Part 1 The Prologue of Graphic Design

What an interesting beginning to our area of study. The Part 1: Prologue to Graphic Design covered the visual message and techniques employed by man over time from the invention of writing and use of alphabets to streamline sounds into text. The Asian contribution utilized pictographs and artful written forms such as calligraphy, culminating in presenting the artful development of illuminated manuscripts which I believe where meant to transcend communication and deliver to its owner societal status. These chapters were all fascinating, and as I read through the chapter I thought how our need to communicate and the content or message has not changed very much over time, only the mode and method utilized.

Technical processes of communication have changed over the thousands of years since man and woman emerged from caves and created cities-states and the more structured civilizations that we have today. Today’s society has almost instantaneous communication between neighbors, citizens, governments, and countries as the likes of scanners and bar codes, social media, television, and the internet. The use of technological advancements to solve the same issue of exchanging information rather its business information, tax records, literary or history, or simply communicating with one’s loved ones. These are basic ties to our past.  Just as the use of reeds and brushes replaced sticks and paper replaced the use of clay tablets, the method of human communication has changed over the millenniums and will continue in the foreseeable future. A futurist may say the past is the best predictor of the future. We will need to continue to communicate with forms, symbols of sounds or thoughts or processes until such time some form of telepathy is used.  

In the past humans in many lands and cultures communicated to manage their society and improve their lifestyles. As with the invention of any tool, the creation of drawings and writing methods was born from the need to present one’s thoughts or ideas. Organized groups and varied civilizations created many forms and methods to communicate such as hieroglyphs, pictures that represented sounds, markings and alphabets to achieve their communications goals. 

In Megg’s Chapter One ¹, the reference to the counting of goats and sheep in picture 1.6 was interesting. I could see myself creating one of these clay tablets as I work in the accounting profession. The caption read “Archaic table fragment from the late fourth millennium BCE. The frilled hole denotes a number, and the pictographs represent animals in this transcription of sheep and goats”.

As societies and civilizations grew either organically or through expand trade and war, the need to expand on aspects that were present in society, such as commerce and taxes, lead to the creation of alphabets.  Alphabets were created in different forms to meet the needs of society. Initially a picture or jab of a reed in clay or on a parchment led to refinements that led to more simplistic written from.

I watch the crowd at Oracle all cheering on the GS Warriors. Most spectators are wearing yellow tees that communicate their support and emotional state of inclusion – the t-shirt has written on it “Strength in Numbers”. I imagine some Babylonian or Greek wearing a robe to a horse or wrestling event that indicates their support for a favorite. Another example I found in Megg’s Chapter 2 ² was about the discovery of writing on walls in Pompeii. The discovery was akin to modern day signage and graffiti. The archeologist discovered literary writings and crude obscenities.  The caption for the picture 2-20, it read “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.” I found interesting in this caption that the use of “billboards or wall painting”  were used, likely by professional, as well as the “tagger” or graffiti artist penning his art. Again the message unchanged, just the mode or process.

I think as we proceed through the course we will see many similarities between the content of human communication over time. The difference will be stylistic or in methodology or process, and the tools will be different such as digital computer or telecommunication-oriented like a smartphone and app.

 1. Phillip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis, Megg’s History of Graphic Design, 5^th Ed. (New Jersey: Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2012), Chapter 01, The Invention of Writing, pg. 8.

2. Phillip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis, Megg’s History of Graphic Design, 5^th Ed. (New Jersey: Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2012), Chapter 02, Alphabets, pg, 30.