Graphic Design History Writing & Alphabets PDF

What is writing? Writing may be defined as any conventional system of marks or signs that represents the utterances of a language. Writing renders language visible.Whereas speech is ephemeral, writing is concrete and, by comparison, permanent....

What is writing? Writing may be defined as any conventional system of marks or signs that represents the utterances of a language. Writing renders language visible.Whereas speech is ephemeral, writing is concrete and, by comparison, permanent. History of Graphic Design 2 What is language? “Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.” - Free Dictionary History of Graphic Design 3 Remember: Writing is important. Writing expresses who we are as people. Writing makes our thinking and learning visible and permanent. Writing fosters our ability to explain and refine our ideas to others and ourselves. History of Graphic Design 4 HISTORY Chronological account/records of past events (social, political, cultural, etc.) of a period or in the life/development of a people, an institution, or a place. History of Graphic Design 5 History of Graphic Design 6 GRAPHIC DES GN The art and profession of selecting and arranging visual elements—such as typography, images, symbols, and colors to convey a message to an audience. Sometimes called “visual communications,” a term that emphasizes its function of giving form—e.g., the design of a book, advertisement, logo, or a Web site. History of Graphic Design 7 Cave painting from Lascaux, circa 15-10,000 B.C.E. These markings were not interpreted as “Art” but more as visual images for utilitarian and ritualistic purposes. Utilitarian - Designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive. Ritualistic - Relating to or characteristic of rituals followed as part of a religious or 8 solemn ceremony. History of Graphic Design History of Graphic Design 9 ANGONO PETROGLYPHS Discovered in 1965, by Carlos “Botong” Francisco. The Angono Petroglyphs are believed to be the oldest known artworks inthe Philippines. History of Graphic Design 10 Located in Binangonan, Rizal, the petroglyphs date to the third millennium B.C. and are a collection of 127 figural carvings engraved on the wall of a shallow cave of volcanic tuff. History of Graphic Design 11 Where did writing first develop? Of the three writing systems that were formed independently in China, Mesoamerica, and Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), the Mesopotamian system was the earliest. Evidence of Sumerian script, which in its later stages was known as cuneiform (Latin for wedge-shaped), can be traced back to 8000 BCE, but scholars find more explicit evidence of its use after 3200 BCE. History of Graphic Design 12 Sumer was an ancient civilization founded in the Mesopotamia region of the Fertile Crescent situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Known for their innovations in language, governance, architecture, and more, Sumerians are considered the creators of civilization as modern humans understand it. History of Graphic Design 13 Sumerian cuneiform tablet, probably from Erech (Uruk), Mesopotamia, c. 3100–2900 bce; This antecedent of the cuneiform script was a system of counting and recording goods with clay tokens. History of Graphic Design 14 T he evolution of writing from tokens to pictography, syllabary and alphabet illustrates the development of information processing to deal with larger amounts of data in ever greater abstraction. This gold plaque with a cuneiform inscription may have been a beard attached with gold nails to a life-size statue of a god. History of Graphic Design 15 C uneiform writing was used to record a variety of information such as temple activities, business, and trade. Cuneiform was also used to write stories, myths, laws, and personal letters. 16 Neo-Assyrian clay tablet. Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11: Story of the Flood. Known as the “Flood Tablet” From the Library of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BC. History of Graphic Design SUMERIAN ART: 17 (Top Left) Warka (Uruk) Vase, Uruk, Late Uruk period, c. 3500–3000 B.C.E. (Bottom Left) Cylinder Seal, c. 1820–1730 B.C.E. (Right) The Standard of Ur, 2600–2400 B.C.E. History of Graphic Design E ventually, by combining pictographs, people could create abstract ideas or emotions called Ideographs F rom Cuneiform to ideograph this writing became Ideographic writing - A symbol that represents an idea or a thing, rather than the sounds of a word. what we call “Rebus writing”, which is pictures and/ or pictographs representing words and syllables with the same or similar sound as the object depicted. In 1981 Paul Rand was asked by IBM to design a poster to 18 support its new “THINK” motto. His response is the now iconic Eye-Bee-M rebus. History of Graphic Design  PAUL RAND American graphic designer who pioneered a distinctive American Modernist style. Rand believed that lines, shapes, and colours could become message-conveying signs and symbols in visual communications while simultaneously 19 functioning as elements in an artistic composition. History of Graphic Design Photo by Sally Andersen-Bruce for Champion International. REBUS: “not by words, but by things.” History of Graphic Design 20  By the time King Menes unified the land of