In both its lengthy history and in the relatively recent explosion of
visual communication in the 20th and 21st centuries, the distinction between advertising, art, graphic design and fine art has disappeared. They share many elements, theories, principles, practices,
languages and sometimes the same benefactor or client. In advertising, the ultimate objective is the sale of goods and services. In graphic design, "the essence is to give order to information, form to ideas, expression, and feeling to artifacts that document the human experience." The definition of the graphic designer profession is relatively recent concerning its preparation, activity, and objectives. Although there is no consensus on an exact date for the emergence of graphic design, some date it back to the
Interwar period. Others understand that it began to be identified as such by the late 19th century. In
Mesopotamia, writing (as an extension of graphic design) began with commerce. The earliest writing system,
cuneiform, began with basic pictograms representing houses, lambs, or grain. In the mid-15th century in Mainz, Germany,
Johannes Gutenberg developed a way to reproduce printed pages at a faster pace using
movable type made with a new metal alloy that created a revolution in the dissemination of information.
Nineteenth century In 1849,
Henry Cole became one of the major forces in
design education in Great Britain, informing the government of the importance of design in his
Journal of Design and Manufactures. He organized the
Great Exhibition as a celebration of modern industrial technology and Victorian design. From 1891 to 1896,
William Morris'
Kelmscott Press was a leader in graphic design associated with the
Arts and Crafts movement, creating hand-made books in medieval and Renaissance era style, in addition to wallpaper and textile designs. Morris' work, along with the rest of the
Private Press movement, directly influenced
Art Nouveau.
Will H. Bradley became one of the notable graphic designers of the late nineteenth century for creating art pieces in various Art Nouveau styles. Bradley created a number of designs as promotions for a literary magazine titled
The Chap-Book.
Twentieth century designating it as
Air Force One. The cyan forms, the
US flag,
presidential seal and the
Caslon lettering, were all designed at different times, by different designers, for different purposes, and combined by designer
Raymond Loewy in this one single aircraft exterior design. In 1917,
Frederick H. Meyer, director and instructor at the
California School of Arts and Crafts, taught a class entitled "Graphic Design and Lettering". Raffe's
Graphic Design, published in 1927, was the first book to use "Graphic Design" in its title. In 1936, author and graphic designer Leon Friend published his book titled "Graphic Design" and it is known to be the first piece of literature to cover the topic extensively. The signage in the
London Underground is a classic design example of the
modern era. Although he lacked artistic training,
Frank Pick led the Underground Group design and publicity movement. The first Underground station signs were introduced in 1908, featuring a solid red disk with a blue bar in the center and the station name. The station name was in white sans-serif letters. In 1916, Pick enlisted the expertise of
Edward Johnston to design a new typeface for the Underground. Johnston redesigned the Underground sign and logo, placing his typeface on the blue bar in the center of a red circle. (1910) In the 1920s, Soviet
constructivism applied 'intellectual production' in different spheres of production. The movement saw individualistic art as useless in revolutionary Russia and thus moved towards creating objects for
utilitarian purposes. They designed buildings, film and theater sets, posters, fabrics, clothing, furniture, logos, menus, etc.
Jan Tschichold codified the principles of
modern typography in his 1928 book,
New Typography. He later repudiated the philosophy he espoused in this book as fascistic, but it remained influential. Tschichold,
Bauhaus typographers such as
Herbert Bayer and
László Moholy-Nagy and
El Lissitzky greatly influenced graphic design. They pioneered production techniques and stylistic devices used throughout the twentieth century. The following years saw graphic design in the modern style gain widespread acceptance and application. The professional graphic design industry grew in parallel with
consumerism. This raised concerns and criticisms, notably from within the graphic design community with the
First Things First manifesto. First launched by
Ken Garland in 1964, it was re-published as the
First Things First 2000 manifesto in 1999 in the magazine
Emigre 51 stating "We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design." ==Applications==