-
100
Pictograph Tablet 3100 BCE
Ch.1
Early Sumerian pictographic tablet, c. 3100 BCE. This archaic pictographic script contained the seeds for the development of writing. Information is structured into grid zones by horizontal and vertical division. -
100
Early Writing 2050 BCE
Ch.1
Cuneiform tablet from Umma, c. 2050 BCE. Three workers are paid three bundles a day. The total for six days is fifty-four bundles of reed. -
100
Hieroglyphs 2323-2150 BCE
Ch.1
False door of Sitinteti, Old Kingdom, Sixth Dynasty, 2323–2150 BCE. Tomb of the Lady Sat-tety-lyn. In contrast to the raised images in the center, the hieroglyphs are carved into the surface and contained in a mathematical grid of carved lines. -
100
North Semitic Alphabet 1500 BCE
Ch.2
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. -
100
Greek Alphabet 525-500 BCE
Ch.2
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. -
100
Latin Alphabet 700-600 BCE
Ch.2
Etruscan Bucchero vase, seventh or sixth century BCE. A prototype of an educational toy, this rooster-shaped toy jug is inscribed with the Etruscan alphabet. -
100
Cave Painting 15,000-10,000 BCE
Ch1
Random placement and shifting scale signify prehistoric people's lack of structure and sequence in recording their experiences. -
100
Cave Painting 2000-1000 BCE
Ch.1
Fremont rock painting from San Raphael Swell, c. 2000–1000 BCE. The Fremont people lived in southern Utah. -
101
Asian Characters 1300 BCE
Ch.3
Oracle bone inscribed with chiaku-wen, or bone-and-shell script, c. 1300 BCE. The 128 characters inscribed on this scapula concern a diviner's predictions of calamities during the next ten-day period. -
101
Chineese Caligraphy 1100 BCE
Ch.3
Four-handled vessel with chin-wen, or bronze script, inscription, eleventh century BCE. Bold, regular strokes are used to form the sixty-four characters of an eight-line dedication, which itself forms a rectangle in the vessel's bottom. -
101
Chineese Caligraphy 1000 BCE
Ch.3
Li (three-legged pottery vessel), late Neolithic period. The evolution of the calligraphic character Li stemmed from this pot: oracle bone pictograph; bronze script, 1000 BCE; and regular style, 200 BCE. -
550
Chineese Tomb Relief 550-577 CE
Ch.3
Chinese relief tomb sculpture and rubbing, northern Qi dynasty (550–577 CE). Illustrative images from the life of the deceased are captured in stone and with ink on paper. -
562
Buddhist Tablet 562 BCE
Ch.3
Buddhist dedicatory stele, c. 562 CE. This votive limestone tablet illustrates the early Chinese practice of permanently and accurately rendering inscriptions by carving them on stone. -
Jun 18, 1300
judiac Manuscript 1300's CE
Ch.4
Page from the Ormesby Psalter, c. early 1300s CE. Decoration, illustration, and initials are joined into a single complex text frame. Red and blue prevail in many late Gothic manuscripts. -
Jun 18, 1400
Early European Blockprinting 1400's
Ch.5
Jack of Diamonds, woodblock playing card, c. 1400. The flat, stylized design conventions of playing cards have changed little in over five hundred years. Visual signs to designate the suits began as the four classes of medieval society. Hearts signified the clergy; spades (derived from the Italian spada [sword]) stood for the nobility; the leaflike club represented the peasantry; and diamonds denoted the burghers. -
Jun 18, 1423
Early European Woodblock Printing 1473
Ch.5
Woodblock print of Saint Christopher, 1423. The unknown illustrator depicted the legendary saint, a giant who carried travelers safely across a river, bearing the infant Christ. The inscription below reads: “In whatsoever day thou seest the likeness of St. Christopher/in that same day thou wilt at least from death no evil blow incur/1423.” One of the earliest dated European block prints, this image effectively uses changing contour-line width to show form. -
Oct 31, 1450
Movable Typography
Ch.5