Egypt and formed the First Dynasty around 3100 B.C. a number of inventions from the Sumerians had reached Egypt, including the cylinder seal, architectural designs of brick, decorative design motifs, and the fundamentals of writing. Hieroglyphics on a temple wall at Karnak, Egypt. History of Graphic Design 21 Hieroglyphs (sacred carving) on the temple at ancient Ombos, near modern Kawm Umbu, Egypt. Hieroglyphics were written in horizontal rows or vertical columns and were read according to the direction the images were facing—if the figures are facing left then begin reading from the left. If facing down, then start at the top and read down, etc. History of Graphic Design 22 In the hieroglyphic system, instead of each letter (or character) representing part of a word, each hieroglyph represents a whole word. History of Graphic Design 23 A ncient Egypt clearly represents the early phases of Western civilization as we know it today. Greek culture received much of its knowledge from the Egyptians. Our use of visual symbols originated with the Egyptians; from them, we inherited the zodiac, the scales of justice, and the use of animals to represent concepts, cities, and people. Egyptian Book of the Dead: Anubis Anubis weighing the soul of the scribe Ani, from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, c. 1275 bce. Book of the Dead Illustration The Egyptians were the first to produce illustrated manuscripts where words and pictures were combined to communicate 24 information. History of Graphic Design The development of papyrus, a paper- like substrate for manuscripts, was a major step forward in Egyptian visual communications. History of Graphic Design 25 THE ALPHABET Numerous and often conflicting theories have been advanced about the origins of the alphabet; suggested sources include cuneiform, hieroglyphs, prehistoric geometric signs, and early Cretan pictographs. The subsequent invention of the alphabet (a word derived from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha, and beta) was a major step forward in human communications. The Cretan Hieroglyphic table of signs by Evans (1909, 232–3). History of Graphic Design 26 T he Phoenician alphabet was the first written Alphabet in history. It was made up of twenty-two characters and was in use by 1500 B.C. Written right to left, the alphabet was both carved in stone as well as written on papyrus with a reed brush or pen. P hoenicia, is the ancient region along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean that corresponds to modern Lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern Syria and Israel. Its location along major trade routes led its inhabitants, called Phoenicians, to become notable merchants, traders, and colonizers in the 1st millennium BCE. History of Graphic Design 29 History of Graphic Design 30 History of Graphic Design 31 THE Boustrophedon Initially, the Greeks adopted the Phoenician style of writing from right to left, but later they developed a writing method called boustrophedon. Meaning “to plow a field with an ox.” In other words, text was written and read from left to right, the next line left to right, and then right to left. History of Graphic Design 32 Common writing materials in Greek The Scroll - made of papyrus were commonly used as the preferred substrate for writing lots of related text content. During the second century B.C., the Romans conquered Greece, and whole libraries of information were moved to Rome. Greek literature, art, and religion were altered to conform to the conditions of Roman society and spread throughout the vast Roman Empire. History of Graphic Design 33 The written Roman hand had two prominent forms: 1. Capitalis Quadrata (square 2. Capitalis Rustica - These capitals) - an ancient Roman form letterforms were condensed to take of writing, and the basis for modern up less space and were quickly capital letters. written. History of Graphic Design 34 C harlemagne attempted to standardize page layout, writing style, and decoration. With Celtic influences, including the use of guidelines, ascenders, and descenders, letters were ordered into a uniform script called Caroline minuscules. Caroline minuscules are the forerunner of our contemporary lowercase alphabet. During Charlemagne’s reign over the whole of central Europe in the 700s, a revival of learning and the arts flourished. Gothic lettering and illumination Influenced by the elaborate architectural spires in Germany, demonstrated strong verticals capped with pointed serifs. Space between letters and words was condensed and rounded letters were all but eliminated. Textura is the name for this type of Gothic lettering due to the dense black texture of the pages. The Romanesque period between 1000 and 1500 A.D. brought about renewed religious fervor/passion. The need for large liturgical books, Bibles, Gospels, and psalters reached its peak, and for the first time, universal design characteristics were possible. History of Graphic Design 36 Black letter, also called Gothic script or Old English script, in calligraphy a style of the alphabet that was used for manuscript books and documents throughout Europe — especially in German-speaking countries — from 37 the end of the 12th century to the 20th century. History of Graphic Design Illuminated manuscript, handwritten book that has been