Comprehensive Notes on Graphic Design History

Introduction to Graphic Design History

Sean Adams welcomes viewers to the Foundations of Graphic Design History.
Adams has studied and taught graphic design history for three decades.
He helped build and manage the AIGA Historical Archives, the world's largest collection of graphic design history.

Why Study Graphic Design History?

Visual Vocabulary: History provides a wide visual vocabulary, essential for designers.
A visual library of images stored in memory enhances a designer's toolbox.
Design Evolution: Design is not Darwinian; it doesn't necessarily improve over time.
Design reflects the culture and period in which it was created.

Course Overview

The course aims to provide a solid foundation in graphic design history.
Focuses on why designs look the way they do and the influences behind them.
Examples are chosen to be inspirational, sparking curiosity for deeper exploration.

The Victorian Era and the Industrial Revolution

Technological change was a driving force in the mid to late 19th century, similar to today.
New inventions transformed people's lives and work.
The rise of an industrial-based society significantly influenced Victorian design.

Before the Industrial Revolution

Most people made their own clothes or had them custom-sewn.
Household items were handmade, with no two items being identical.

Impact of Mass Manufacturing

New machines enabled mass production of identical items in large quantities.
Consumers gained choices among different products, like teapots and shirts.
Competition: Mass production led to competition among manufacturers.
Manufacturers sought ways to convince consumers to buy their products, leading to modern advertising and design.

Rise of Advertising

Manufacturers turned to posters, placards, and ads to attract consumers.
Simple notes on walls evolved into attention-grabbing advertisements.
New machines allowed for finer printing, enhancing creativity in advertising.

Victorian Advertising and Values

Victorian advertising reflected the values of the time, including:
- Clear class structure
- Sexual restraint
- Strict code of conduct
Britain was at the height of its Empire, with colonies worldwide.
Elaborate ornamentation and mixed styles from other cultures reinforced British colonial power.
Idealized nostalgia and moral goodness were common themes in images.
Coca-Cola Ad Example: A sentimental image represents the goodness of a Victorian woman, while ornate typography reflects upper-class values.

Optimism and Technological Innovation

Advertising conveyed optimism about new machines and industries transforming the world.
Science and industry were believed to be capable of solving problems like poverty, hunger, and disease.

Parallels to Today

Rapid technological change, similar to today's digital advancements, affected lifestyles and work.
New printing techniques and tools changed how designers worked, leading to new styles and solutions.
Macintosh Example: The introduction of the Macintosh in the 1980s impacted both the design process and the designs themselves.

Printing History

Hand-Drawn Manuscripts: For centuries, books and illuminated manuscripts were hand-drawn, typically by monks or scribes.
Each copy needed to be individually hand-drawn, making it a labor-intensive process.
$In 1450$ , Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press.

Gutenberg's Printing Press

Individual letters were molded from metal into slugs.
These slugs were combined to create paragraphs.
Ink was applied to the metal type, and paper was pressed onto the surface.
The process allowed for multiple copies to be made from the same metal type.
After printing, the type was disassembled and recombined for another page or paragraph.

19th-Century Advertising Needs

The Industrial Revolution increased the need for advertising and promotion.
Manufacturers needed to sell mass-produced goods.
Metal type worked well for books and posters with small type but had size limitations.
Large headline-size versions of metal type would break apart.
Solutions included using only small type or finding a new way to make large letter forms for printing.

Wood Type Solution

Darius Wells, an American printer, began making letter forms out of wood.
Printers could carve these letter forms as large as needed.
This innovation enabled the creation of big type for promoting events, leading to the American wood type poster.

American Wood Type Poster

Early wood type posters emulated the look of older metal type designs with elaborate ornaments and various fonts.
Large wood type was combined with smaller metal type.
Printing images was difficult, so printers relied on fanciful typefaces and multiple rules and dingbats to create energy.

Design Characteristics

The mashup of processes created complex and sometimes chaotic designs.
The handmade quality provided a sense of human touch, which feels warmer than some modern typography.
New technologies don't always replace old ones; letterpress printing with wood type is still popular today.

