Early form of Graphic Design is a soap advertisement by John Everitt, Bubbles, 1886.
Introduction of term Graphic Design by William Addison Dwiggins in 1922.
Richard Hollis: 'Graphic Design is the business of making or choosing marks and arranging them on a surface to convey an idea.'
Josef Muller-Brockman
'Whatever the information transmitted, it must, ethically and culturally, reflect its responsibility to society.'
Steven Heller, Eye, No.17, 1995
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, La Goulue, 1890s
Aristide Bruant, 1893
Can be argued that these are early forms of Graphic Design, as the text and image work together
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish Music Room, 1896 poster
Kolomon Moser, 13th Secession Exhibition, 1902 poster
These posters seemed a radical shift from the previous 'advertisements' which had been produced
Peter Behrens, AEG, 1902
Julius Gipkens, Trophies of the Air War, 1917
This was a German war poster, and used the same type which is typically associated with German posters of that time
El Lissitzky, Beat The White With The Red Wedge, 1919
A modernist poster
F.H. Stingemore first created the London Underground map
Henry Beck redesigned it in 1933 and it became less realistic but more legible and cleaner.
Oskar Schlemmer, Bauhaus logo, 1922
Europe design is a lot more progressive than Britain, which is still very pictorial
Herbert Matter (Swiss), Swiss Tourist Board, 1932
Swiss are very good at design, and very celebratory of it. More refined than Britain
A.M. Cassandre, Etoile du Nord, very minimalistic design
Tom Purvis, LNER, 1937 - UK still very pastoral at this point
Design used as propaganda tool,
G. Klucis, Russian, Long Live The USSR - Fatherland of Workers in the World, 1931
New technology also helps with progressive design, including techniques such as letterpress and screenprinting
Abrum Games, catalogue for 'Exhibition of Science' - Festival of Britain, 1951
In post war period, consumerism starts
Rise of popular culture
Saul Bass
The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955
Vertigo, 1958
Popular for title sequences and film posters, very iconic designer
Ken Garland, First Things First manifesto, 1964
Art Workers Coalition, Q. and babies? A. and babies., 1970
Political poster showing stark imagery
Album artwork becomes as important as music
Jamie Reid, The Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks
Peter Saville, Face 001, The Factory Club night posters
He designed the New Order Blue Monday album sleeve in 1983 which is the biggest selling album sleeve of all time. They were more interested in making art than making money, so they lost 30p everytime one of these sleeves was produced.
Public Image Limited, album sleeve design, 1986
Summary
Graphic Design is relatively new term
Although born out of consumerism and capitalism, arguably becoming more concerned with social interests
Links between fine art and advertising become blurred
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