A Deep Dive into Graphic Design History and Art Styles
History of Graphic Design
Humans have always had the need to communicate with their peers, so much so that we can say that if man is the more advanced in nature, it is largely due to the facility he has had to involve others in their ideas in one form or another.
The first forms of communication were by visual elements. Before they developed capacities for expression through speech, men used their bodies to communicate to others their moods, desires, and concerns through gestures, expressions, and signs, which eventually acquired the status of “language” to become models of communication.
Although subsequently spoken language should become the medium of exchange for more direct information, the visual language continued to have an important weight in communication, especially from the use of different materials and media as a means of translating visual messages, as drawings show. Many rock and cave paintings that have survived to our days represent natural elements, daily activities, and various artificial signs with meaning.
The graphical representation of ideas experienced its biggest gain with the emergence of written languages, which allowed structured chains of thoughts expressed by a set of graphical elements of meaning itself arranged in a defined structure, capable of transmitting messages understandable by the community.
These written languages were based either on the representation of elements taken from nature, which were assigned a particular interpretation, or in an artificial collection of invented symbols, alphabets. Each of these signs alone was sometimes of uncertain meaning, but together with others, they allowed for the graphical representation of the language spoken by each people or culture.
Etched in Stone with Hieroglyphs (Egypt)
As hardware, stone was used initially, but soon other types of materials were found that allowed greater ease of use and portability, such as papyrus or parchment.
Papyrus of the Dead
Different types of natural pigments also began to be used to give a more colorful and expressive quality to written works for artistic compositions, and to have different text and graphic elements in a harmonious and balanced manner, which showed that this made its communicative power, clarity, and beauty. This can be seen in the making of the medieval incunabula made in monasteries, in which the importance of “form” (design) to convey a message is clearly shown.
Medieval Incunabula
In the Middle Ages, Christianity used the plot as the most effective basic communication. Using the ability of anonymous designers, it produced a graphic image policy that goes from the ingenuity of the catacombs to the splendor of Byzantium.
- Anonymous. Monogram of Christ.
- Charlemagne: personal monogram.
It can be argued that graphic communications for specific purposes have their origin in the Paleolithic cave paintings and the birth of written language in the third millennium BC. But differences in working methods, science, and training aids required are such that you cannot clearly identify the current graphic designer with prehistoric man, with the XV-century xylograph, or the lithographer of 1890.
The diversity of views reflects the fact that some see graphic design as any graphic expression, and others see as a product of graphic design only those that arise as a result of the implementation of a model of industrial production, that is, those visual events that have been “designed” looking at needs of different types: productive, symbolic, ergonomic, contextual, etc.
Background
A page from the Book of Kells: Folio 114, decorated with text containing the Tunc dicit illis. An example of art and page layout of the Middle Ages.
The Book of Kells, a lavishly illustrated manuscript Bible produced by Irish monks in the ninth century CE, is for some a very beautiful early example of graphic design concept. For others, it is a graphic manifestation of great artistic value, high quality, and even a model for how to design. It even surpasses in quality many of today’s editorials. However, it will not be a graphic design product because its design does not conform to the graphic design project.
The history of typography, and transitively, also the history of the book, is closely tied to graphic design, and this may be because there are virtually no graphics that do not include graphical elements of this type. Hence, when talking about the history of graphic design, typography is also quoted: the Trajan column, the medieval miniatures, Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press, the evolution of the book industry, the posters of Paris, the Arts and Crafts Movement, William Morris, Bauhaus, etc.
The introduction of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg made books cheaper to produce and facilitated their dissemination. Early printed books (incunabula) marked the model until the twentieth century. The graphic design of this era has become known as Old Style (especially the typefaces which these early typographers used), or Humanist, due to the predominant philosophical school of the time.
Greek Art
Flourished between the seventh and II BC in Greece and other Mediterranean lands inhabited by Greeks. It is characterized by its aesthetic idealism, proportionality, balance of elements, and reflection of its interest in genuine expression in the human figure. Hence, it developed great perfection in drawing. Athletics, so cultivated by these people, gave the artists their best models. Simplicity, rhythm, clarity, and unity dominate all art forms, so the Greeks achieved their greatest achievements in ceramics, sculpture, and architecture.