Contemporary Letterpress Printing

Companies like Hatch Show Print in Nashville are recognized for design excellence.
Many schools have built letterpress workshops.
Wood type and letterpress are economical for smaller quantities.
Applications include experimental work, limited edition books, and wedding invitations.

Resurgence of Handmade Techniques

As design became more digitally based over the last thirty years, there's been a return to handmade and organic forms.
Designers are again creating wood type posters using the printing technology of the 19th century.

The Belle Époque in Paris

Late 19th-century Paris was characterized by optimism and excitement.
Peace and prosperity led to more leisure time and expansion in the arts.
The Industrial Revolution created a need for advertising ordinary and luxury goods, and forms of entertainment.
This period is known as the Belle Époque or the Golden Age.

Advances in Printing Technologies

By the 1860s, new printing technologies allowed for the use of color and imagery with higher quality.
Jules Chéret expanded on typographic wood-type posters and is considered the father of the modern poster.
He moved away from type-only solutions, introducing illustrations and a painterly approach.

Jules Chéret's Innovations

Chéret's images conveyed a sense of frivolity and fun.
He used exaggerated lighting and energetic movement to communicate excitement and pleasure.
Many posters use a strong x-axis to maintain harmony.
Colors were carefully chosen to simulate artificial or stage lighting.
Sarah Bernhardt Poster Example: Blue is used on her face to simulate a stage-lit shadow, and Chéret integrated the typography into the image with hand-drawn and painted letter forms.

Depiction of Women

Chéret presented women in a new and modern way. They were called "chéries."
Previous depictions in posters and art were of prostitutes or holy figures.
Chéret's women showed the new attitudes in Paris in the 1890s; they had a less restrictive role.
Women were shown wearing lower-cut dresses, smoking, energetically dancing, and operating new machines like electric lamps.

Influence of Japanese Woodblock Prints

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was influenced by the flat forms and simplicity of Japanese woodblock prints.
He adopted Chéret's approach of an image-based poster but moved toward a flatter and simpler form.
Lautrec's posters also used theatrical lighting and dynamic movement to create excitement for entertainment events.

Toulouse-Lautrec's Style

Lautrec's posters integrated typography but with a looser style than Chéret's.
He used large expanses of negative space and implied form, similar to Japanese woodblock prints.
May Milton Example: He did not paint the detail of May Milton's dress; only a large area of white is shown, forcing the viewer to fill in the blanks.

Other Artists of the Time

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen shared Lautrec's splashy block art and Impressionism.
His poster, Le Chat Noir, mixes the solid shapes and high contrast of Lautrec's work with a tighter and less fluid form.

Overall Impact

The excitement and energy of this period in Paris allowed for an explosion of creativity and innovation.
Posters reflected the vitality of the era and the place.
The idea of an energetic, image-driven design replaced the informational and static posters from before.
Over a hundred years later, we expect posters to be dynamic and exciting; otherwise, they're just signs.

Reaction to Machine-Made Products

In the late 1800s, society was bombarded with machine-made products and inventions.
Factories aimed to make items that improved everyone's life.
The ideal was that class distinctions would disappear and a unified society would emerge.
The reality included crowded slums, increased urban pollution, bad quality products, child labor, and the decline of handmade items.

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was a style that sought to counter the negative effects of industrialization.
It was based on nature and an idealized agricultural medieval life.
Art Nouveau forms are typically fluid and flat, like Toulouse-Lautrec.
Japanese woodblock prints influenced the use of space, while plant life influenced the shapes.
Art Nouveau influenced architects, product designers, and furniture makers, not just graphic designers.
Candlesticks, chairs, and entrances to the Paris métro adopted the Art Nouveau aesthetic.

Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley was the "bad boy" of Art Nouveau.
He illustrated books and limited edition prints with grotesque and erotic subject matter.
His style was black and white with high contrast.
Shapes were fluid and derived from the natural world, including vines, peacocks, water, and flowers.
The Peacock Skirt Example: Drawn for an edition of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, these images shocked the British public.
Wilde was concerned that Beardsley's imagery would overshadow his words.

