Tags: #literature # *Why am I reading this?* Heavily influenced by Helen Tran in her [FAQ for Juniors](http://helentran.com/faqforjuniors). The following is directly from that post: > **What do you want to learn?** Part of your job is visual communication, part of it is research, and part of it is communication and facilitation. A junior is unlikely to be great at any of these yet but they should have a basic understanding of the following: > - Visual presentation + visual problem solving ability–understand space, hierarchy, typography, grids, colour theory, _in that order_[1](http://helentran.com/faqforjuniors#note-1) (bonus points: pick up [Meggs’ History of Graphic Design](https://www.amazon.ca/Meggs-History-Graphic-Design-Philip/dp/1118772059))[2](http://helentran.com/faqforjuniors#note-2)" I make a living as a product designer, and I want to be really really great at it. One skill I've historically felt weaker at is UI design. Learning the history of design is part of my efforts to shore up that gap in my education. - - - # Themes I've found to be of interest as I read this book: Controlling flow of information is power - Mesopotamian priests and scribes were the only ones who could write, and held massive influence over the people Fascinated by how the tools used in writing affect the written characters/strokes Fascinated by how money, economic usage of space also affects the written characters/strokes Interested in how it seems like writing and printing can historically traced back to identification and verification that something is genuine, seals, signatures, now??? [[identification, authenticity, and design]] writing as a design system ancient design systems Religion makes up so much of our written record and art. It was what inspired humanity in the past Constraints of tools -> creativity and innovation [https://twitter.com/hipcityreg/status/1358915089710088193?s=21](https://twitter.com/hipcityreg/status/1358915089710088193?s=21) function -> form in meggs What we do for leisure is a good place to look at where innovation will come (playing cards) Interesting how when you study design now, especially on UX side of things, it’s content shapes form. You almost need to have the content before you can even consider form. But reading about the illuminated books, like yes, the scrittori has an idea about content, but back then it was impossible to even have the content before considering the form, because form was so goddamn expensive. You create form, then make the content work. Very interested in what technological advances enable what. ex. Invention of parchment leads to new design an illustration possibilities. No longer needing to roll scrolls means codices can take thicker paint how to visualize rhythm - - - # Part I: The Prologue to Graphic Design ## The Invention of Writing - Our ancestors, likely early hominids living in southern African began to develop technology and use tools - ex. possibly shaping stones to dig for roots or cut away flesh from animals for food - "Human development from primitive origins to a civilized state required a series of quantum leaps" - speech = ability to make sounds in order to communicate. - fallible - cannot transcend time or place - writing = visual counterpart of speech. marks, symbols, pictures, letters drawn or written upon a surface - a quantum leap - preserves knowlege, experiences, and thoughts - enabled the development of civilization - earliest iteration = pictures, drawings ### Prehistoric visual communications - 35000 BCE - 4000 BCE = Early Paleolithic -> Neolithic Period - Early African and European cave paintings - Lascaux caves in southern France - Altamira in Spain - Characteristics - Random placement and scale -> lack of structure and sequence in recording experiences - Pigments - Black = charcoal - Warm tones = red and yellow iron oxides - Mixed with fat - Ft. animals and abstract Geometric signs like dots, squares - Early pictures were created for survival, utilitarian, and ritualistic purposes, like gaining success in hunt - Pictographs = elementary pictures or sketches - Early pictorial art was used to record objects and events, with fidelity increasing over time - Basis of writing and communication -> images became symbols for spoken language sounds - Petroglyphs = carved or scratched signs on rock - Ideographs = symbols to represent ideas or concepts ### The cradle of civilization - Archaeologists belive that Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization - Mesopotamia = "the land between rivers", the Fertile Crescent - located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (eastern Turkey across modern-day Iraq and the Persian Gulf) - flat, once-fertile plains, wet winters and hot, dry summers were ideal conditions for the birthplace of early human culture - 8000 BCE - beginnings of agriculture. wild grain was planted, animals were domesticated - 6000 BCE - objects hammered from copper - 3000 BCE - Bronze Age, copper was alloyed with tin to make tools and weapons. Invention of the wheel. - Sumerians - origins are a mystery. significant contribution to social and intellectual progress. - late 4000 BCE - Mesopotamian leap from village culture -> high civilization occurred after the arrival of the Sumerian people - religion - Sumerian pantheon was led by supreme deity Anu, god of the heavens - emergence of the city - Sumerians established