decorated with gold or silver, brilliant colours, or elaborate designs or miniature pictures. The monks painstakingly lettered and illustrated these manuscripts primarily depicting religious themes and teachings. Full pages of decorative design were called carpet pages because of their intricate patterning associated with oriental carpets. History of Graphic Design 38 THE ASIAN ALPHABET In East Asia, The Chinese writing system is the most widespread writing system. Chinese characters were designed to be written with straight or gently curving brush strokes. Zhenshu Calligraphy Zhenshu (“regular style”) calligraphy, written by the emperor Huizong (reigned 1100–1125/26), Bei (Northern) Song dynasty, China Calligraphy is considered the highest art form in China. Oriental painting and calligraphy are executed with ink on paper or silk using gestured strokes of the brush. During the Han Dynasty (third century A.D.,) seals called chops were made by carving calligraphic characters on a flat surface of jade, silver, gold, or ivory—similar to that of a present-day rubber stamp. These were used to make identification imprints and are considered to be the first form of printing. History of Graphic Design 40 The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, is considered one of the most scientific writing systems ever invented. It is designed to indicate the shape and position of the lips and tongue for the different sounds that combine into a syllable. History of Graphic Design 41 Mongolians tend to use the Cyrillic alphabet now, but you might still see the Mongolian script on signs, books, CDs, and similar display items. It is extremely distinctive because it is written vertically, top to bottom, and with a line down the right side. It’s vaguely reminiscent of a very sharp Arabic writing turned on its side, or the mane of a wild horse. History of Graphic Design 42 T here are many languages in India and Southeast Asia that have distinctive writing systems, but they’re all descended from the Brahmi script of some 2,300 years ago. Brahmi is a writing system of ancient India that appeared as a fully developed script Baybayin is a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system. It is a member of the Brahmic family in the 3rd century BCE. Its descendants, the Brahmic scripts, continue to be used today and is recorded as being in use in the 16th century. It continued to be used during the 43 across Southern and Southeastern Asia. Spanish colonization of the Philippines up until the late 19th Century. History of Graphic Design In addition to papyrus as a standard substrate for writing, parchment became popular around 190 B.C. in Asia It was made from the skins of domestic animals—calves, sheep, and goats. Unlike papyrus parchment could be folded, stitched, and written on both sides. History of Graphic Design 44 IN SUMMARY The majestic Egyptian culture survived for over three thousand years. Hieroglyphics, papyri, and illustrated manuscripts are its visual communications legacy. Along with the accomplishments of Mesopotamia, these innovations triggered the development of the alphabet and graphic communications in Phoenicia and the Greco-Roman world. Alphabets remain one of humankind’s grandest achievements. Alphabetic writing became the mortar binding whole communities against limitations imposed by memory, time, and place. History of Graphic Design 45 IN SUMMARY The Chinese contribution to the evolution of visual communications was formidable. During Europe’s thousand-year medieval period, China’s invention of paper and printing spread slowly westward, arriving in Europe just as the Renaissance began. This transitional period in European history began in fourteenth-century Italy and was marked by a rediscovery of classical knowledge, a flowering of the arts, and the beginnings of modern science. All were aided by printing. History of Graphic Design 46 GLOSSARY Calligraphy: the art of beautiful handwriting. Cuneiform: The writing system developed in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC. The script was written with a triangular stylus, which gave the strokes their characteristic angular shape. Gothic alphabet: The writing system generally corresponded to Latin and Greek scripts. Ideography: The representation of ideas by graphic symbols. History of Graphic Design 47 GLOSSARY Illuminated Manuscript: handwritten book that has been decorated with gold or silver, brilliant colours, or elaborate designs. Logography: A sign refers to one word. Paleography: The study and scholarly interpretation of earlier, especially ancient, writing and forms of writing. Pictograph: A character in the form of a picture representing either the sound of the word it evokes or the object represented. Rebus: representation of a word or syllable by a picture of an object GLOSSARY Stylus: a pointed instrument for writing and marking made of reeds. Syllabary: A writing system based on characters each representing a syllable, or unit of spoken language consisting of at least a vowel with, sometimes, additional vowels or consonants. Tablet: a lump of clay prepared in a cushion shape to support a written document. Writing: A system of human communication by means of arbitrary visual signs. History of Graphic Design 49 Thank You! 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