MMA0001

HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

THE PROLOGUE TO
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Alphabets
Alphabets
The subsequent invention of
the alphabet (a word derived
from the first two letters of
the Greek alphabet, alpha
and beta) . was a major step
forward in human
communications.
alpha beta
Alphabets

An alphabet is a set of visual

symbols or characters used to
represent the elementary
sounds of a spoken language.

alpha beta
Alphabets
Cretan Pictographs
Cretan Pictographs
One of the most interesting and
perplexing relics of the Minoan
civilization is the Phaistos Disk,
which was unearthed on Crete in
1908.

The Phaistos Disk, undated. The 241 signs include a man in

a plumed headdress, a hatchet, an eagle, a carpenter’s
square, an animal skin, and a vase.
The North Semitic Alphabet
The North Semitic Alphabet
Because the earliest surviving
examples are from ancient
Phoenicia, a culture on the
western shores of the
Mediterranean Sea in what is now
Lebanon and parts of Syria and
Israel, these early scripts are often
called the Phoenician alphabet.
The North Semitic Alphabet
Ras Shamra script,
c. 1500 BCE. Used
for bureaucratic and
commercial
documents and for
myths and legends,
the Ras Shamra
script, which
reduces cuneiform
to a mere thirty two
characters, was only
recently unearthed
in the ruins of the
ancient city of
Ugarit.
The North Semitic Alphabet

• Sui generis, a writing script developed in Byblos, the

oldest Phoenician city-state, used pictographic signs devoid
of any remaining pictorial meaning.
The Aramaic Alphabet And Its
Descendants
The Aramaic Alphabet and its Descendants

Die Hebräische Schrift (The

Hebrew Script), type
specimen, H. Berthold AG,
Berlin, Leipzig, Stuttgart,
Vienna, Riga, 1924. The
The gestural curves of graphic forms of the
the Aramaic alphabet Hebrew alphabet are
evolved into the Hebrew squared, bold letters
and Arabic alphabets. whose horizontal strokes
are thicker than their
vertical strokes.
The Aramaic Alphabet and its Descendants

• This language and writing became dominant throughout

the Near East.
• Examples have been found in Afghanistan, Egypt, Greece,
and India.
• It is the predecessor of hundreds of scripts, including
two major alphabets used today: modern Hebrew and
Arabic.
The Aramaic Alphabet and its Descendants

Giambattista Bodoni, page from

Manuale tipografi co, 1818. Arabic type
specimen
Gujarati Type Foundry, Bombay. 1930.
Indian Sanskrit type.
The Greek Alphabet
The Greek Alphabet

• The Phoenician alphabet

was adopted by the
ancient Greeks and
spread through their city-
states around 1000 BCE.
Bronze Archaic Greek votive miniature
chariot wheel, c. 525–500 BCE. A
dedication to Apollo is legible through
the medium-green patina of this metal
wheel, 16 centimeters (6 inches) in
diameter, used for worship.
The Greek Alphabet

Giambattista Bodoni, page from

Manuale tipografi co, 1818. Arabic type
Timotheus, The Persians, papyrus
manuscript, fourth century BCE. This
excellent example of the Greek
alphabet shows the symmetrical form
and even visual rhythm that evolved.
These qualities made the Greek
alphabet the prototype for subsequent
developments. specimen Gujarati Type
Foundry, Bombay. 1930. Indian Sanskrit
type.
The Greek Alphabet

As early as the second century CE,

the Greeks developed a more
rounded writing style called uncials.
Greek wooden tablet with
uncials, 326 CE. The
rounded uncials allowed
an A to be made with two
strokes instead of three,
and an E to be made with
three strokes instead of
four.
The Greek Alphabet
• Greeks adopted the
Phoenician style of
writing from right to left.
Later they developed a
writing method called
boustrophedon, from
words meaning “to plow
a field with an ox,” for
every other line reads in
the opposite direction.
The Greek Alphabet

Greek allotment tokens, c. 450–430 BCE. In the Greek city state, some public
officials were elected and others were selected by lot. These tokens were
used in the selection process.