social order needed for large amounts of ppl to coexist - invention of writing -> intellectual revolution that impacted social order, economic progress, technology, culture - Mesopotamian history details multiple waves of conquerers. After the Sumerians, conquerors include: - Akkadians - Assyrians - Babylonians - Chaldeans - Persians and Hittites -> spread Mesopotamian civilization beyond the Fertile Crescent ### The earliest writing - Religion dominated Mesopotamian city-state - Because priests and scribes were able to write, they wielded enormous power - Controlled inventory - Ministered to magical and religious needs of the people - Writing may have evolved out of a need to record information - Earliest written records = tablets listing commodities using pictographs of objects, accompanied by numerals and personal names inscribed in columns - Sharpened reed stylus was used to scratch into a clay mud tablet -> dried tablet in sun or baked in kiln - Evolution of writing system over centuries - Initially structured on a grid of horizontal and vertical divisions - 2800 BCE - scribes rotated pictographs on sides and began to write from left to right, top to bottom. Pictographs also became less literal, more symbolic - 3100 BCE - Sharp-pointed stylus was replaced with a triangular-tipped one -> writing became faster - Cuneiform = writing evolved into series of wedge-shaped strokes rather than continuous line drawing. progressive abstraction. - As writing evolved, our ability to record information improved - Pictures -> ideographs and representations of abstract ideas. ex. sun began to represent "day" or "light" - Writing needed to adapt to represent spoken sounds not easily depicted, adverbs, prepositions, personal names, etc. - Cuneiform used abstract signs to represent syllables - Because cuneiform was difficult to master, scribe training was rigorous. Professional opportunities in priesthood, estate management, accounting, medicine, and government were reserved for the select few. - Writing took on magical and ceremonial qualities - Writing allowed Mesopotamians to organie libraries with tables about: - religion - mathematics - history - law - medicine - astronomy - literature - poetry - myths - epics - legends - Writing fostered a sense of history - Writing enabled Mesopotamian society to establish laws - Measurements and weights were standardized - Code of Hammurabi = spelled out crime and punishment -> social order and justice ### Mesopotamian visual identification #identity #authenticity - Rise of village culture led to ownership of property and specialization in trades and crafts - Cattle brands and proprietary marks were developed to establish ownership and identify artisans, in case problems developed or superior quality -> repeat purchases. Like primitive logos. #### Mesopotamian cylinder seals #identity #authenticity - Method for sealing documents and proving their authenticity. Necessary to prove authority of commercial documents, religious and royal proclamations - Had images and writing etched into their surfaces, which created a raised impression of the depressed design when rolled across damp clay tablets. - Impossible to duplicate or counterfeit - Early form of printing - Prized as ornaments, status symbols, and unique personal signatures - Earliest seals were pictures of kings, line of cattle, mythic creatures. More complex, narrative imagery developed later on, such as men in battles, stories about gods. - Greek historian Herotodus wrote that each Babylonian wore a cylinder seal on a cord around the wrist. - 634-561 BCE - King Nebuchadnezzar's reign in Babylong = final glory days of Mesopotamian civilization - 538 BCE - Babylon and Mesopotamia fell to the persians. Mesopotamian culture perished and became a province of Persia, then Greece, and finally Rome. - Writing passed to Egypt and Phoenicia. - Egyptians -> hieroglyphics, complex writing system based on pictographs - Phoenicians -> alphabet, simplified complexity of cuneiform to phonetic signs ### Egyptian hieroglyphs - 3100 BCE - First Dynasty of Egypt - Sumerian inventions influenced Egypt - cylinder seal - architectural designs of brick - decorative design motifs - fundamentals of writing - Sumerian pictographic writing -> abstract cuneiform - Egyptians retained pictographic writing and used hieroglyphics for 3500 years - Earliest known hieroglyphics date from 3100 BCE - Last known hieroglyphic inscription was carved in 394 BCE by Egyptian temple priests, after Egypt became a Roman colony - The Rosetta Stone - Hieroglyphics knowledge was lost for almost 15 centuries - 1798 - Napoleon traveled to Egypt in order to disrupt the English land route to India - August 1999 - while digging foundation in the Egyptian town Rosetta, a black slab was unearthed which had an inscription in two languages and three scripts - Egyptian hieroglyphics - Egyptian demotic script - Greek - 197 or 196 BCE - written to commemorate the ascension of Pharaoh Ptolemy V, 9 years before - Jean-Francois Champollon was the main Egyptologist to decipher the Rosetta Stone - Discovered that the hieroglyphs often functioned as phonograms and not simply pictographs. (Pictographs = symbol representing thing. Phonograms = symbol representing sound) - Deciphering Rosetta Stone allowed other Egyptologists to advance in their studies of Egyptian history and culture - Hieroglyphics were comprised