Illustrations for The Death of Arthur

Beardsley created a series of illustrations for Sir Thomas Malory's book, The Death of Arthur.
This work became Beardsley's best-known.
The subject matter is an idealized medieval Camelot.
Beardsley incorporated harder-edged borders and elements from illuminated manuscripts.

Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha's posters and illustrations for advertising shared Beardsley's fluid forms and idealized romantic past.
Mucha, however, incorporated color and complex patterns.
Illustrations were intended for large-scale posters rather than small books.
At poster size, the effect is hypnotic.
Mucha used Arabic and Byzantine decorative motifs for patterns, borders, and typography.

Commentary on Culture

Like Beardsley's connection to Camelot, Mucha used foreign forms to comment on the goodness of a more agrarian culture.

Parallels to Today's Reactions

We are in the midst of a similar reaction today with digital and technological advancements.
There is a contemporary movement towards organic forms, handmade production, and a reverence for pattern.
These ideas may seem radical to designers who only know the computer screen.

Overlapping Movements

Movements and styles tend to overlap or branch, as is the case with Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement.
They share similar principles and occurred around the same time but have different results.

Arts and Crafts Movement

William Morris is the acknowledged leader of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Like Art Nouveau artists, Morris rejected the Industrial Revolution's bad quality and lack of skilled workmanship.
His book design embraced the idea of the artist and worker coming together to make a unique object of beauty.

Book Design

Books of the Arts and Crafts movement were often printed on small presses with limited quantities.
The emphasis was on quality, not quantity.
Every part of the book was refined.
Reflected the importance of craft over mass production.

Romantic Period Inspiration

Looking back toward an imagined Romantic period, the work had intricate hand-drawn patterns based on natural forms.
The subject matters were sentimentalized and idealized, often focusing on Chaucer, knights, and medieval poetry.

Design Characteristics

Unlike Art Nouveau, the designers working with an Arts and Crafts approach filled the negative space with pattern and decoration.
This relates more to illuminated manuscripts before the invention of the printing press than to Japanese woodblock art.

Renaissance of Book Design

The Arts and Crafts movement launched a renaissance of book design.
The quality and manufacturing of books were in a dismal state as the publishing industry looked to cheaper ways to manufacture.
Appreciation for book arts spread from Europe to the US, sparking an interest in small presses and limited editions.

Architectural Influence

Architects such as Greene and Greene and Frank Lloyd Wright adopted many ideas and transformed them into building concepts.
Fine handmade woodwork, stained glass, and a connection to natural elements are all part of an Arts and Crafts building.

Lasting Effects

One of the most lasting effects of the Arts and Crafts movement is the commitment of design to quality.
The movement prevented a slow slide into fast, cheap, and low quality as an accepted fact.
Today, good designers and printers strive to create the highest quality product, obsessing over every detail.

New Approaches at the Turn of the Century

By the turn of the 20th century, young artists looked beyond the complex forms of Victorian design, Art Nouveau, and Arts and Crafts.
New ideas were about fresh approaches.
Medieval poetry and complex patterns had no place in this brave new world.

Lucien Bernhard and Plakatstil

Lucien Bernhard, at 15, attended an exhibition that moved away from drab tones and clutter of the Victorian era.
Bernhardt's poster for Priester matches is a perfect example of minimal design.
He removed dancing girls, a cigar table, and a tablecloth to get to the core of the communication, which was simply matches.

Beginning of Modern Graphic Design

The Priester poster is the beginning of modern graphic design.
It relies on symbols and shapes to promote an idea rather than literal illustration.
This school of work is known as Plakatstil or poster style.
Other German artists, such as Ludwig Hohlwein, explored simple shapes and minimal decoration.

Design Principles

The use of implied form with negative space encourages viewer engagement and memory retention.
Typography was created by hand as part of the illustration and was also reduced to the most basic message.
Strong, vivid colors, abstract and flat pattern, and a rejection of anything decorative are the hallmarks of the German poster movement.

