Journey from carvings on stone to illustrations on a smart device
I know many experienced artists, designers, developers, tech geeks, and many of them ask me a question — ‘We are looking for a good visual designer for some work, are you good with graphic design? This triggered me to ask myself, what is actually “graphic design? I began to search for this answer in history to understand its true meaning and existence today. This blog is a reflection of some collective readings from open source mediums. I ended up studying about people & events from our past that have influenced they way we think, perceive & communicate today.
QUESTIONS
I have no particular talent, I am merely inquisitive. This is a famous quote by Albert Einstein, and my reply to everyone who asks me ‘what kind of a person are you’ I set out with mixed thoughts on my mind around how did we reach to a digital canvas of beautiful illustrations on our smartphones since the beginning of time, how did the term graphic design come into existence, what does it truly mean, and how is it different from today’s commonly used term ‘visual and communication design’.
HISTORY
Humans are always characterized by their ability to communicate their thoughts and expressions. That is what makes us different from animals, our desire to write and tell stories, express what we see and feel around us, through different media. It all began with prehistoric people who communicated their stories and beliefs by engraving them on rocks, called petroglyphs. They have been found in all parts of the globe except Antarctica. Carvings, with shapes of animals, sun, stars, events, not only enlighten us with their lifestyle and culture back then, but also tells us about their desire to document, educate and preserve their history. Egyptian writings- hieroglyphics were the next step towards expressing thoughts. They combined symbols with images & produced illustrative manuscripts. It soon evolved into alphabets. The greek and latin symbols were widely adopted due to rise and spread of the Roman empire and eventually came into being as modern english alphabet letters A, B, C as we know today.
By that time, humans had still not started with their ‘R&D’ around sophisticated nibs and writing instruments to be able to write on paper or cloth. They resorted to a simpler medium than rock- Wood. Wood carvings allowed artisans and writers to carve much more intricate letters and shapes and it was not long, before they began to carve organic and ornamental forms. Carving was not only used to communicate, but also became a medium to express creative forms which were soon to be identified with the upper class society.
PRINTING
Printing press came into being in the middle of 15th century, invented by Johannes Gutenberg, a german goldsmith, who is credited with the ‘Gutenberg Bible’, the first major book printed with mass produced ‘movable type’. This eventually revolutionized the world we live in today, and ushered a period of modernity. This led me to read and research on what it meant for a world in 15th century, where a printing press could produce as much as 3600 pages per work day compared to only 40–50 by hand writing. For alphabetical scripts, movable type of metal were far more durable and uniform and setting was quicker than wood. This was the birth of ‘typography’ and ‘fonts’.
MASS COMMUNICATION
During the period of renaissance, there was a good amount of printed content easily available for general public which boosted the democratization of knowledge & mass communication. It became simpler and easier to reach out to greater no of people and educate them with content that spreads awareness and helps them take informed decisions in their best interests. People wanted to read and glance content that is easy to understand and pleasant to look at. Hence were born some of the greatest artists and ‘graphic designers’ as we call them today post war.
THE CENTURY GUILD
The industrial revolution paved way for newer technologies like steam press making the printing process more sophisticated. During the 18th century, the arts and crafts movement formed ‘century guild’, a group of art enthusiasts, who aimed to preserve the artistic trade and authenticity of the craftsmen. They created the ‘Hobby horse’ which was the first ever printed magazine devoted solely to the visual arts. It contained articles on classical painting, classical sculpture, literature, poetry, architecture, furniture, and decoration. People began to understand and appreciate different forms of artworks and it resulted as a big platform for designers to showcase their work and gain recognition. Advancements in printing unrolled the canvas for graphic artists like Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Beardsley, and many more to experiment with different forms of creative communication like posters, books, paintings, poetry etc. Artists began to explore with lines, forms, shapes, colours, textures and spaces to paint the canvas with artworks which are some of the most prized possessions of the art enthusiasts in world today. So what began as a medium to communicate and preserve history through rock carvings in prehistoric ages, transformed into a medium to express emotions through artificial colours on prints.
STYLES
During the first world war, graphic designers were seen to use strong imagery and bold typefaces that influenced people’s opinion of right from wrong. This made them very popular in the west and thus saw the birth of various styles of graphic art forms like fauvism, cubism, surrealism, constructivism, mannerism etc. One of the noted graphic artist during this time was Paul Rand who designed many logos and gave a whole new meaning to logo design as a form of art in itself.
FROM CANVAS TO SCREEN, PENCIL TO ‘PEN TOOL’
By 1980’s and 1990’s, new styles of artworks and illustrations were seen to be used in the world of advertising, book covers, logo designs, signages etc. Bold colours, strong typefaces began to have widespread usage and acceptance within design enthusiasts. With the advancements in digital technology, artists could now use software tools to experiment with their designs in a quicker way and produce many variations of it. Design tools from Adobe, Corel and invention of personal computers together introduced a new ‘digital canvas’ for graphic artists to now outflow their creative thoughts. Hardware with high computing powers, dedicated graphic cards along with desktop publishing softwares, empowered designers with billions of colours, line forms, textures and shapes to create digital illustrations. Internet played a big role in how we began to share thoughts and emotions with almost anyone in a much quicker way. The classic old school term ‘graphic designer’ was now more widely used as ‘digital illustrator’ or ‘illustrator artist’ or ‘visual designer’.
RISE OF DESIGN TOOLS
Businesses soon realized the need to make their presence felt on web due to its widespread accessibility and usage. There was a big need for experienced graphic designers, now called as ‘visual designers’ to produce the right attention grabbing content for businesses in a creative and ‘aesthetic’ way. More sophisticated devices like wacom tablets, high definition digital cameras and image scanners bridged the creative freedom of old school graphic designers of 80’s and 90’s to modern visual designers of the digital world. There was also a need to have the right set of knowledge of the digital tools so that they do not feel restrained in any way. Tutorials like lynda.com and many others served a big support platform for painters, sculptors, artists, musicians, poets etc. to be able to be creative with little or no knowledge of computer progammes and software coding.
INTERACTION DESIGN
During this time when computer programmers were building the software and visual designers were ‘facing’ it, there was a new skill set that came into the light — the usability of a product. How will people interact with the software? Which elements on the interface will ensure that the user will be able to perform the intended action in the simplest way? Will it be intuitive for the user to find a specific set of information from the interface? An interaction designer deals with such scenarios before they can be thought about from a visual perspective. Many interface design decisions are collectively designed by the interaction as well as visual designer because visual treatments of a UI component play a significant role in the usability of the interface. A visual designer is trained to think visually. He or she communicates with lines, shapes, colours and textures to create visual harmony and balance with their designs while an interaction expert will be largely responsible for sorting out the functional and layout aspects of the interface to ensure each element affords its respective action.
We have come a long way from interacting with people by carving signs and symbols on rocks to tweeting through our smartphones. I believe the evolution of graphic design field with the advancements in digital products have made us appreciate the importance of both aspects which collectively are making new forms of history today.