Greek juror’s ballots, fourth century BCE. A juror voted “not guilty” with a
Greek scaraboid seal depicting Hermes, messenger of the ballot having a solid hub. A hollow-hubbed ballot was used to cast a
gods. Archaic period, 550–500 BCE. “guilty” vote.
The Latin Alphabet
The Latin Alphabet

• 750 BCE Rome existed as a humble village

on the Tiber River in central Italy.
• By the first century CE the Roman Empire
stretched from the British Isles in the
north to Egypt in the south, and from the
Etruscan Bucchero
Iberian Peninsula in the west to the vase, seventh or
sixth century BCE.
A prototype of an
Persian Gulf educational toy,
this rooster shaped
toy jug is inscribed
with the Etruscan
alphabet.
The Latin Alphabet

• The Latin alphabet came to the Romans from Greece by way of

the ancient Etruscans
• After the letter G was designed by one Spurius Carvilius (c. 250
BCE) to replace the Greek letter Z (zeta)
• the Greek letters Y and Z were added to the end of the Latin
alphabet because the Romans were appropriating Greek words
containing these sounds.
The Latin Alphabet

• The J is an outgrowth of I, which was lengthened in

fourteenth-century manuscripts to indicate use with
consonant force, particularly as the first letter of some
words.
• Both U and W are variants of V, which was used for two
different sounds in medieval England.
The Latin Alphabet
• At the beginning of the tenth century, U was designed to
represent the soft vowel sound in contrast to the harder
consonant sound of V.
• The W began as a ligature, which is a joining of two letters. In
twelfth-century England two V letterforms were joined into VV
to represent “double U.”
 The Latin Alphabet

The simple geometric lines of

the capitalis monumentalis
(monumental capitals) were
drawn in thick and thin strokes,
Carved inscription from the base of Trajan’s Column, c. 114 CE with organically unified straight
Located in Trajan’s Forum in Rome, this masterful example of
capitalis monumentalis (monumental capitals) gives silent testimony and curved lines
to the ancient Roman dictum “the written word remains.” The
controlled brush drawing of the forms on the stone combines with
the precision of the stonemason’s craft to create letterforms of
majestic proportion and harmonious form.
The Latin Alphabet

Capitalis quadrata Capitalis rustica (rustic

(square capitals) rom a manuscript, capitals) from a manuscript, Vergil, c.
Vergil, c. 400 CE. The flat pen held at an 400 CE. The flat nibbed pen was held in
angle produced thick and thin strokes an almost vertical position, creating a
and serifs. staccato rhythm of thin verticals
contrasting with elliptical round and
arched diagonal strokes.
The Latin Alphabet

Wall writing from Pompeii,

first century CE. Over sixteen
hundred messages ranging
from passages from Vergil to
crude obscenities were
preserved under more than
3.6 meters (12 feet) of
volcanic ash.
The Latin Alphabet

The codex, a revolutionary

design format, began to
supplant the scroll (called a
rotulus) in Rome and Greece,
beginning about the time of
Christ.
The Latin Alphabet

• During the rise of Christianity, from about 1 CE until about 400 CE,
scrolls and codices were used concurrently. The durability and
permanence of the codex appealed to Christians because their
writings were considered sacred. Traditionally, pagan writings were on
scrolls.
• Graphic format thereby became a symbol of religious belief during the
late decades of the Roman Empire.
The Latin Alphabet

In 325 CE, Emperor Constantine moved the capital from

Rome to the Greek town of Byzantium (later renamed
Constantinople), located astride the mouth of the Black Sea.
The Korean Alphabet
The Korean Alphabet

• The Korean monarch Sejong (1397–1450 CE) introduced

Hangul, the Korean alphabet, by royal decree in 1446.
• Hangul is one of the most scientific writing systems ever
invented.
• Koreans were using the complex Chinese characters for their
written language.
The Korean Alphabet

• Fourteen consonants are represented by abstract

depictions of the position of the mouth and tongue
when they are spoken, and these are placed in five
groups of related sounds.
• Ten vowels are signified by dots positioned next to
horizontal or vertical lines.
• The vertical line symbolizes a person,
• The horizontal line signifies the earth,
• and the round dot is seen as a symbol of heaven.
 The Korean Alphabet
The Hangul alphabet is not written
in a linear sequence in the manner
of Greek and Roman alphabets;
rather, letters are combined within
an imaginary rectangle to form
syllabic blocks.
Korean woodblock book translation, c. eighteenth century, of
The Interpretation of Mencius’s Theory by Liu Chunji (1607–
1675). Reading from right to left and top to bottom, single
Chinese symbols are followed by Korean alphabetic translations.
Reference

Meggs, Philip B. (2012) Meggs’ History of graphic design / Philip B. Meggs, Alston W. Purvis. --
5th ed.

Slide 9: https://www.bible-history.com/past/phoenician_ships.html
Slide 19: https://etyman.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/boustrophedon-plough.jpg