The Early Era of Graphic Arts

Graphic design and graphic arts have been around since the beginning of mankind. Graphic art is the use of line and other two dimensional elements to create visual art while graphic design is the combination of typography and Graphic arts in order to advertise a certain product. This however would not be the case if it weren't for the early humans who created multiple ways of written communication.

From 35,000 to 4000 BCE early mankind invented graphic art while attempting to communicate with one another. Evidence of this can be found originating and radiating as far as France, New Zealand, and North America, when archaeologists found cave paintings etched into the rock walls. These etched pictures like the one shown below are very simple two dimensional drawings “or symbols to represent ideas or concepts” (Meggs, 7). 

As time progressed and humans became more intellectual building structures such as the pyramids in Egypt or city states like in Mesopotamia, their need for a written language called for progression as well. In Mesopotamia those who wielded power sought a way of record keeping. Thus the first written language was born from this idea. Scribing took a many years to master, and was held in very high esteem. In Egypt those who learned how to write were relieved of taxation and in many other civilizations they held places of power on par with priests. The early civilizations of Egypt were probably the most beneficial in the advancement of writing. They had developed a form of writing that resembled the cave paintings but had more of a system to it featuring carvings that resembled certain sounds and whether those sounds were preceded by other certain carvings they would make different words, expanding on Mesopotamia’s early Cuneiform. In 1798 while on an expedition to cut off English trade route to India Napoleon unearthed the Rosetta Stone (shown below), which brought Egyptian hieroglyphs to the modern world’s attention allowing us to be able to further our understanding of early writing techniques. 

Up until this point many of the writing systems had been carved into stone such as the Rosetta Stone however in the later eras of Egyptian writing papyrus was used as a form of paper to be written on with a brush. This invention made it possible for written texts to be transported or moved from pace to place. There were many different grades of papyrus all being used in different situations. As papyrus grew commonly along the banks of the Nile River it was very inexpensive and therefore many people could afford to buy it for when they were buried with scriptures written on it to ask for the Gods’ good judgment. The image below is a shroud fragment covered in hieroglyphs of Tuthmosis III.