of pictograms that depict objects or beings. They were combined to convey ideas, phonograms, and determinatives identifying categories - **Rebus** = using a picture to represent a sound or syllable of a word to be communicated. ex. using pictures of a bee and a leaf to represent the word "belief" - When faced with words that were difficult to express visually, early Egyptian scribes created a rebus. They also assigned a pictorial symbol for every consonant sound and combination of consonants - Hieroglyphics were used for: - Historical and commercial documents - Poetry - Myths - Epics - Geography - Science - Astronomy - Medicine - Pharmacy - Concept of time - Early Western civilization was heavily influenced by ancient Egyptians #dough - Greek culture - Western use of visual symbols: - Zodiac - Scales of justice - Usage of animals to represent concepts, cities, and people - Greek owl = Athena - American eagle - Dove symbolizing peace - Lance Hidy = "Our cultural debt to the idolatry of pagan Egypt was largely expunged from history by Christian revisionists." - Ancient Egyptians paid special attention to the decorative and textural qualities of hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs were carved in stone as raised images or incised relief, and often colored. They were everywhere. They covered temples, tombs, clothing, and everyday objects. Hieroglyphs often had magical and religious meanings. #dough - The hieroglyph ankh, represented by a cross topped with a loop, originally symbolized a sandal strap. Because of phonetic similarity it became a sacred symbol for life and immortality. - Hieroglyphics had design flexibility depending on the choice of writing direction. Could be written horizontally or vertically, but they began from the direction that the living creatures on the text were facing. The designer of an artifact or manuscript had four choices: - Horizontally from left to right - Left to right in vertical columns - Horizontally right to left - Right to left in vertical columns - An example of the layout possibilities being combined in one work: - ![[593-568-BCE-sarcophagus-aspalta.jpeg]] - This is a drawing of the inscriptions in the granite sarcophagus of King Aspelta of Nubia, c. 593-568 BCE. On top left side you can see hieroglyphics drawn horizontally from left to right (starting from direction the person is facing). As you move down, you can see hieroglyphics drawn left to right in vertical columns. And same on the other side of the drawing, but inverted. - Source: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/145117 ### Papyrus and writing - Development of papyrus advanced Egyptian communications - Scribes gained substantial authority in Egyptian society - Hieroglyphic book handwriting was simpler than the hieroglyphics inscribed on religious monuments. Quickly drawn gesture vs. carefully inscribed picture - 1500 BCE - Priests had developed hieratic script, a simplified pen stroke version of the hieroglyphic book hand - 400 BCE - Demotic - a further abstracted script had been developed for secular use, in commercial and legal writing - Here's a photo that depicts how the hieroglyph for scribe evolved over time. It originated as a picture of the scribe's brush holder. From left to right: - 2700 BCE - Hieroglyph - 1500 BCE - Hieroglyphic manuscript hand - 1300 BCE - Hieratic script - 400 BCE - Demotic script ![[hieroglyph-scribe-evolution.png]] ### The first illustrated manuscripts - Egyptians were the first people to produce manuscripts that combined words and illustrations to communicate info - Egyptians were preoccupied with death. They believed in the after life and developed an intricate mythology about passing over. Upon dying, the Egyptians believed that they faced a final judgment that decided whether they would suffer eternam damnation or whether they would ascend to the company of the gods. - The evolution of Egyptian funerary texts paralleled the development of democratic and secular aspects of Egyptian life. Over time, they became more accessible. 1. Pyramid texts = hieroglyphic writings that covered the walls of the pyramids. Writings consisted of myths, hymns, and prayers about the pharaoh's deified life. An honor only for the pharaoh. 2. Coffin texts = wooden coffins and stone sarcophagi were covered with writings and pictures of possessions for use in the afterlife. The benefits of funerary texts became accessible to high officials and noblemen. 3. Papyrus manuscripts = writings and pictures on simple papyri. The benefits of funerary texts became accessible to average citizens with limited means. These manuscripts were popularized during the New Kingdom, ~1580 BCE. - The Book of the Dead = funerary papyri prepared by scribes and artists - Unique to each subject - 1st person story chronicling how the deceased person triumphs over the dangers in the underworld and gets to enter the afterlife. Includes: - Magic spells that transfigure the deceased into powerful creatures - Passwords granting access to various states of the underworld - Prayers asking for protections from the gods - Fantasies about the future - the Fields of Peace, ascending into the heavens to become a star, traveling the sky with the sun god Ra, helping Osiris rule the underworld ![[1250-BCE-ani-book-of-the-dead.png]] Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10470-3 - Photo depicts the final judgment