Graphic Design HistoryConnor Wake

15,000-10,000 BC

The first known visual connection with photographs and symbols in the Lascaux caves in southern France.

3600 BC

The blau monument, the oldest artifact known to combine words and pictures.

105 ADChinese government official Tsiai Lun or Cai Lun credited in inventing paper.

1450

Gutenberg credited with perfecting the system for printing type in books.

1460

Alberecht Pfister was the first to add illustration to a printed book.

1470

Nicolas Jenson, considered one of history’s greatest typeface designers created the new standard for roman type.

1760

Industrial revolution begins, setting the stage for advances in graphic design.

1816

First sans serif font makes a subtle entrance as one line of a book.

1880

Development of halftone screen allows for first photo printed with a full range of skills.

1932

Stanley Morrison oversees design of Times New Roman font commissioned by the Times of London.

Influential Designers

Paul rand - (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American art director and graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC,and NeXT. He was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design. Rand was a professor emeritus of graphic design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut from 1956 to 1969, and from 1974 to 1985. He was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972.

David carson-Carson was born on September 8, 1955 in Corpus Christi, Texas. He attended Cocoa Beach High School, was class president for 3 years, and still considers Cocoa Beach, Florida to be the place he is "most from". He attended San Diego State University, graduating with "Honors and Distinction" a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. Carson's first contact with graphic design was in 1980 at the University of Arizona during a two-week graphics course, taught by Jackson Boelts. From 1982 to 1987, Carson worked as a teacher in Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. During that time, he was also a professional surfer, and reached a 9th in the world ranking. Carson had his own signature model surfboard with Infinity surfboards, and his own signature model fin with rainbow fin co. He still surfs regularly at his property in Cane Garden Bay.

Stefan sagmeister-Sagmeister studied graphic design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He later received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Pratt Institute in New York. He began his design career at the age of 15 at "Alphorn", an Austrian Youth magazine, which is named after the traditional Alpine musical instrument. In 1991, he moved to Hong Kong to work with Leo Burnett's Hong Kong Design Group. In 1993, he returned to New York to work with Tibor Kalman's M&Co design company. His tenure there was short lived, as Kalman soon decided to retire from the design business to edit Colours magazine for the Benetton Group in Treviso, Italy. Stefan Sagmeister proceeded to form the New York based Sagmeister Inc. in 1993 and has since designed branding, graphics, and packaging for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, HBO, the Guggenheim Museum and Time Warner. Sagmeister Inc. has employed designers including Martin Woodtli, and Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker, who later formed Karlssonwilker.

Paula scher- Paula Scher (born October 6, 1948, Washington D.C) is an American graphic designer, painter and art educator in design, and the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.In 1972, she was hired by CBS Records to the advertising and promotions department. After two years, she left CBS Records to pursue a more creative endeavor at a competing label, Atlantic Records, where she became the art director, designing her first album covers. A year later Scher returned to CBS as an art director for the cover department. During her eight years at CBS Records, she is credited with designing as many as 150 album covers a year. Some of those iconic album cover designs are Boston (Boston), Eric Gale (Ginseng Woman), Leonard Bernstein (Poulenc Stranvinsky), Bob James (H), Bob James and Earl Klugh (One on One), Roger Dean and David Howells (The Ultimate Album Cover Album) and Jean-Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskin (Sakura: Japanese Melodies for Flute and Harp). In addition her designs were recognized with four Grammy nominations. She is also credited with reviving historical typefaces and design styles.

Milton glaser-Milton Glaser (June 26, 1929) is one of America’s most celebrated graphic designers. His designs include the I NY❤ logo, the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster, and the Brooklyn Brewery logo.In 1954, he also co-founded Push Pin Studios, founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker, and established Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974. His artwork has been featured in exhibits, and placed in permanent collections in many museums worldwide.Throughout his long career, he has designed many posters, publications and even architectural designs. He has received many awards for his work, including the National Medal of the Arts award from President Barack Obama in 2009, and was the first graphic designer to receive this award.

Saul bass-Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho. Bass designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the Bell System logo in 1969, as well as AT&T's globe logo in 1983 after the breakup of the Bell System. He also designed Continental Airlines' 1968 jet stream logo and United Airlines' 1974 tulip logo, which became some of the most recognized airline industry logos of the era. He died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Los Angeles on April 25, 1996 at the age of 75.

Neville brody-Neville Brody (born 23 April 1957) is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. Neville Brody is an alumnus of the London College of Communication and Hornsey College of Art, and is known for his work on The Face magazine (1981–1986) and Arena magazine (1987–1990) which also includes David Beckham in the poster, as well as for designing record covers for artists such as Cabaret Voltaire, The Bongos, and Depeche Mode. He created the company Research Studios in 1994 and is a founding member of Fontworks. He is the new Head of the Communication Art & Design department at the Royal College of Art.

Alan fletcher-Alan Fletcher (born 30 March 1957) is an Australian actor and musician, best known for his role as Karl Kennedy in long-running soap opera Neighbours. Along with co-star Jackie Woodburne who plays his wife, they are two of the series most popular and longest serving cast.Fletcher was born in Perth, Western Australia, and attended Wesley College in Perth, his first widely seen role was in police drama Cop Shop from 1982 until production ceased the following year. Prior to this, he appeared in a few episodes of the US series The Love Boat (1981) and various Australian feature films, TV movies, and miniseries including Fran and Mercy Mission. He briefly acted in Neighbours in 1987 as Greg Cooper, a run-down, dishonest boxer working in Jim Robinson's (Alan Dale) garage. In 1994, Fletcher successfully auditioned for the role of Karl Kennedy in the soap, a role which he continues to play.

Chip kidd-Charles (Chip) Kidd (born September 12, 1964) is an American graphic designer, best known for his innovative book covers. Based in New York city, Kidd has become one of the most famous book cover designers to date.Born in Shillington, Berks Country, Pennsylvania Kidd grew up being fascinated and heavily inspired by American popular culture. Comic books were his gateway into graphic design, with Batman and Superman populating some of his earliest childhood memories. Kidd attended Pennsylvania State University, where he graduated in 1986 with a degree in graphic design.

Micheal bierut-Michael Bierut (born 1957) is a graphic designer, design critic and educator. Bierut was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.Bierut was vice president of graphic design at Vignelli Associates. Since 1990 he has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram.According to his Pentagram online biography: Bierut "is responsible for leading a team of graphic designers who create identity design, environmental graphic design and editorial design solutions. He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in several permanent collections including: the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York; the Library of Congress in Washington, DC; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); the Denver Art Museum; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Germany; and the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich, Switzerland." Bierut served as the national president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1998 to 2001. Bierut is a senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art. Bierut is also the co-editor of three Looking Closer graphic design anthologies. He is also a founding writer of the Design Observer blog with Rick Poynor, William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand. Bierut currently serves on the governing board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists; in January, 2007, he redesigned the Bulletin's Doomsday Clock to give it a more modern feel. Bierut is also known for his involvement in the film Helvetica.