Modern Corporate Identity

These artists were the first to work with modern corporate identity.
The idea of a simple logo can be traced back to the Priester poster.
Minimal posters and the basic concept of "less is more" gathered momentum.

Interruption by World War I

The movement was derailed in 1914 by World War I.

World War I and Propaganda

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 triggered World War I.
Countries needed to promote their message for recruiting volunteers, rallying troops, and convincing the public of their cause.
Posters became the primary tool for war propaganda due to new cost-efficient printing technologies.

Government Commissions

British, French, and American governments commissioned work that favored realism and traditional images.

British Posters

British posters often questioned a man's masculinity if he did not enlist.
Others appealed to a man's sense of honor for the women of Britain.

American Posters

American posters used images such as Uncle Sam and the American flag for patriotism.
Four million copies of James Montgomery Flagg's "I Want You" poster were printed and distributed.
American posters were direct and straightforward.
Recruiting posters promised adventure and excitement overseas.

German Posters

German posters continued to use the simplified Plakatstil approach.
Simple symbols and typography communicated messages of strength and victory.

Hans Rudi Erdt's Poster

Hans Rudi Erdt's poster for the film "U-Boat" uses the simplified form of a sans-serif U to frame the abstract figure of a U-boat commander.
The poster integrates image and text into one message.
Other posters appealed to Germany's medieval past and the honor of the country.
The abstraction and lack of realism had little emotional impact.

Impact of Design

The era of World War I was the first time that the power of design was used effectively on a mass scale.
These posters did the job of radio, television, and the internet combined.

Russian Revolution and Constructivism

The way we approach graphic design today originated during the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Russians fought against the Germans during World War I.
The ruling classes had oppressed the population, who lived in poverty.
Conditions in the cities were horrible, and diseases were widespread.
World War I led to food shortages and inflation.
The Russian army abandoned the war, and the Soviet state was born.

Welcome of Radical Ideas

Designers with radical new ideas were welcomed into the movement.
Over the next two decades, they created Constructivist work.
They rejected personal expression in fine art and viewed decorative ornamental design as symbols of the aristocracy.
They created a new style and were determined to speak to the masses.

Design Elements

Gustave Klutsis's poster "Five-Year Plan" is geometric and bold, using the symbol of a hand and simple shapes to convey a message.
Elements are turned on an angle to suggest forward movement and energy.
The red background celebrates the Soviet flag.

Soviet Leadership Goals

The Soviet leadership aimed to create equality, remove the aristocracy, and enable industrialization.

Rejection of the Handmade

The handmade was rejected in favor of machine-made forms.
El Lissitzky's poster "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge" symbolizes the Bolsheviks penetrating their opponents during the Russian Civil War.

Photography vs Illustration

Photography replaced illustration as a mechanical process.
Photography celebrated the machine and the industrial, while illustration represented self-expression, which the Constructivists rejected.

Functionality

Constructivists believed that disciplines such as drawing, painting, and traditional graphic design were obsolete.
They integrated photomontage and overprinting.
Graphic design was not a form of art; there was no room for personal expression.
It was a collective discipline, on a level with industrial manufacturing.

Shift in Focus

The result was a shift toward the function of something rather than simply the aesthetics.
Simple tabs to denote sections in a publication were new functional tools.

Demanding Realism

By the late 1920s, the Soviet political structure moved away from abstract forms and photomontage.
Constructivists were viewed as radical intellectuals,
The government demanded design be realistic and not abstract.
Many designers left Russia for Germany and the United States.

Legacy of Constructivism

The influence of the Constructivists is seen in graphic design stylistically but also conceptually.
Functionalism designed for the common man, abstract geometric symbols, and a preference for photography are their strongest legacy.

Futurism

There was a chaotic combination of new inventions, technologies, and a shift from an agrarian lifestyle to an urban culture.
Some people wanted to hold onto old traditions, while others didn't think changes were fast enough.
In 1909, in Italy, Filippo Marinetti formed a group called the Futurists, who wanted rapid change.

Rejection of Tradition

The Futurists rejected the traditional approach to art and design entirely.
They wanted to celebrate the components of the new industrial society: speed, machines, war, and revolution.
The work used typography, energetic forms, and chaotic composition.