of Ani, a royal scribe from the Papyrus of Ani, c.1420 BCE. - During the final judgment, the jackal-headed god Anubis, keeper of the dead, weights the deceased's heart against a feather, which symbolizes truth and law. - This ritual determines if the deceased is "true of voice" and free from sin. - Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe, prepares to write the verdict on his palette. - If the deceased fails to pass the final judgment, they are consumed by the monster Ammit, the devourer of the dead. - Visual symbol: Ammit has the head of a crocodile, the torso of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippo. - At the top, 12 of 42 guards sit in judgment. Ani addresses each god denying sin. When he is found virtuous, his soul spends the night travelling into the underworld and arrives the following morning. - Design format for Egyptian illustrated manuscripts ![[1370-BCE-papyrus-of-hunefer.jpeg]] Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/815830001 - From the Papyrus of hunefer, c. 1370 BCE. - 1-2 horizontal colored bands across the top and bottom of the manuscript. - Vertical columns of writing were separated by ruled lines and written from right to left. - Images drawn adjacent to the text they illustrated. - Images often stood on lower horizontal band, while columns of text hang from top horizontal band. - Sometimes divided into rectangular zones to separate text and images. - Note contrast of dense hieroglyphic texture and colorful, wide illustrations. A "functional integration of text and image" - Form preceded content (kind of) - In earlier iterations of Book of the Dead manuscripts, scribe often designed the book and left blank areas for artists to illustrate in. - The images would dominate the design. Scribe would then write manuscript, trying to avoid awkward blank spaces and occasionally writing in the margnis. - Scribes often omitted passages to preserve layout. - Illustration lines were drawn with black or brown, then color was filled in with white, black, brown, blue, green pigments. Meggs surmises that the extensive use of blue and green was inspired by the Nile river and its green riverbanks, infusing life into the dry, vast desert. - Egyptians could commission a funerary papyrus or purchase a stock copy and have the name written in the proper places. They could select the number and choice of chapters, the number and choice of illustrations, and the size. - They were usually 5-28m long and 430-45cm tall. During the decline of Egypt, the Book of the Dead consisted of a few sheets of papyrus, some only a few inches. - More design conventions - Wall paintings and papyri followed similar conventions as the funerary manuscripts - Men depicted as darker than woman - Important people were drawn larger than less important people - Human body depicted as 2D frontal schematic, with arms, legs, and head in profile ### Egyptian visual identification - Influenced by the Sumerians, Egyptians used cylinder seals and proprietary marks on their pottery. - Twelfth Dynasty - Carved scarab emblems were commonly used as identification seals. - Sculpted as scarab beetles, the flat underside was engraved with hieroglyphics and used as a seal. Sometimes the emblem was mounted as a signet ring. - Every Egyptian of any standing had a personal seal. - Ancient Egyptian culture survived for over 3000 years. Its visual communications legacy --- hieroglyphics, papyri, illustrated manuscripts --- heavily influenced the development of alphabet and graphic communications in Phoenicia and the Greco-Roman world. ## Alphabets - Early visual language systems (cuneiform, hieroglyphics, written Chinese) were pictographic -> complex, unwieldy, challenging to master - Number of individuals who gained literacy was low - Their access to knowledge allowed them to acquire great power. - Invention of alphabet was a quantum leap for human communications. Made reading, writing, and critical thought more accessible to humanity. - Alphabet = set of visual symbols or characters used to represent the lementary sounds of a spoken language. They can be connected and combined to visually represent sounds, syllabus, and words ### Cretan pictographs - Minoan civilization existed on the island of Crete. - 2800 BCE - Minoan or Cretan picture symbols were in use - 1700 BCE - Pictographic communication had yielded to linerar script writing, a possible precursor to the Greek alphabet ![[1600-1450-BCE-phaistos-disk-a..jpeg]] ![[1600-1450-BCE-phaistos-disk-b.jpeg]] Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Phaistos_Disk/ - Phaistos Disk - Discovered in 1908. Was a flat terracotta disk that had pictographic and possibly alphabetic characters impressed on both sides in spiral bands. They were impressed into wet clay using stamps (possibly the earliest example of movable type in Western culture). What the inscriptions say, who made them, and if others exist, is unknown. - Although Cretan pictographs were visually similar to early alphabets, there seems to be no conclusive evidence of a correlation. Paleographers are uncertain if they were a precursor. ### North Semitic alphabet --- Citations Meggs, P. B., & Purvis, A. W. (2016). Meggs' history of graphic Design, 6th edition. In _Meggs' History of Graphic Design_ (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. --- Created: February 23, 2021 Last Modified: November 20, 2021