Essay about Summary of History of Graphic Design by Meggs

Chapter 1: The Invention of Writing - From the early Paleolithic to the Neolithic period (35,000 BC to 4,000 BC), early Africans and Europeans left paintings in caves, including the Lascaux caves in Southern France. - Early pictures were made for survival and for utilitarian and ritualistic purposes. - Petroglyphs are carved or scratched signs on rock. - These images became symbols for what would be the first spokenlanguage. - Cuneiform – Wedged shaped writing, created in 3000BC. Started as pictographs. - With the discovery of cuneiform, there was a knowledge explosion, where libraries were organized filling with tablets about religion, mathematics, and history. Writing enabled society to stabilize itself, and laws were†¦show more content†¦- Chinese is thought to have been invented by Tsang Chieh, who was inspired to invent writing after studying the claw marks of birds. - Chinese characters are logograms meaning that each character represents an entire word (like $ = dollar). - Paper, a Chinese invention, is attributed with the high government official Ts’ai Lun. - Ts’ai Lun’s method of making paper was unchanged until nineteenth century England. - After the invention of paper, the Chinese also began to use it for wrapping presents, wallpaper, napkins and toilet paper. - Printing was invented by the Chinese. - The first method of printing was block printing, using stamps. - Rubbings were also made by carving words into stone, then inking the stone and making a print on a piece of paper. This is also known as relief printing. - The oldest surviving printed manuscript is the Diamond Sutra. - Around 1000AD, paper money was printed. - An early form of Chinese graphic design was playing cards. - In 1045 AD, Chinese alchemist Pi Sheng developed movable type, using clay and glue. - Because types are not moveable, characters were organized by rhyme. - Moveable type never replaced the handcut woodblock of the orient. - The invention of paper and printing arrived in Europe just as the Renaissance began. Chapter 4: Illuminated Manuscripts - Hand-written books are referred to as Illuminated Manuscripts. - Two notable traditions of illuminated