GRAPHIC DESIGN

When the first university established in Europe at the beginning of the second millennium, book became a great demand. Printing technology hadn’t been found at that time therefore a book had to be copied manually. Probably many months needed for just overwrote a book. To fulfill the demand of copying many books which were getting increased and to make the work of the man that doing the overwriting (scribes) became faster, the Black Letter Script were launched in small letter which was made with a thin-thick slim shape. Efficiency could be reached through the shape of this letter because of the thin-thick could made the writing works became faster. Another advantage was with the benefit of the beautiful slim shape, those letters could be written in a bigger amount on a page of a book.

The following are the important events in the history of graphic design development. Johannes Gutenberg (1398 -1468) found a moveable literacy technology in the year of 1447 with pressure model like the design used in Rhineland, Germany to produce wine. It was a revolutionary development that made possible a mass book production with a low budget, which became part of the information explosions on the moment of the European resurrection.

1851, The Great Exhibition

Held on Hyde London Park between May till October 1851 when the revolution of industry happened. This big exhibition focused on the culture and industry and celebrated the design and industrial technology. The exhibition was presented in a building in form of cast-iron structure and glasses, also called Cristal Palace designed by Joseph Paxton.

1892, Aristide Bruant, Toulouse-Lautrec

A French post-impressionist painter and art nouveau illustrator, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec painted many sides of Paris on the 19^th century in a poster and painting that expressed sympathy to a human-race. Though lithograph had been found in Austria by Alois Senefelder on 1796, Toulose-Lautrec helped to achieve the merger of industry and art.

1910, Modernism

Modernism was formed by urbanization and industrialization of the western community. A dogma that became the spirit of the modern design was “Form Follow Function” that been said by Louis Sullivan. The most powerful symbol of the glorious of modernization was a machine which also meant to be a future for the followers. An undecorated design more appropriated with machinery language, so the ornamental and decorative works of tradition was considered not suitable with the machinery esthetic.

1916, Dadaism

An art and literacy movement (1916-1923) was developed followed the period of the First World War and searched an original fact until the abolition of the traditional culture and esthetical shape. Dadaism brought a new idea, orientation and material, but with a little uniformity. The principle was the intended irrationality, the sinister and anarchy character, and the refusal to the beauty law.

1916, De Stijl

Dutch style, De Stijl was an art and a design movement developed by a magazine from a same name found by Theo Van Doesburg. De Stijl used a shape of strong square, used the basic colors and metrical composition. The following picture is Red and Blue Chair which was designed by Gerrit Rietveld.

1919, Bauhaus

Bauhaus was opened on 1919 under the instruction of the famous architect Walter Gropius. Until finally had to be closed on 1933. Bauhaus started some fresh approach of design followed the First World War with some style focused on the function instead of the ornament.

1928-1930, Gill Sans

The typographer Eric Gill learned to Edward Johnston and refined the Underground type into the Gill Sans type. Gill Sans was a kind of Sans Serif Letter with classical proportion and the graceful geometric character which give it a great versatility.

1931, Harry Beck

The graphic designer Harry Beck (1903-1974) created the London Underground Map on 1931. An abstract work contained a little relation to the physical scale. Beck focused on the user necessity of how to move from one station to another station and where should change train.

1950s, International Style

International or Swiss style was based on the revolutionary principle 1920s like De Stijl, Bauhaus and Neue Typography, and it became legal on 1950s. Grid, mathematical principle, a little decoration and kind of sans serif letters became rules like typography was upgraded to show more the universal function than personal expression.

1951, Helvetica

Created by Max Miedinger, a Swiss Designer, Helvetica was one of the most popular and famous alphabetical type in the world. Having clean appearance, unlined, illogical based on the letter of Akzidenz-Grotesk. At the beginning it was called Hass Grostesk, but then the name changed into Helvetica on 1960. Helvetica’s family has 34 thickness models and Neue Helvetica has 51 models.

1960s, Psychedelia and Pop Art

The popular culture on the 1960s like music, art, design and literacy became easier to be accessed and reflected daily life. Intended and clear, Pop Art developed as a contradiction action to the abstract art. The picture below is a picture by Milton Glaser that focused on the silhouette style of Marcel Duchamp combined with the round calligraphy. It was printed more than 6 million exemplars.

1984, Émigré

The American graphic design magazine, émigré was firstly published to use Macintosh computer, and affect the graphic designer to alter to the publishing desktop (DPT). This magazine also act as a typography experiment forum.