Johann Gutenberg, pages 146 and 147 from the Gutenberg Bible, 1450–55. The superb typographic legibility and texture, generous margins, and excellent presswork make this first printed book a canon of quality that has seldom been surpassed. An illuminator added the red headers and text, initials, and floral marginal decoration by hand. -
Jun 18, 1459
Copperplate Engraving 1459
Ch.5
Jan Fust and Peter Schoeffer, page from Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 1459. The innovative small type is combined with wonderfully intricate printed red and blue initials that evidence the early printer's efforts to mimic the design of the manuscript book. -
Jun 18, 1463
Origins of Illustrated Typographic Boks 1463
Ch.6
Albrecht Pfister (printer), illustration from the second edition of Der Ackerman aus Böhmen (Death and the Ploughman), c. 1463. Death sits as a king on his throne, flanked by a widower and his child on the left and the deceased wife on the right. -
Jul 11, 1464
Early European Woodblock Printing 1464
Letter K from a grotesque alphabet, c. 1464. This page is from a twenty-four-page abecedarian block-book that presented each letter of the alphabet by composing figures in its shape. -
Jan 12, 1479
Italian Writing Masters
Ch.7
Ugo da Carpi (c. 1479–1533), page from Thesauro, c. 1535. This contained a compilation of scripts by Italian writing masters Arrighi, Sigismondo Fanti, and Giovantonio Tagliente. -
Jun 18, 1481
Graphic Design of the Italian Renissance 1481
Ch.7
Printer's trademark, 1481. Attributed to Andreas Torresanus (1451–1529). One of the oldest symbolic themes, the orb and cross is found in a chamber of Cheops's pyramid at Giza, where it was hewn into stone as a quarry mark. A fairly common design device at this time, it symbolized that “God shall reign over earth.” -
Jun 18, 1493
Numbering in Printing 1493
Ch.6
Anton Koberger, pages from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. The raised hand of God in the initial illustration is repeated over several pages retelling the biblical story of creation. -
Jun 18, 1515
Typography Spreads from Germany
Ch.6
Diego de Gumiel, title page for Aureum Opus (Great Works), 1515. The title almost becomes an afterthought in this title page. The use of white-on-black woodblocks and heraldic imagery is typical of early Spanish graphic design. -
Jun 18, 1517
Further Development in German Illustrated Books 1517
Ch.6
Johann Schoensperger (printer), pages from Teuerdank, 1517. The full title of the work translates as “The adventures and a portion of the story of the praiseworthy, valiant, and high-renowned hero and knight, Lord Tewrdannckh.” The flamboyant calligraphic gestures are appropriate for this romantic novel about chivalry. The swashes are carefully placed to animate the pages in the layout of the book. -
Apr 12, 1518
Basel and Lyon Become Design Centers 1518
Ch.7
Johann Froben (printer) and Hans Holbein (illustrator), title page for Sir Thomas More's Utopia, 1518. Complex in image and tone, this title-page design unites the typography with the illustration by placing it on a hanging scroll. -
Jun 18, 1524
Innovation Passes to France 1524
Ch.7
Geoffroy Tory, pot cassé emblem, 1524. Later, Tory explained that the broken jar symbolized one's body, the toret or auger symbolized fate, and the book held shut by three padlocked chains signified the book of a life after it is shut by death. -
May 14, 1551
Typography Spreads from Germany 1551
Ch.6
Lucas Cranach the Younger, broadside, 1551. This commemorative portrait of Martin Luther bears the identification of the illustrator (Cranach's flying snake device) and the block cutter, a craftsman named Jörg, who is identified typographically above the date -
Jun 18, 1569
The Seventeenth Century 1569-72
Ch.7
Christophe Plantin, page from Humanae Salutis Monumenta, by Arius Montanus, 1569–72. This religious emblem book features hand-colored copperplate engravings. -
