A Retrospective Look at Design Theory

• To the average audience the

difference between “graphic
design” and “art” may seem
indistinguishable.

• To better understand this

distinction let us first define
the two terms…

The art or profession of using design elements (as typography

and images) to convey information or create an effect.

Something that is created with imagination and skill and that is

beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.
 • One of the first questions you • Having a visual library of images
might ask is why should I care stored in your memory, gives you a
about graphic design history? smarter and more varied toolset.

• One of the best tools to be a • The other point is that design is not
great designer is to have a wide Darwinian, that is, it doesn't get better

Design is… visual vocabulary - history gives

us that library of elements to
over time. Design simply reflects the
culture and the period of time in
pull inspiration from. which it was created.
• Prehistoric cave paintings found throughout the
Pyrenees regions of southern France and northern
Spain are among the world’s first-known works of
written communication.

• At least two hundred painted caves date back to

30,000 BCE. But the question is are these simply
writings, works of art, or is this the 1st use of design?

• Because these paintings represent written

documentation, they a depict knowledge of social
hierarchy, hunting techniques and seasonality.

• This is the first findings of visual communication

depicted by a primitive culture.
• Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were originally based
on the Sumerian script and later adopted into a
formal “language” around 3200 BC.
• Egyptian language was not fully understood until the
discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1798 by Napoleon.
• Hieroglyphs which first appeared on papyrus are
considered to be the first phonetic language to be
scribed on parchment.
• The Papyrus of Ani is one of the earliest papyrus
manuscripts compiled within the more commonly
known Book of the Dead. This text contained
illustrations alongside cursive hieroglyphs which
included spells to help the deceased in their afterlife.
• Like today, new inventions during the mid-to-late
19th century changed the way people lived/worked
• Culture shifted from an agrarian agricultural-based
society to a more “industrialized” way of life.
• With new machines mass manufacturing began to
allow for the duplication of items. Suddenly products
were available in huge quantities at faster rates.
• Previously citizens made their own clothes and
household items – no two items/texts were identical
• Prior to the Industrial Revolution, valuable texts (ie:
Homer, The Iliad, The Bible) were written by hand
and had to be traveled to in order to seen.
• Along with competition came the opportunity for
widespread mass communication.
• 1454: The printing press was invented by German
Johannes Gutenberg who was commissioned by
the Holy Roman Empire.
• The Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed in
Western Europe using movable metal type,
introducing text reproduction to the masses.
• This not only expedited the printing process but
permitted written material and ideas to quickly
spread, thus reaching a wider audience.
• Similar to today’s marketing efforts, the end
objective was asserting influence.
 This mass production created competition. This is the
genesis of modern advertising and design. In order to
compete, manufacturers turned to posters, placards and
ads to convince consumers to use their products.
• Reflects values of that period: clear class • Individual letterforms made of metal
structure, sexual restraint, and a strict code had a size limitation – larger headline
of conduct metal plates would break apart
• Britain was at the height of its empire, with • American printer, Darius Wells, began
colonies around the globe making letterforms out of wood
• Elaborate ornamentation and mixing of • This was the birth of the American
styles from other cultures reinforced the wood type poster
British empire's colonial strength • The handmade quality gave a sense of
• Paired with images that reflected idealized the human touch, which feels warmer
nostalgia and moral goodness and less clinical
In the late 1800s, society was bombarded with products and
inventions that celebrated the machine made. In theory,
factories were making items that made everyone's life better.
Every family on the block could now own a well made and
identical tea pot. Class distinctions would disappear, and a
unified society would emerge.

The reality was crowded slums, a massive increase in urban

pollution, bad quality products, child labor, and the slow
removal of all things hand made. Art Nouveau, or The New
Art, was a style that sought to counter this. Art Nouveau
forms are typically fluid and flat. The ideas of a return to
natural forms also influenced architects, product designers,
and furniture makers.
• 20th Century ushered in a time for new • The 1914 World War I began in Europe
ideas and fresh approaches to design with • Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France
less clutter and Britain all now needed to promote their
• Lucian Bernhard's approach strips own message to recruit volunteers, rally the
unnecessary items away from a design, to troops, and convince the public that their
determined the core message fight was good, and victory was possible
• There was no radio, television, internet or
• This solution is the beginning of modern
social media, but new cost efficient printing
graphic design today that relies
technologies allowed for mass production
on symbols and shapes rather than literal
of posters, and these became the primary
illustration to promote an idea
tool for war propaganda
When Russia enters World War I, there were widespread food
shortages and there was tremendous inflation. People
questioned why they were fighting in a war for leaders, who
neglected their citizens. This disillusionment triggered the
explosion of revolution. In 1918, the people rise up against
the Czar, the Russian Army abandons the war against
Germany and the Soviet state is born.

