immediately present.
Letters of the alphabet are ‘signs’, road markings are ‘signs’.
(The study of how such signs communicate meaning is called ‘semiotics’.)

3. Graphic design Graphic design has a short history.
As a profession it has existed only since the middle of the 20th century.
Before that, advertisers would employ ‘commercial artists’: including layout artists, typographers, illustrators, re-touchers, lettering artists, poster artists.
Graphic design brings these together.

4. History of ‘design’ in general
A point that should be made here is that the notion of a ‘designer’ and the ‘history of design’ are relatively new. Before the 19th century there were no design movements, only makers and a slowly changing fashion in what they made.
The only ‘design reference’ they had was the pattern books of previous makers or their own understanding of history.
Graphic design in particular has no real ‘past’: all the developments we will look at are relatively recent (within 150 years).

5. A century of design movements
William Morris ( ) got the notion of ‘the designer’ started with the Arts & Crafts movement.
They believed in good craftsmanship and individually made products.
In opposition to industrial manufacture, which they saw as producing shoddy goods for a mass market.

6.                                           
Morris chair by L. & J. G. Stickley

7. Education
Morris also believed that people needed educating in how to decorate their houses.
The new commercial ‘middle class’ that sprang from the Industrial Revolution had no acquired ‘tastes’ like the aristocracy previously.
They bought new goods without discrimination – because they now had the money.

8. Decorating with a ‘plan’
As well as espousing simple traditional crafts, Morris also encouraged the consideration of a style for the whole room – not just a random collection of furnishings and fabrics.
Morris is most famous for wallpaper and fabric designs.
Later in his career he started the Kelmscott Press and designed books and typefaces.
He initiated the idea of designing a double page spread.

10. What informed Arts & Crafts?
Influences on Morris were:
Wild flowers and plants
Medieval design and craftsmanship
Middle Eastern textiles
And later through Christopher Dresser:
Japanese design thinking
Also influenced by links to John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters.

11. Pre-Raphaelites
Victorian painters who went back to earlier values in art because they thought it had taken a ‘wrong turn’ after Raphael (late Renaissance painter).
Most popular paintings in Tate Britain
They made illustrations for Kelmscott Press books, while Morris made the decorative borders and the typefaces.

12. Art Nouveau
This was followed by the short-lived but exotic Art Nouveau movement.
Started in Belgium (see Hector Guimard)
Spread to France, Germany and England.
Typified by use of plant shapes (again).
This time they were exotic, hot-house plants.
Lines were sensual/erotic.
Sometimes referred to as ‘arabesques’.

13. Hector Guimard
Proposal for a wrought-iron bracket published by Viollet-le-duc in 1872 from Viollet-le-Duc, Entretiens sur l'architecture, vol. 2 (Farnsborough, reprint 1965), 126. National Gallery of Art, Washington

14. Victor Horta Alphonse Mucha

15. Influences Technology: ductile qualities of glass and metal
This quality translated into graphic line
Introduction of Japanese woodblock prints using flowing line
This also supported by a visit to Japan by Christopher Dresser, a friend of Morris.
(Art Nouveau in turn influenced poster graphics in the 1960s.)

16. Art Deco
The 1920s and 30s saw a decadent era which enjoyed the car, the ocean liner and the new ‘plane.
Design styles were ‘streamlined’.
The ‘arabesques’ of art nouveau were straightened out, and just allowed a little curve at the end.
Egyptian artefacts became fashionable as Tutankhamen's tomb was opened.

17. Charles Rennie Mackintosh

18. Bauhaus
In Weimar, between the wars, the Bauhaus school of design grew, flourished and died.
Emphasising craft and design education is achieved several things:
The birth of the modern ‘art school’
The birth of ‘modernism’ in design
(Initially at least) the inclusion of women in the design field.

