Introduction
o Communication - An exchange or transmission of ideas, thoughts and messages
through a medium or a channel by a sender and a reciever
o The process of communication involves feedback which makes it a cycle.
o Media - As a Designer, responsible for what people see and need to know what works
best
o Channel - What you use to communicate
o Feedback - Understanding or perception of the reciever, Message from reciever to
sender, roles reversed
Phases of Communication and Origion
o Origion: word communicare - Latin for a group of people, community is also derived
from it
o Pre historic times
▪ Cave paintings
▪ Images
▪ Sounds
▪ Symbols and Gestures
▪ Example: Crying of child (Primal form)
▪ To indicate or communicate
▪ Earliest recorded civilizations - Indus valley, tamil or aryan
languages
▪ Egyptian & Papyrus , Hieroglyphs
Phases
o Video History of communication, stone age to modern age (watch and learn)
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxTUC5I22LU
o Methods in Medieval Age
▪ Fonts and Typography
▪ Bird communication
▪ Smoke signals or fire
▪ Printing press by Gutenburg
▪ Signages and iconography (common symbols)
▪ Political discussion and literacies improved once print culture
advanced, helped revolutionise communication
▪ Right before photography was invented.
▪ Mass communication through advertising such that production could
go forward
Graphic design and Communication
through history
http://shorturl.at/osAR3
o Correlation of Graphic design with history of communication
o Various milestones which became tools and technique much later
o Early forms: Heiroglyphics, Indus Valley civilisation, Sumerian forms Clay tablets
(Calculation purposes)
▪ Sumerian written language - 3300 - 3000 BCE
▪ Beeswax, clay etc was used
o Cave Paintings - 38000 BCE
▪ Animals, hand imprints, hunting, body
▪ Identity mark technique, still used.
o Chinese printing
▪ Block printing and Moveable dye exploration
▪ Non-papyrus paper making (Papyrus from Egyptian culture)
▪ Block printing on silk too
▪ Bi Sheng invented world's first movable printing press (But father
of printing press is Gutenburg)
o Calligraphy - 700s
▪ Means of keeping records
▪ Refined form of communication
▪ The better the higher priced
▪ Oral tradition - beginning or storytelling
▪ Story of great kings etc, seen as god\
▪ Repeating stories over and over again, characteristics of story
from narrator
▪ Often linked to religion (worshipping elements) - to make them
understand principles and behaviours or morality and easier
understanding in general
▪ Islamic culture came later where calligraphy was at its peek,
basis of typography and font marking
▪ Calligraphy moving towards typography
o European heraldry
▪ Coat of arms - used as a symbol to represent higher class family house
or territories, similar to famil crest or an emblem (had by royalty etc).
Navabs of Avadh (Capital of Lucknow) had fish as their symbol
▪ All important places and items had this symbol eg: weaponry
▪ Like first logo
o Signage
▪ Symbols in front of shops, often highlighted, easy to understand for
travellers etc
▪ Most couldnt read or write hence this
▪ Visual content is secondary to text now but opposite back then
▪ King Richard II made having signs mandatory
o Renaissance and Industrial era
▪ IR Gave rise to ads
▪ Learnt to put visual text together for portraying meaning better.
▪ Guttenberg press - 1439
▪ Revolutionised field
▪ Gave rise to logos
▪ First logos - 1400s
▪ Markings on documents belonging to officials, show off
printing skills
▪ First print - 1620s
▪ Ads for services
▪ Coranto - news bulletin or board, featured ads there
▪ Sponsorships technique started there
▪ Chromolithography - colour printing technique or adding colour
to text, including of illustrations not photography yet
o Modern Era
▪ 1800s to world war II
▪ 19th century for developing technologically and artistically
▪ Branding started
▪ Commerce was developng
▪ Wiener Werkstatte - first graphic design agency
▪ Contributions for design and style
▪ Bauhaus
▪ Create holistic or artworks that merge into one perfect
work, Gesamtkunstwerk, inspiration and synthesise into
your own works
▪ Actively influences even now
▪ Graphic design term came in 1992
▪ Paul Rand publishes Thoughts on Design, very relevant still. Early
logo development. Helped lead to its current state
▪ Digital Era 1950s
▪ Edgy style coming into logo design, according to style and era
at the time
▪ Photoshop came in 1990