Marinetti's Ideals

Marinetti wasn't interested in working within the confines of society; he wanted radical and violent change.
He demanded, "We will destroy museums."
The Futurists hated harmony in classical forms.

Design Characteristics

Futurists created work that treated typography as painting, energetic and illegible, like a speeding automobile or train.
Typography was to be expressive and dynamic; energy was the top priority.
The Futurists collaged elements from different sources together.

End of the Movement

The Futurist movement was over by 1918.
Most of the Futurists revered war, violence, and the destruction of the old, enlisting when World War I began.
By the end of the war, very few were alive.

Dada Movement

In 1915, in Switzerland, a different group of artists and designers gathered in opposition to World War I.
They were pacifists and responded to the horrors of war by creating the Dada movement.
Dada rejected reason and logic; they were interested in nonsense, irrationality, and intuition.
The source of the name Dada is believed to be a nonsensical word.
These designers and artists worked to shock the bourgeois or middle-class population; they made anti-art.
The Dada manifesto promised the abolition of logic, social hierarchies, memory, and the future.
Work was random and improvised.
The typography was often random or used elements of Dada poetry.

End of the Movement and Legacy

By World War II, the Dada movement died out.
Designers and artists shifted towards ideas such as surrealism or modernism.
Many were killed in Hitler's concentration camps, categorized as degenerate artists.

Change in Typography

Both the Futurist and Dada movements changed the way we look at typography.
Type was not simply a choice of a legible typeface or a way to decorate a poster; it was a picture of a word.
Typography could be expressive and dynamic or used solely as a compositional element.

Relevance Today

Today, every time we choose a typeface as a way to communicate a tone or idea, we are referencing the Futurists and Dada movement.

De Stijl

The Futurists and Constructivists wanted to destroy the old world and create a new one based on the machine, industry, and socialism.
The leaders of De Stijl, or the style in Dutch, also rejected the traditions they believed caused World War I.
They wanted to rebuild the world with an approach that merged math and harmony.

Philosophy

In 1917, a group of artists, architects, and designers came together in the Netherlands to create the movement.
Its leader, Theo van Doesburg, wrote, "The old is connected with the individual; the new is connected with the universal."
Abstract geometry based on mathematical proportions are universal forms and could not be related to any nation or political regime.

Connections to Dutch Values

Rational minimalism is related to Dutch values of Calvinism and discipline.

Design Characteristics

Designers hoped to create solutions that spoke to everyone and lost any sense of national or personal identity.
Austerity and purity drove much of the graphic design and typography.
Invitations, announcements, and magazines used sans-serif fonts and large amounts of white space.
Designers used only the color palette of black, white, and primary colors.
These were pure and universal, as opposed to more complex colors.
Van Doesburg designed a font with no sign of individual personality. Letter forms are made of square shapes, dispensing with curves or extra elements.

Dissolution of the Movement

The severe approach proved difficult to maintain.
As the movement matured, small allowances were made, such as using a 45-degree angle.
This new direction caused an enormous rift in the group, and by 1924, the group disbanded.

Legacy

One of the greatest legacies of De Stijl is working across many forms of design.
It was a utopian philosophy that was about the human condition, society, and our ability to live together in a peaceful and harmonious culture.
The approach was intended for graphic design, architecture, products, and fine art.

The Bauhaus

Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919, aiming to create a better society and way of life through design.
He sought a return to a medieval time when artists and craftsmen worked as one.
The tenets of the Bauhaus created a style that would dominate, focusing on high quality, minimal ornament, material honesty, and function.

Principles

The Bauhaus combined artistry with industrial civilization.
Design would create a new society and a better way of life. He sought to return an earlier medieval time when artists and craftsmen worked as one.
These tenets of the Bauhaus created a style that would dominate the 20th century. They are the central ideas of modernism:
A designer should strive for the highest quality and craftsmanship. Perfect geometric forms and highly refined typography.
Less is more: ornament was corrupt and unnecessary.
Work should be true to its materials: wood should look like wood, steel should look like steel.
Form follows function: the design of something should be functional, never decorative. Good design, manufactured with mass production, ensured equality and harmony.