Greek art begins around the V and IV centuries. It was characterized by giving their work a greater sense of proportionality, expressing harmony and balance of elements, and reflecting a genuine expression of humanism. Greece is a small peninsula in southeastern Europe. But in this small country were the first ideas that shaped Western culture, so that our knowledge and ways of thinking are a consequence of the philosophy, science, and art of the Greeks.
Architecture
In Greek architecture, neither the arch nor the vault was used. The supportive element of his monumental works were the columns. The construction system used was the lintel. They stand in hierarchical order: the temples as leading exponents, then the theaters, the Acropolis, the Propylaea, stadiums, gyms and arenas, the agora, and funerary monuments. The different types and shapes of columns gave rise to the famous Greek architectural orders: Doric, Ionian, and Corinthian.
Materials Used
The Greeks used marble preferentially, which is carefully polished. They also used stone.
Sculpture
Greek sculpture is not subject either to rules or conventions. The sculptor has freedom of expression. However, she seeks and manages all human perfection, so it is a sculpture dedicated to the exaltation of physical strength, the perfection of features, movement, and expression of divinity. Its central theme revolves around the human figure. Greek sculpture goes through 3 times or periods of evolutionary stages, with its own characteristics in each. These are:
- Archaic: It is characterized as an era in which the sculptors are looking for their own style and technique. The female and male appear. These figures were early hieratic type, without motion, but then came ideas of movement, the arms come off the body, and the face expressed a curious smile. The sculptures were made as offerings to the athletes. From this period are: The Kouros of Anavyssos (athlete), the Lady of Auxerre or Xoana (maiden dressed), the head of the knight Rampi, etc.
- Classic: This time period marked the peak in all artistic and literary forms. The sculptors achieve the perfection of their techniques, and the best pieces of sculpture, where we observe the magnificence of the human figure. This time is divided into 2 periods: the Sublime style, in which Myron, Phidias, and Polyclitus stand out as sculptors, and the Beautiful style, highlighting Scopas, Praxiteles, and Lisipo. Both styles have their own characteristics.
- Hellenistic: This time corresponds to the end of Greek art. Works of this time follow the previous models, perfecting them, showing a great ability to perform. The figure of the child enters as a subject. The sculpture takes on a monumental character, overlooking the picturesque, the grotesque, the episodic, etc. The portrait becomes the foreground. During this period different schools arise, among the most important: the School of Pergamon, Rhodes, and Alexandria.
Painting
Very little is known of the Greek painters. However, if the mastery of knowledge is manifest in the amazing effects of realism they knew, produced by descriptions of some paintings. But his work has lost almost all, and what’s left are copies and fragments that do not give a clear idea of what that painting was. They are: Polygnotus, Apollodorus of Athens, Agatarco of Samos, Zeuxis, Parrasio, and Apelles.
Pottery
This is in the minor arts the best and most varied expression as far as decoration and painting are concerned. This variety gives a very complete development of its culture. With a style and techniques, it is characterized by varied and original ways, dominated the geometric elements arranged in stripes, in shades of clay, from yellow to gray-brown. It presents figures in red on a black or red background and figures in black, with dominant animal and human forms.
Art in Rome
It follows from the Etruscan and Greek influence and reached its peak in the Empire. Developed in Italy from 200 BC until the fourth century BC, some consider it inferior to Greek art, but in reality, it was more varied, more flexible, and in some respects, is closer to modern art. Well, its influence on the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was remarkable. It presents its greatest achievements in the development of architecture. Hence, drawing and painting are made at this service, dominating the wall. The subjects were military affairs, erotic, heroic legends, landscapes, seascapes, still life, and portraiture. From the first century, there are two pictorial trends or styles: Neo-Attic style, which is concerned with the human form, highlighting issues of mythology and epic, and Hellenistic-Alexandria style, which shows concern for rural paint, cultivated landscape, and marine. At the start of the second century to 79 of our time (painting in Pompeii), there are four styles: embedding, Alexandrian or architectural, ornamental, and fantasy.
