A Brief History of Graphic Design

Graphic design is everywhere. It’s so ingrained within society that you’re certain to interact with it in some way every single day. This form of visual communication has its roots in the earliest days of human expression, when illustrations of people, events, and issues adorned pottery and walls. In today’s digital age, graphic design possesses an unprecedented power to galvanize people behind political movements, causes – and even sneakers – while simultaneously offering a poignant reflection of modern society and culture. This is the influential history of graphic design.
“There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for”
Celebrated American graphic designer, Milton Glaser
Whether it’s stone, pottery, canvas, or a 3D billboard, the communication of concepts, ideas, beliefs, issues, and events has been channelled through graphic design for centuries. It has evolved at such a rate in the digital age that’s its reach is almost limitless. It’s not a modern concept, though. Today, it’s most commonly associated with a computer screen, but this is just the latest medium to embrace graphic design, as ever since humans evolved opposable thumbs, we have searched for efficient, descriptive, and engaging ways to communicate visually.

Colgate poster circa 1950. Sold for €300 via Van Sabben Auctions (July 2020).
What is Graphic Design?
Just think about your daily routine and then think about the number of items you encounter with graphic design at their center. From the moment you wake up under your comforter (so beautifully patterned, thanks to thoughtful graphic designers), throw open your decorated curtains, squeeze toothpaste from the colorful tube with a logo and carefully considered typeface, perhaps step into your graphically designed branded clothing, grab a quick bowl of Corn Flakes from a box with the iconic Kellogg’s K, and hop into your car – on its bonnet a logo that can even be identified by children – you have already absorbed a wealth of graphically designed items before the working day has even started.
From print poster designs, to books, magazines, adverts, logos, packaging, and branding, the pattern of daily life has the stamp of modern graphic design, which encompasses various disciplines of design including digital and web design. Much more than just web design though, graphic design channels the visual content of illustrations and photography with typography with one purpose – to communicate. And while the media on which this message is conveyed on has changed over the centuries, the purpose – using design to communicate – has remained.
Early Graphic Design and the Development of a Visual Language

Cave painting of brown animals. Image courtesy of Wallpaper Flare.
Graphic design didn’t begin in the digital age. It didn’t begin with the printing press. It’s a touch older. About 40,000 years older, actually. It can be traced back to cave paintings from 38000 BC. Communication was at the heart of these paintings, which depicted scenes of daily life to communicate from one generation to another. Predominantly featuring animals, handprints, and hunting references, the paintings provide a visual document of how people communicated visually at a time when it’s unclear how people audibly communicated with each other.
And this visual language was given an evolutionary helping hand by the Sumerians. They made this article possible with the invention of writing around circa 3300 to 3000BC. Laying the foundations of early graphic design through pictographs and symbols that represented objects, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia made the most significant evolutionary advance of graphic design with the creation of an alphabet, known as the cuneiform system of writing. This was undoubtedly one of the Sumerians’ greatest contributions to society and resulted in the birth of literature.
The Chinese developed it further with the invention of printing, but fans of the written word would have to wait until the early sixth century CE for this advancement. Initially using woodblocks to stamp designs onto silk clothes and eventually paper, it was the noted Chinese artisan and inventor Bi Sheng who invented the world’s first technique for printing with movable type in 1040. This huge advance in design was the beginning of the printed word, as ink was applied to a raised carved surface, allowing multiple copies of texts to be produced economically.
The Printing Press and the Industrial Revolution

Théodore Géricault – Études de Chevaux par Géricault. Sold for $32,500 via Swann Auction Galleries (September 2016).

Johannes Gutenberg’s graphically designed family coat of arms (Wikimedia Commons).
The birth of modern graphic design in Europe was down to one man, or at least it’s commonly attributed to one man. The German inventor and craftsman, Johannes Gutenberg introduced mass communication to Western culture when he brought moveable type to Europe in 1439, replacing wood with metal and printing blocks embossed with each individual letter of the alphabet.
The Chinese would dispute Gutenberg’s place as the original inventor of the printing press as the Chinese Ching-te magistrate, Wang Chen, had printed a treatise on farming practices in 1297 called Nung Shu (although it should be noted that the Chinese invented rudimentary printing using woodblock printing technology as early as the 7th century, with moveable type made of clay in the 11th century). Wang Chen’s process utilized a revolving table for typesetters, which was considerably more efficient and led to greater speed in printing. Considered the world’s first mass-produced book, it was exported to Europe and later credited to Europeans.
Whatever the lineage, Gutenberg’s press made literature affordable and accessible. No longer was literature the preserve of the wealthy; it forged an inevitable path for commercial printing and led to the evolution of advertising and graphic design. Propelled by the unstoppable mechanical power of the industrial revolution from about 1760 to 1840, which mechanized traditional processes to create products on a mass scale never seen before, new technologies that increased the efficiency of production abounded from this period, including lithography. The process involves inking designs onto a stone or metal surface, before transferring it to paper. It paved the way for the creation of chromolithography, which added color to lithography and opened readers’ eyes with a whole new world of vivid designs that today we can see in company logos, advertisements, and more.
Modern Graphic Design

