Infographic: The History of Graphic Design

Bite sized history - You learn something new everyday! 11 years ago

Wow, thanks for the article! 11 years ago

This is great, some good work and some great research. I agree with the above poster that it is odd there is no reference to Egyptian hieroglyphics. Also, what about the invention of alphabets? Standardised words or pictograms which were used across nations would be key to the work we do today. And finally, and hopefully not to nitpicky, you mention halftone printing for printing photographs but not mention of the invention of photography? All the same still a great infographic, thank you. 11 years ago

I hate being the pedant but quite clearly this is the history of printing, not graphic design? Where is dates suggesting when the first logo, poster or book cover? That is graphic design to me. Book and font design is typography and the technologies like printing presses and linotype machines is printing. 11 years ago

There are cave paintings out there a hell of a lot older than Lascaux. Indonesia and Spain both have paintings that have been dated in the ~40,000 year old ballpark. A case could also be made that Neanderthal burial sites containing bones stained with red ochre, which date back to about 100,000 years ago, represent the first evidence of purposeful use of a visual element—color—to represent some abstract ritual or symbolic concept (what that concept might be, we can only speculate, but it's safe to say that early humans didn't just up and start painting bones because they were bored one day). I'd contend that deliberate application of color for a purpose is a component of design. 11 years ago