Graphic Design of the 20 th Century - Essay Example

By medieval times, the symbols within the great churches communicated meaning to the largely illiterate citizenry regarding their religion and the lessons to be learned from the Bible. It was graphics rather than words that typically called attention to a place of business within the towns and villages with names such as the “Boar’s Head” saloon and the “Red Lion” Inn. This use of symbols to provide a quick and easy message to customers can still be seen in use today, although now refined in keeping with its more sophisticated audience, as company logos.

For most who study the development of graphic design, though, the typical starting point begins with the Arts and Crafts Movement of the 1860s and the Art Nouveau movement of the 1890s. To get a feel for the evolution of graphic communication, one must therefore trace the movements, events, people, places and technological innovations that have influenced its development. The start of the Arts and Crafts Movement is generally attributed to William Morris in response to the ever-encroaching identical sameness of the machine-made objects churned out during the Industrial Revolution.

“Not only art but also everyday objects, buildings, décor, everything lacked a face, and it was the realization of its lack in this particular respect which began to make the period so cruelly conscious of its anonymity” (Cassau, 19). In everything they did, crafters working under its influence placed value in art created by hand for limited edition prints such as the highly scrolled first page of “The Nature of Gothic,” designed and printed by William Morris. This movement naturally evolved into the Art Nouveau movement of the 1880s and 1890s.

Rather than repeatedly reinventing the ideals of their ancestors, these crafters wanted to develop a new style, one that emphasized ornament and the curving, flowing lines of nature. Using