Josef Albers exhibition poster. Sold for €80 via Lux Auction (March 2023).
In 1903, the painter Koloman Moser, architect Josef Hoffmann, and patron Fritz Waerndorfer put their heads together and transformed how graphic design would be approached for the years to come. They created of the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop), which brought together architects, artists, and designers to create the world’s first graphic design agency.
A hugely influential landmark, the trio are not only regarded as a pioneers of modern design, but also influential on a variety of artistic styles, like Bauhaus and Art Deco. The Wiener Werkstätte is not just a footnote to history, as the agency influenced and set the design standards to which the following generations would adhere. This forms the basis for graphic design as we know it today. It’s also played a part in influencing art movements that have mutually helped evolved graphic design. Art Nouveau was one such movement. Its deliberate abandonment of 19th century styles resulted in a modern design, characterized by the use of organic, asymmetrical line work, instead of solid, uniform shapes to help carry a message in true graphic design fashion.

Bazin for Bernard Sirven, Art Deco poster. Sold for £300 via Roseberys (December 2022).
Similarly, the influential art and design movement, Bauhaus, which started in 1919 was used to encourage artists and designers to help to rebuild the fractured German society in the years following World War I with the help of a triangle, a square, a circle, and a back-to-the-basics mentality that is still evident in modern designs today.
Equally, Art Deco eschewed style, elegance, and sophistication through the use of simple shapes, stylized scenes, and geometric ornamentation to create aspirational messages in expensive materials. And while flamboyance replaced the back to basics approach of Bauhaus, the graphic design focused visual communication tool remained in Art Deco styling. As for Pop Art, one only needs to look to Andy Warhol to see how influential graphic design was to the movement.
Despite this advance in visual communication, the process remained without a name until August 1922, when book designer William Addison Dwiggins coined the term ‘graphic design’ in his article, “New Kind of Printing Calls for New Design” in the Boston Evening Transcript. His description detailed his role in creating the visuals of book design, which also helped designers of the time who were struggling to explain to non-designers what, exactly, they did. Anyone working in a contemporary creative role may relate to this challenge when trying to explain their job to an elderly relative.

Andy Warhol, Kellogg’s Cornflakes silkscreen ink on plywood. Sold for $482,500 via Sotheby’s (May 2009).
The Digital Age of Graphic Design

Milton Glaser – Dylan poster, 1966. Sold for $160 via Weiss Auctions (September 2022).
Dwiggins would scarcely recognise the means of production in the digital age though, as the introduction of digital tools democratised graphic design, to an extent. No longer was it the preserve of artists and designers, but now anyone with a mastery of computers in the new digital age could transform themselves into a graphic designer.
Apple’s introduction of the Macintosh computer in 1984 paved a new, revolutionary road for graphic designers who were now able to sit in front of this relatively new mass produced machine and become creators with the help of a user-friendly interface that invited them to produce something new.
Just six years later and Adobe Photoshop was launched. It’s impact on design is evident by the fact that it remains among the most popular and used pieces of software for graphic designers today, some 30 years and more later. The graphics editing software meant that anyone could now manipulate an image to make a professional-looking design, while basic, easy to use programs like Microsoft Paint provided an accessible entrance into graphic design for generations of budding creatives.

Shepard Fairey, Hope, 2008, screenprint. Sold for $3,000 via Heritage Auctions (October 2017).
So, What is the Future of Graphic Design?
The evolution of graphic design has come a long way from communicating the dangers of natural predators in the Sumerian age, to the democratized digital era that opens up possibilities to anyone with a computer and plug socket.
Where once print was at the core of graphic design, the digital age has created a new world of graphic design that lives online and in software like Photoshop. Today, a whole host of new graphic design disciplines like web design, UX/UI, interactive design, and product design have forged a new path and medium for graphic designers.
Whatever the format though, whatever the medium, and whatever the result, graphic design has entrenched itself firmly within society over the centuries as an integral of tool of communication. Its impact is everywhere. Graphic design is a mirror to society that communicates concepts, portrays people, highlights issues, makes brands immediately identifiable, and dazzles with new digital creations. Graphic design’s persistence and immeasurable adaptability over the centuries has made it a permanent fixture, as it’s moved from dingy cave walls to the incandescent bright lights of the digital age to show that it’s at home on any medium. In 100 years that medium may well be a new invention unfamiliar to us today, but it’s a near certainty that whatever it is, graphic design will be at the heart of it.
Sources: CustomLogos.com | UXDesign.cc | Temis Marketing | AA Lofts Design | 99 Designs | Design Wizard | UIG Studio | WorldHistory.org | Britannica.com | Wikipedia | History.com