Graphic Design of the Rococo Era 1702
Ch.8
Philippe Grandjean, specimen of Romain du Roi, 1702. Compared to earlier roman fonts, the crisp geometric quality and increased contrast of this first transitional typeface are clearly evident. The small spur on the center of the left side of the lowercase l is a device used to identify types of the Imprimerie Royale. -
Baskerville and Caslon 1757
Ch.8
John Baskerville, title page for Vergil's Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis (Pastorals, Georgics, and the Aeneid), 1757. Baskerville reduced the design to letterforms symmetrically arranged and letterspaced; he reduced content to author, title, publisher, date, and city of publication. Economy, simplicity, and elegance resulted. -
Innovations of Typography 1765
Ch.9
Thomas Cotterell, twelve lines pica, letterforms, c. 1765. These display letters, shown actual size, seemed gigantic to eighteenth-century compositors, who were used to setting handbills and broadsides using types that were rarely even half this size -
The Modern Style 1771
Ch.8
Louis René Luce (designer) and Jean Joseph Barbou (printer), ornaments page from Essai d'une nouvelle typographie, 1771. These meticulously constructed cornices and borders express the authority and absolutism of the French monarchy. -
The Epoch Closes-William Black The Book of Thel 1789
Ch.8
William Blake, title page from The Book of Thel, 1789. -
Illuminated Printing of William Blake 1797
Ch.8
Pierre Didot, title page for Lettres d'une Péruvienne (Letters of a Peruvian), by Françoise de Grafigny, 1797 -
Revolution in Printing 1814
Ch.9
The first steam-powered cylinder press, 1814. Koenig's invention caused the speed of printing to skyrocket, while its price dropped considerably. -
Photography, The New Communications Tool 1827
Ch.9
Joseph Niépce, photo etching of an engraving of Cardinal Georges D'Amboise, c. 1827. This routine portrait print is the first image printed from a plate that was created by the photochemical action of light rather than by the human hand. -
The Inventors of Photgraphy 1827
Ch.9
Joseph Niépce, photo etching of an engraving of Cardinal Georges D'Amboise, c. 1827. This routine portrait print is the first image printed from a plate that was created by the photochemical action of light rather than by the human hand. -
The Wood-Type Poster 1876
Ch.9
Handbill for an excursion train, 1876. To be bolder than bold, the compositor used heavier letterforms for the initial letter of important words. Oversized terminal letterforms combine with condensed and extended styles in the phrase Maryland Day! -
Art Nouveau 1879
Ch.11
Jules Chéret, poster for Orphée aux Enfers (Orpheus in Hades), 1879. Chéret evolved toward larger, more animated figures and greater unity of word and image. -
The Century Guild 1884
Ch.10
W. J. Morgan and Co., Cleveland, lithographic theater poster, 1884. Montage illustrations become overlapping planes with varied scale and spatial depth. -
Images For Children 1884
Ch.9
W. J. Morgan and Co., Cleveland, lithographic theater poster, 1884. Montage illustrations become overlapping planes with varied scale and spatial depth. -
French Art Nouveau
Ch.11
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, poster, “La Goulue au Moulin Rouge,” 1891. Shapes become symbols; in combination, these signify a place and an event. -
The Kelmscott Press 1892
Ch.10
W. J. Morgan and Co., Cleveland, lithographic theater poster, 1884. Montage illustrations become overlapping planes with varied scale and spatial depth. -
English Art Nouveau
Aubrey Beardsley, first cover for The Studio, 1893. Beardsley's career was launched when editor C. Lewis Hine featured his work on this cover and reproduced eleven of his illustrations in the inaugural issue. -
Glasgow School
Ch.12
Margaret and Frances Macdonald with J. Herbert McNair, poster for the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1895. The symbolic figures have been assigned both religious and romantic interpretations. -