At the onset of the revolution, designers with radical new

ideas were welcomed into the movement. And over the next
two decades, created most of the work we now know as
Constructivist.
• Perhaps the most important influence on
contemporary design is the Bauhaus
• The Bauhaus was a school in Germany training
designers in all fields
• The guiding principle at the Bauhaus was that
design could make the world a better place
• Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in
1919. Like the leaders of the other movements
at the time, he believed the old order of
aristocracy and corruption had led Germany
into the catastrophic war. Design would create
a new society and a better way of life
• Unemployment during the Depression was • Adolf Hitler, was appointed Chancellor of
as high as 25 percent. Germany, on January 30th, 1933. After
establishing the Nazi party, they
• Franklin Roosevelt initiated a new federal
immediately began a mass media
program, the Works Progress
campaign to rule the German people.
Administration, or W.P.A.
• By 1934, the Nazi propaganda
• The W.P.A. employed millions of machine used films, books and graphic
Americans. They built dams, bridges, design to communicate it’s message.
roads, and federal buildings.
• Nazi party adopted many of the modernist
• Designers were urged to speak to the ideas: simple messages, iconography and
masses in the least elitist way possible. strong forms.
• After the war, the International Style, or • By 1966, San Francisco was the epicenter of
Swiss Typography, predominated the counter-culture revolution.
European graphic design. • Designers began making posters that
• It relied on order, mathematical followed a style that was fluid and complex.
proportions, and a rigid grid structure. A • The point at the time was to reject legible
preference for clarity and structure based Swiss modernism in favor for a more
on rigid rules led to Swiss typography. organic and a less rigid experience
• A grid structure was used to organize • The Fillmore poster designers rejected hard
elements. Typography and visual elements edged modernism and consumer driven
were scaled mathematically. culture in an anti-capitalism movement.
Enter Saul Bass…
In Psycho, here again Saul setup a visual narrative by
representing a broken title sequence with the use of
angles and lines to convey a sense of unease.
Something is not right and we as the audience
immediately get a sense of urgency and alarm. The
entire Bass/Hitchcock also is shrouded in controversy
surrounding Bass’s contribution to what is arguably the
most famous scene in U.S. cinema - the shower scene
in Psycho. Serious discussion over Bass’s contribution
during collaboration, from novel and script to musical
score - remains unsolved, as many suspect he was the
one who first conceptualized the scene, not Hitchcock.
 Saul Bass’ poster for a Man with a Golden Arm (1955) with a jagged arm and
off-kilter typography, starkly communicates the protagonist's struggle with
heroin addiction. Bass's iconic Vertigo (1958) poster, with its stylized figures
sucked down into the nucleus of a spiral vortex, captures the anxiety and
disorientation central to the film. His poster for Anatomy of a Murder (1959),
featuring the silhouette of a corpse jarringly dissected into seven pieces, makes
both a pun on the film’s title and captures the moral ambiguities of the story.
Saul Bass 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
(including AT&T and United Airlines). 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. His work continues
to inspire the work of others even today, with films like Catch
Me If You Can, and AMC’s TV series Mad Men.
• Carmen Jones (1954) • Anatomy of a Murder (1959) • Grand Prix (1966) • Alcoa (1963) • Kose Cosmetics (1991)
• The Big Knife (1955) • North by Northwest (1959) • Not with My Wife, You Don't! • AT&T Corporation (1969) • Lawry's Foods (1959)
• The Man with the Golden • Psycho (1960) (1966) • Avery International (1975) • Minami Sports (1991)
Arm (1955) • Spartacus (1960) • Seconds (1966) • Boys & Girls Clubs of • Minolta (1978)
• The Racers (1955) • The Facts of Life (1960) • Such Good Friends (1971) America (1978) • NCR Corporation (1996)
• The Seven Year Itch (1955) • Exodus (1960) • That's Entertainment, Part II • Celanese (1965) • Quaker Oats (1969)
• The Shrike (1955) • Ocean's 11 (1960) (1976) • Continental Airlines • Rockwell International
• Around the World in Eighty • West Side Story (1961) • Broadcast News (1987) (1968)[11] (1968)
Days (1956) • Something Wild (1961) • Big (1988) • Dixie (1969) • Security Pacific Bank (1966)
• Storm Center (1956) • Advise and Consent (1962) • The War of the Roses • Frontier Airlines (1978) • United Airlines (1974)
• Attack (1956) • Walk on the Wild Side (1989) • Fuller Paints (1962) • United Way (1972)
• Edge of the City (1957) (1962) • Goodfellas (1990) • Geffen Records (1980) • US postage stamp, "Science
• Saint Joan (1957) • The Victors (1963) • Cape Fear (1991) • General Foods (1984) and Industry" (1983)[12]
• The Pride and the Passion • Nine Hours to Rama (1963) • Doc Hollywood (1991) • Girl Scouts of the USA • Warner Communications
(1957) • It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad • Mr. Saturday Night (1992) (1978) (1974)
• The Young Stranger (1957) World (1963) • The Age of Innocence • Japan Energy Corporation • Wienerschnitzel (1978)
• Bonjour Tristesse (1958) • The Cardinal (1963) (1993) (1993) • Wesson Oil (1964)
• Cowboy (1958) • In Harm's Way (1965) • Higher Learning (1995) • J. Paul Getty Trust (1993) • YWCA (1988)
• Vertigo (1958) • Bunny Lake Is Missing • Casino (1995) • Kibun Foods (1984)
• The Big Country (1958) (1965)
• With the advent of modern technology,
mobile devices and the internet – are we
becoming immune to the “Swiss” type style?
• What trends do you witness in today’s
design world, how is culture shifting?