Rome was a village of farmers, traders, and warriors. The Romans showed more interest in things artistic practices and always wore a label utilitarian. Dominating people, founder of a vast empire, the Roman main concern was to maintain dominance over the colonized territories, for which mobilized powerful armies, gave birth to a dense body of law that tightened the ties between the metropolis and the provinces, and developed a gigantic work constructively with a diverse repertoire of architectural forms perfectly adapted to its purpose. His two great achievements were the law and architecture, but its chief merit is to have extended over a vast Greco-Roman civilization of the known world.
Architecture
The purpose is utilitarian, is conceived in terms of the private and public. It expresses the will to power and control of the Roman state, which stands as president of the private and public life of their citizens. It is monumental, made thinking about the glorification of Rome and to stand the test of time and weight. More than beauty, it looks for the majesty and ruggedness, as shown in heavy solid masses. It expresses the ideal of uniformity of the Empire, which aims to all peoples under its rule the material to assume a face image of the City. It alternates between two known systems: the column and lintel (copied from the Greeks), and the arch and vault (taken from the Etruscans). Its main attractions were: the temple, the basilica, the baths, theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, etc.
Sculpture
Moves between the opposite poles of idealism and realism and almost the central theme is the portrait. In the beginning, Etruscan influence is present in some bronzes, then Greek influence through the Hellenistic sculptors living in Rome or in Magna Graecia, as well as works on Greek soil discovered and brought to Rome, drives ideal current. The clash of these two tendencies can be seen in works of the republican period.
Main Features
- Created a utility target is met in its narrative function, honorary or descriptive.
- More than an art is a craft subject to religious requirements honorary or memorial.
- Portrait preferably grown at its highest identification with the model.
- It is a naturalistic art.
- It is an anonymous work.
Painting
We know through the frescoes found in the city of Pompeii, which are usually copies or whims of Greek decorative grace picaresque as cupids, birds, ribbons, flowers, etc. The subjects are historical, mythological landscapes, and sailors. Also, at certain times it was an architectural paint, which mimics the construction elements. The interesting thing about Roman painting is the technique of spot colors in tempera, applied with loose brush strokes, without details, in an impressionist and gimmicky way of shadow and light touches. Also in the realistic painting dominates the taste, so the favorite subjects are portraits, caricatures, and landscape.
Romanesque Art
Between the XI and XIII centuries, that is, during the period known as the late Middle Ages in Europe, there is an art form that is given the name of Romanesque. This name refers to the source where it has its origin, which is the art of Rome, Roman art, which takes types of buildings and construction techniques. This style or Romanesque art has been called because of the similarity to the word romance, which designates the languages derived from Latin.
Architecture
A religious architecture, monastic building, because they are the monasteries and convents that drive it. Your type is the church building. It expresses the ideal of austerity and devotion, discipline, and penance. From the technical point of view, it belongs to the arch and dome architecture, because these are their basic functional elements. It looks sturdy and heavy. The principle of lift is static, it faces mass against weight. Exterior features a sober, bare walls and plain, interrupted by nothing more than reinforcing elements, which are embodied in the structure. Other building elements: buttress, columns, pillars, domes.
Sculpture
It is subordinate to architecture, which determines the places and spaces to be covered with reliefs and statues. Its purpose is not didactic but artistic: to make known to the faithful the truths and sacred figures for religious instruction. Stylization and exaggeration: the figures do not keep the natural proportions. It also lacks the proper perspective or the list of sizes that is due to the different depths to which are the figures. In the reliefs, the difference in size means the importance of character. Symmetrical composition: the scenes are made, keeping a symmetrical relationship. In the eardrums, the composition has always revolved around the figure of Christ.
Painting
The painting is a remarkable development Romanesque because the vast expanses of flat wall were appropriate to the paintings. Hence, also the painting was an art subordinate to construction. The lack of perspective, flat colors, symmetrical composition, the rigidity of the figures, and the blankness of the faces, which always show her astonished look, try a definite Eastern influence through the art of Byzantium. The technique used is that of Fresco, notable examples are the Catalan Romanesque churches of lucent colors and abstract patterns of symbolic meaning, and Italian churches, where he painted religious scenes and show some commitment to copy nature faithfully.