Plakatskil 1896
Ch.14
The Beggarstaffs, poster for Robespierre, 1896. As with the design for Don Quixote the actor Sir Henry Irving was not pleased with his image and rejected the poster. -
Vienna Secession 1898
Ch.12
Gustav Klimt, poster for the first Vienna Secession exhibition, 1898. The large open space in the center is unprecedented in Western graphic design. -
The Private Press Movement 1900
Ch.10
Louis Rhead, title page for The Essay on Walt Whitman, 1900. The Roycroft Press commissioned this design from a prominent graphic designer. -
Peter Behrens 1900
Ch.12
Peter Behrens, title and dedication pages for Feste des Lebens und der Kunst: eine Betrachtung des Theaters als höchsten Kultursymbols, 1900. A sharp angularity characterizes the title page (left), framed by caryatids. On the right, a dedication to the Darmstadt artists' colony is ornamented with controlled curvilinear rhythms. -
American Art Nouveau
Ch.11
Emmanuel Orazi, poster for La Maison Moderne (The Modern House), 1905. Furniture, objects, clothing, jewelry, and even the woman's hair evidence the totality of the movement. -
Cubism-Picasso 1906
Pablo Picasso, Nude, c. 1906–7. The seeds of cubism are contained in the fragmentation of the figure and background spaces into abstracted geometric planes. -
Futurism 1912
Filippo Marinetti, cover for Zang Tumb Tumb, 1912. The title is a sound poem in itself. -
Expressionism 1912
Ch.13
Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation No. 29, 1912. Kandinsky defined an improvisation as a spontaneous expression of inner character having a spiritual nature. -
Maverick from Munich
Ch.14
Ludwig Hohlwein, fund-raising poster, 1914. A graphic symbol (the red cross) combines with a pictorial symbol (a wounded soldier) in an appeal with emotional power and strong visual impact. -
New Language of Form 1914
Ch.15
David and Vladimir Burliuk, pages from Vladimir Mayakovski: A Tragedy, 1914. In an effort to relate visual form to meaning, Russian futurist graphic design mixed type weights, sizes, and styles. -
Posters Go To War 1915
Ch.14
Lucian Bernhard, poster for a war-loan campaign, 1915. A sharp militaristic feeling is amplified by the Gothic inscription, “This is the way to peace—the enemy wills it so! Thus subscribe to the war loan!” -
London Underground 1918
Ch.12
The London Underground symbol, revised by Edward Johnston in 1918, is shown in the 1972 version used today. -
Postcubist Pictorial Modernism 1918
Ch.14
E. McKnight Kauffer, poster for the Daily Herald, 1918. This bellwether poster was based on the designer's earlier futurist- and cubist-inspired print of flying birds. -
Dada 1919
Hannah Höch, Da—dandy, collage and photomontage, 1919. Images and materials are recycled, with both chance juxtapositions and planned decisions contributing to the creative process. -
The Bauhaus at Weimar 1919
Ch.16
Attributed to Johannes Auerbach, first Bauhaus seal, 1919. The style and imagery of this seal—chosen in a student design competition—express the medieval and craft affinities of the early Bauhaus. -
Constuctivism 1919
Ch.15
Bart Anthony van der Leck, exhibition poster, 1919. Moored in pictorial art, Van der Leck diverted De Stijl's vocabulary toward elemental images. -
A Book-Design Reniassance 1920
Ch.10
Jan van Krimpen, pages from Deirdre & de zonen van Usnach (Deirdre and the Sons of Usnach), by A. Roland Holst, Palladium Series, 1920. -
The Impact of Laszlo 1923
Ch.16
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, title page, Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar. This page structure is based on a rhythmic series of right angles. Stripes applied to two words create a second spatial plane. -
Final Years of the Bauhaus 1924
Ch.16
