The first known visual communication, with pictographs and symbols in the Lascaux Caves in southern France. These pictures were drawn on a very "warm surface" with many yellow and red colors.
The Blau Monument -- 3600 BCE
The Blau Monument is the oldest artifact known to combine words and pictures. This was carved on a rock is ancient Egypt. The details indicate a man and a women looking at each other with a lot of different symbols all over it.
Invention of Paper -- 105 CE
Chinese government official Tsiai Lun or Cai Lun credited with inventing paper. The paper was still white just as it is today, and it looks like they used the elements of art to make the picture "whole" The graphic on the paper almost looks like a comic book or a graphic novel.
Movable Type -- 1045 CE
Pi Sheng invents movable type, allowing for characters to be individually placed for printing. The movable type was probably the biggest invention ever created. It pushed society to be more modern and more educated. The pictures show books that have been pressed with a movable type. This led to mass production of books.
Printing Arrives In Europe -- 1276
Printing arrived in Europe with the paper mill in Fabriano, Italy. When printing arrived to Europe, it led to a decrease of power of religion and more to the people. The paper mill was a machine that made paper in mass production, leading to printing on them.
Johann Gutenburg -- 1450
Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenburg credited with perfecting the system for printing type in books. The machine is incredibly big, made completely out of wood and metal. This machine is the machine that revolutionized modern day human communications.
Albercht Pfister -- 1460
Albercht Pfister was the first one to add illustrations to a printed book. This page looked exactly like a page printed from a Gutenburg printing press. There are illustrations of people and animals around a tree picking the fruit.
Nicolas Jenson -- 1470
Nicolas Jenson, considered one of the history's greatest typeface designers, sets news slandered for Roman type. The text looks very Gothic/ mid-evil but also seems like one you would see on a modern day machine. We still use type faces that he designed back centuries ago, which shows how much of an impact he had on us.
Claude Garamond -- 1530
Claude Garamond opens first type foundry, developing and selling fonts to printers. The font that he made, are still being used today, most well known for the company apple using this font.
Caslon Type Face -- 1722
First Caslon Old Style font developed Clean, easy to read serif with simplicity to tie it all together. This was the font used in the 18th century the most in everyday printed things.
Industrial Revolution -- 1760
Industrial Revolution begins, setting the stage for advances in graphic design production. More things were being developed during this time, which led to an increase need for printed goods.
Lithography -- 1796
Author Aloys Senefelder develop lithography. The machine looks the size of a printer, maybe a little bit bigger. It took the printing press, and made it possible for it to be done on a flat surface.
First Printing Press (all iron) -- 1800
Lord Stanhope invents first printing press made of all cast-iron parts, requiring 1/10 the manual labor and doubling the possible paper size. Most likely the same size as the Gutenberg printing press, but heavier because of the amount of iron that was used for it.
First Sans-Serif Font -- 1816
First san-serif font makes a subtle entrance as one line of a book. This was a font that got rid of the serif at the end of the letters. This was a more modern day typeface that is still being used centuries later.
Arts and Crafts Movement -- 1860
Arts and Crafts Movement - John Ruskin, William Morris, Gustav Stickley. This movement influenced modern day graphic designers as we know it today.
William Morris -- 1861
William Morrusm who became a highly influential figure in design history, sets up art-decorating firm. Highly influential man, and was very well known for sculpting the first arts and crafts "store"
Halftone Screen -- 1880
Development of the halftone screen allows for first photo printed with a full range of tones. They used screen with tiny dots on them which allowed for more precise color placement on a picture that would be printed.
Art Nouveau Movement -- 1890
Art Nouveau movement begins and changed design, making its way into all types of commercial design and utilizing all types of arts. He used intricate shapes and beautiful design to create his amazing painting.
Frank Lloyd Wright -- 1901
Frank Lloyd Wright - "The arts and crafts of the machine"; Basic principals of modern industrial design; future designers create prototypes for machine products.
AEG -- 1910
AEG (German General Electric). This is the beginning of 'corporate images'
Dada Movement -- 1916
Dada Movement. George Grosz, Hannah Hoch, Kurt Schwitters, Marx, Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Andre Breton, Hans Arp. Various artist created a different type of style for their generation leading to a more modern style of art.
De Stijl Movement -- 1917
The art movement called De Stijl, Dutch for 'The Style' was on the rise. This art consisted of many lines and very simple designs with some color added into it.
The Bauhaus -- 1919
The Bauhaus, a German school, is founded, eventually providing the framework for modern design. The picture looks very modern with strange placements of words and picture.
Constructivism Movement -- 1919
Contructivism movement originated in Russia. El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Taltin, Naum Gabo. Abstract modern day looking picture with lots of reds and blacks in it.
Times New Roman -- 1931
Stanley Morison oversees design of Times New Roman font, commissioned by the Times of London. This is the modern day font that we still use today with almost every paper we type (MLA Format)
Swiss Design -- 1947
Swiss Design: Armin Hofmann, Emil Ruder. Heavy use of black, along with a very modern day look.
The New York School -- 1950
The New York School: Paul Rand, Alexey Brodovich, Henry Wolf, Herb Lubalin, George Lois. Very famous graphic designers. Very modern style looking designs.
Paul Rand -- 1956
Paul Rand designs IBM logo using City Medium typeface. Very famous graphic design, responsible for many logos and pictures.
Max Miedinger -- 1957
Max Miedinger designs Neue Haas Grotesk font, later renamed Helvetica Helvetica is the absolute most modern font you can find
Pop Art -- 1960
Pop art; Pentagram Design: Colin Forbes, Theo Crosby; Scandinavian Designer: Alvar Aalto. Very Andy Warhol looking art in my opinion. Also used in photo taken even today.
Computer Mouse -- 1969
Douglas Engelbart develops first computer mouse, setting the stage for the future tool of graphic design.