Design Characteristics

The Bauhaus building at Dessau is machine for education.
Graphic design at the Bauhaus was minimal and lacked any unnecessary decoration or elements.
The Bauhaus was the central point where the old world ended and the new world began.
The principles of Bauhaus modernism remain influential today.

Emphasis on Typography

Graphic design of the Bauhaus focused on typography, shape, and color.
Professors integrated the tenets of modernism into classes and workshops in product design, furniture making, and architecture.
Typography was one of the Bauhaus’s greatest legacies.
Typography was based on rational and mathematical systems; grids and the golden section were part of each solution.
A designer should strive for the highest quality and craftsmanship.
Good design, manufactured with mass production, ensured equality and harmony.

Photography

Design solutions favored photography again due to its realism.
László Moholy-Nagy introduced experimental photography. Unusual points of view, montage, and darkroom techniques.
This enhanced the design work, adding dynamic energy. The result was a shift to a cinematic approach, placing cameras from bird’s eye view or ground-up.

Color Theory

Color at the Bauhaus followed the ideas of the De Stijl movement. Black, white, and primary colors were universal.
Professors Johannes Itten and Paul Klee taught foundation classes in color and shape. The exercises they invented are used by most design courses today.

Closure and Legacy

In 1932, the Nazi Party shut the school down and deemed their work Bolshevik.
The students dispersed, and many of the teachers migrated to the United States, sparking a revolution in design.
Companies like Design Within Reach, Crate and Barrel, and Target use the Bauhaus values as core values and marketing messages.
The Bauhaus also left designers and the masses with a new philosophy about design.
Design should be the best quality and aesthetically beautiful.
Graphic design is clear and legible and to make life better.

Jan Tschichold and Die Neue Typographie

Jan Tschichold was influenced by the Bauhaus and published "Die neue Typographie."
The book promoted asymmetry, sans-serif fonts, and rejected degenerate typography.
Following the Bauhaus, Tschichold believed typography shouldn't be decorative for clarity.
Typography should be asymmetrical, dynamic, and energetic, mirroring modern world.
Proportions were tied to the golden section adding beauty and harmony.

Characteristics New Typography

Sans-serif fonts are essential aspect of typography and should incorporate a set of weight and sizes.
Assymetrical layouts enhance better messaging.
Photography used to clearly represent subjects with black/white and red/yellow used for hierarchy.

During Nazi Germany

In 1933, Nazis arrested Tschichold and his family for creating Bolshevik work and moved to Switzerland.
In 1946, he belived designers should now incoroprate classic typography.
Objective of the new typography was clarity, not decoration - rule for typography.

A. M. Cassandre

Due to the fact that France wasnt largely devasted by WW1, Luxury goods continued to have a strong market leading to advertising
A. M. Cassandre a Ukraian immigrant borrowed from each movement to create graphic posters that showed luxury cruises and products.
Cassandre used minimal geometry - grid poster not as realistic
Desginers and Posters
Designers are influenced through moving in moving train and cars and were designed to advertise through these transportation means. This lead to a heart of commercial advertisiing with strong colours and tones that excite the consumer.

Connection in the US

In the US everything connected to commerce and oil
Boom in advertising innovation of magazine advertisement in depression
Joseph Binder used fortune and geometry to illustrate magazines with photograph, graphic, etc.

Designers

Joseph Binder Cover Fortune magazine
Sepi Pineles- vogue and 17
- -Alex Brodovitxh - Harper 1930s who had a fan for Cassandra used striking covers through photograph
  lack of image on poster made the magazine have weakness as magazine layout
Brodoritvh moved the tradition of magazine through a more dynamic photograph layout that had the idea to concile and set up aspects of a layout.

New design program and artists

US governtment wanted to present a non elites way to implement imagery that would highlight exhibitions and travel. (Franklin Rosevelt work progress administration).
Lester Beall poster utilized the geometry WPA convince people to dopt electricity.