Jan Tschichold, display poster for a publisher, 1924. One of the Tschichold's earliest attempts to apply modern design principles, printed in black and gold, proclaims, “Books by Philobiblon are available here in Warsaw.” -
New Typography 1925
Ch.16
Jan Tschichold, cover for “Elementare Typographie” insert, 1925. A sparse, open functionalism is achieved. -
Pioneers of the Movement 1928
Ch.18
Théo Ballmer, poster for an office professions exhibition, 1928. Traces of the grid squares used to construct this poster remain as the thin white lines between the letters. -
De Stijl 1928
Ch.15
Vladimir Vasilevich Lebedev, book spread, Tsirk (Circus), 1928. -
Bahaus at Dessau 1928
Ch.16
Herbert Bayer, cover for Bauhaus magazine, 1928. A page of typography joins the designer's tools and basic geometric forms in a photographic still life. Composed before a camera instead of at a drawing board, this cover achieves a rare integration of type and image. -
A Book-Design Reniassance 1929-31
Ch.10
Charles Nypels, title page from Don Quichotte, by Miguel de Cervantes, 1929–1931. -
New Approaches to Phtography 1934
Ch.16
Herbert Matter, Swiss tourism poster, 1934. Angular forms and linear patterns convey a sense of movement appropriate to winter sports. -
Surrealism 1934
Ch.13
Max Ernst, collage from Une semaine de bonté (A Week of Kindness), 1934. Photomechanical printing techniques obliterate cut edges, unifying the image. -
Spanish War Posters 1937
Ch.14
Martinez Ortiz, “Discipline,” poster, c. 1937. This Nationalist poster is a clear expression of brute power. -
Immagrants to America 1939
Ch.17
Alexey Brodovitch (art director) and Salvador Dalí (illustrator), pages from Harper's Bazaar, October 1938. The forms and texture of the experimental photograph are amplified and complemented by the typographic design. -
Patron of Design 1941
Ch.17
Will Burtin, cover for the first issue of Scope, 1941. To signify new “miracle drugs” under development, a color illustration is superimposed over a black-and-white photograph of a test tube. -
The War Years 1941
Ch.17
Joseph Binder, poster proposal for the U.S. Army Air Corps, 1941. Extreme spatial depth is conveyed by the scale change between the close-up wing and aircraft formation. -
Typeface Design in the First Half of the Twentieth Century 1947
Ch.16
Jan Tschichold, brochure cover for The Pelican History of Art, 1947. The classical symmetry of this design has a power and subtlety rivaling Roman inscriptions and the best work of Baskerville and Bodoni. -
After the War 1948
Ch.17
Herbert Matter, advertisement for Knoll Associates, 1948. Photographs of organic chair components combine with flat yellow “shadows” to generate the energy of a Calder mobile. -
Pioneers of the New York School 1950
Ch.19
Paul Rand, poster for the film No Way Out, 1950. Rand's integration of photography, typography, signs, graphic shapes, and the surrounding white space stands in marked contrast to typical film posters. -
Informational and Scientific Graphics 1953
Ch.17
Herbert Bayer, page from the World Geo-Graphic Atlas, 1953. Color coding, symbols, cross sections, maps, and illustrations provide a visual inventory of earth resources. -
The Conceptual Image 1954
Ch.21
Armando Testa, poster for Pirelli, 1954. The strength of a bull elephant is bestowed on the tire by the surrealist technique of image combination. -
The Rise of Japaneese Design 1954
Ch.23
Yusaku Kamekura, booklet cover, 1954. Torn paper Japanese characters and Bodoni letterforms spell the same word, typifying Kamekura's synthesis of Asian and Western forms. -
Funtional Graphics for Science
Ch.18
Anton Stankowski, calendar cover for Standard Elektrik Lorenz AG, 1957. A radial configuration symbolizes transmission and radiation using the client's radio and telephone products. -
The New Advertising 1958
Ch.19
Bob Gage (art director), Bill Bernbach and Judy Protas (writers), Ohrbach's advertisement, 1958. A “catty lady” learns how a friend dresses so well on an ordinary income: she buys high fashions for low price. -