19. Current perceptions of Design
Let’s start here and look at how design and graphic design have changed in the last 100 years, and how these changes reflect our changing attitudes.
Modernism is held to be the most important design movement of the 20th century.
It was born out of the new ‘machine aesthetic’ of the Bauhaus, a school of design in Germany between the two world wars, run by architects including Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

20. The Bauhaus
History of Modernism

21. The Bauhaus – some history
The manifesto of the Bauhaus reflects this preoccupation with architecture:
“- the building is the ultimate creation
- the artist is an exalted craftsman
- we must form a new guild of craftsmen
- we must make architecture, sculpture
and painting into a single form.”
The Bauhaus produced things like this:

22. Bauhaus design

23. Designs still imitated

24. The Bauhaus
This “one comprehensive theory” approach was typical of philosophies of the time. Science too was searching for an all embracing ‘theory of the world’.
Its founder, Walter Gropius saw architecture as the “highest art” but wanted to amalgamate all arts and crafts into a new unified approach – this was how the artist could take his place in the machine age.
This required a totally new method of teaching and learning – a workshop system. Each art or craft had something to teach the other and common ground had to be established.

25. Bauhaus teaching
The Bauhaus as a school was revolutionary and formed the basis of the modern art school. It was a place for students to learn by trial and error to release their creativeness and to approach their work individually and boldly.
Several famous design slogans have been passed down to us from the Bauhaus: “form follows function”, “less is more”, “ornament is a crime”.

26. The Bauhaus
Gropius’ architectural ideas, together with those of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe (and later the influence of Sullivan and Wright in America) formed the basis of Modernism, known for its functional use of modern technology and rejection of decoration. The skyscrapers of the Chicago skyline, with their steel frames and glass curtain walls, reflect the enormity of this achievement.

27. Chicago skyline

28. Modernism in Design
Modernism in design directly follows the advances of the Bauhaus:
Mies van der Rohe’s late architecture,
Marcel Breuer’s chairs,
the metalwork of Marianne Brandt,
the interior design of Le Corbusier.
Many of the interior design and furnishing innovations are still popular now – especially the chairs!

30. Modernism loses its edge
But social events and practical problems can change the course of a design movement – as well as everything else!
One effect of the Second World War was shortage of money, which meant that new developments could not be paid for. After the war buildings had to be economical, resulting in cheap and boring versions of Modernist tower blocks which gave Modernism a bad name.
(This might be why only the chairs survived!)

31. Buildings weren’t the only things to get blown up during the war …
Our ideas of building for a better future took a knock on all fronts.
Any faith we had in human nature no longer extended outside the small group we ‘knew and trusted’. (so politicians were out as well as Nazis!)
We finally spotted that ‘one grand theory’ of living was not going to suit everyone – so eventually Communism went as well.
(Unfortunately this didn’t stop us building large [and unsuitable] industrial projects in 3rd World countries for some time.)
However, back to graphics

32. Modernist Graphics
Modernist graphics were strongly influenced by Peter Behrens in Vienna.
Peter Behrens is important because he created the first logo design and the first ‘design profile’ for a business.
But modern advances became entrenched in Switzerland with Jan Tschichold the invention of the Helvetica typeface, the ‘Swiss style’ and its rules about functional design, spareness and purity.

33. Swiss style graphics straightens the grid

34. Helvetica
These entrenched rules embodied in the ‘Swiss style’ (insisting on functional design) eventually lead to the ‘Helvetica Crisis’ and an explosion of stylistic invention, especially in America, in the last 40 years.
There are still ‘fanatics for Helvetica’ as last week’s film shows – and there are good reasons for this, Helvetica is a well designed, strong and open typeface.
The 1960s, closely followed by the Punk Rock Era, introduced a breath of fresh air into typography by breaking all the rules.

35. 1960s graphics

37. Punk rock graphics

38. Activity
Select three designers/Artist who you think have made the most contribution to graphic design we have now, as seen in websites, adverts and film.
Write a short article explaining how they have made an impact on design today.
Include images within your article.