...As Found in Meggs' History of Graphic Design.
The images tend towards being text heavy—I was expecting more images that were combinations of words and images. As the images became more modern, I began to see more of the types of images I was expecting: posters, advertisements, and logos.
The progression of
graphic imagery from the ancient past to modern day seems, as
presented by the images in this book, fairly involved. Graphic
design, in my mind at least, has always been tied to the
communication of specific ideas; the fine arts (painting, drawing,
sculpture) deal in the more ephemeral ideas, whereas the graphic arts
tend to focus on more concrete ideas. The line is a fuzzy one, and
I've never entirely believed that they're two separate disciplines.
Seeing the
connection between the evolution of written word and images used with
words really drives home the idea that graphic design is about
communication. The old cliché “a picture is worth a thousand
words” seems appropriate, but I would add that a dozen words can
paint a picture. (Not as catchy, maybe, but I'll work on it.) As I
looked through the images in Meggs' History of Graphic Design, it
seemed to me that graphic design not only reaches back into the past
for inspiration, as many of the later (that is, modern) pieces
clearly alluded to ancient art, but graphic design has come around
full circle. Images became words, and now words are transforming into
images.
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| A chapter of the Epic of Gilgamesh © 2011 Meggs' History of Graphic Design |
The most curious
images to me were of the clay tablets with the stories of Gilgamesh
on them; I'd heard of Gilgamesh previously, and it was really
something to see the original (or perhaps copies of the original)
tablets they were inscribed on—inscribed in the literal sense, with
a stylus and everything. I'm constantly fascinated with the human
capacity for storytelling, and think that the visual arts are a great
way to tell a story (sure, you could just use words if you're
boring), but seeing one of the oldest written stories in its original
format is just mind-blowing.
And now I can hardly
wait to start reading the text that explains what these images mean
to human history—I got a few teasers with the captions of the
images, but I certainly want more.
Image(s) from Meggs, Philip B.; Purvis, Alston W. (2011-11-02). Meggs' History of Graphic Design (Kindle Location 597). John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition.
Image(s) from Meggs, Philip B.; Purvis, Alston W. (2011-11-02). Meggs' History of Graphic Design (Kindle Location 597). John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition.