Graphic Design education at Yale University School of Art 1959
Ch.19
Robert Brownjohn, album cover for Machito and His Orchestra, 1959. A pattern of abstract shapes is formed by repeating the bottom portions of letters fragmented by a stencil-lettering effect. -
American Typographic Expression 1960
Ch.19
Don Egensteiner (art director), advertisement for Young and Rubicam Advertising, 1960. The heavy, one-word headline crashes into the body copy to accomplish a major objective: grabbing attention. -
New Swiss Sans-serif Typefaces1960
Ch.18
Bruno Pläffli of Atelier Frutiger, composition with the letter u, c. 1960. All twenty-one variations of Univers can be used together to achieve dynamic contrasts of weight, tone, width, and direction. -
Editorial Design Revolution 1961
Ch.19
Otto Storch (art director) and Paul Dome (photographer), pages from McCall's, 1961. Introductory pages for a frozen-foods feature unify typography and photography into a cohesive structure. -
Master of Classical Typography 1968
Ch.18
Hermann Zapf, page from Manuale Typographicum, 1968. Jan Parandowski's thoughts concerning the power of the printed word to “govern time and space” inspired this graphic field of tension radiating from a central cluster. -
The International Typographic Style in America 1969
Ch.18
Dietmar Winkler, poster for a computer programming course at MIT, 1969. The term COBAL emerges from a kinetic construction of modular letters. -
New Wave Typography-Postmodern Design 1984
Ch.22
Wolfgang Weingart, exhibition poster, 1984. Modulated patterns of overlapping shapes and colors structure the space. Switzerland is implied by the shape of the Matterhorn. -
The Digital Revolution and Beyond 1991
Ch.24
David Carson (art director) and Pat Blashill (photographer), “Hanging at Carmine Street,” Beach Culture, 1991. Responding to the title of an editorial feature on a public swimming pool, Carson was inspired to “hang some type.” -
New Typographic Expression
Ch.24
Pentagram (Paula Scher), poster for the Public Theater's productions of Hamlet and Hair, 2008. -
The Diamond Sutra, 868 CE
Ch.3
The Diamond Sutra, 868 CE. Wang Chieh sought spiritual improvement by commissioning the duplication of the Diamond Sutra by printing; the wide spread of knowledge was almost incidental. -
Chinese woodblock print, c. 950 CE
Ch.3
Chinese woodblock print, c. 950 CE. A prayer text is placed below an illustration of Manjusri, the Buddhist personification of supreme wisdom, riding a lion. -
Saint Mathews Gospil 800 CE
Ch.4
Uncials from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, eighth century CE. Rounded strokes were made with the pen held in a straight horizontal position. -
Celtic Book of Durrow 680 CE
Ch.4
The Book of Durrow, the man, symbol of Matthew, 680 CE. As flat as a cubist painting and constructed from simple geometric forms, this figure, facing the opening of the Gospel of Saint Matthew, wears a checkered pattern of red, yellow, and green squares and tile-like patterned textures. -
Book of Durrow 680 CE
Ch.4
The Book of Durrow, opening page, the Gospel of Saint Mark, 680 CE. Linked into a ligature, an I and an N become an aesthetic form of interlaced threads and coiling spiral motifs. -
Spanish Pictorial Expressionism 800 CE
Ch.4
Coronation Gospels, opening pages of Saint Mark's Gospel, c. 800 CE. The author sits in a natural landscape on a page of deep crimson-stained parchment; the facing page is stained a deep purple with gold lettering. -
Spanish Expressionism
Ch.4
Capitularies of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, c. 873 CE, created in Rheims at a scriptorium associated with Charles the Bald (emperor 840–77). The capitularies is a compilation of law codes assembled by Ansegisus, abbot of Saint Wandrille, in 827 CE. The text is in Caroline minuscule with headings in rustic and a version of square capitals.
