This document provides an overview of the rise of print culture and graphic design from the 15th century to the late 20th century. It discusses the technological developments that enabled mass printing, the growth of print media like newspapers and magazines, and the role of print in shaping public discourse. As printing became mechanized in the 1820s, it led to the emergence of graphic design as a distinct profession. The document traces the evolution of graphic design through major historical periods and highlights influential designers who advanced the field through their work in publication design, branding, and visual communication.

1. Class 13.1
The Rise of a
Commercial
Culture
A r t 1 0 0
U n d e r s t a n d i n g V i s u a l C u l t u r e

2. agenda 11.15.2016
• early communications media
• arrival of print
• early print media
• print culture and the public sphere
• technological changes in the 1820s
• new print media: ephemera, magazines, newspapers,
books and prints
• the birth of graphic design

4. quipu

6. from handwritten manuscripts
on parchment to printed
paper...
• print permits a greater degree of standardization and
modularization
• more information can be exchanged more quickly
• linked to rise of science, ongoing development of human
rights

7. Jost AMMANN (1539-1591)
“The Printer's Workshop,” from
The Book of Trades
woodcut
1568

8. early printed formats
 broadsheet/broadside:
 a single sheet that was used to print announcements or
notices on one side only.
 posted publicly and read/viewed by all
 the printer made the design decisions
 Bibles and other religious texts such as prayerbooks
 some treatises on science, law, government, etc. but this
will increase later

10. broadsheet or broadside
 a single sheet, printed on one side only, to be nailed up in
a public public and read/viewed by all
 the broadsheet has a long history continuing into the 19th
century
 used for public announcements, warnings, news bulletins,
and advertisements

11. broadsheet announcing British naval victory, 1805

12. broadsheet warning
1831

13. crime broadsheet
1831

14. broadsheet advertisement
1853

15. how does print matter?

16. Commerce
, opinion,
and coffee
in England,
1798

19. shaping a public sphere
• what makes a sphere public?
• people come together who are not necessarily from the same
background
• different classes represented
• different occupations
• different points of view
• but all equal as one voice in the conversation (do not have to
defer to your social superiors)
• a space of heterogeneous opinion

20. Salon conversation

21. coffeehouse vs. salon
COFFEEHOUSE
men only
public; open to all ranks for
price of a coffee
(mixed by social class)
SALON
men and women
by invitation only, so more
exclusive
(mixed by gender and
profession)

22. James Gillray
Very Slippy Weather, Indeed!
1808

23. Vicesimus Knox, "On the Effects of Caricatures
exhibited at the Windows of Printsellers,"
Winter Evenings (London: 2 vols. Charles
Dilly, 3d. ed., 1795): 139-144.
“The lower classes in London, it might be
supposed, have not time, inclination, or ability,
to read much, but their minds are filled with
ideas, not only by the multitude of occurrences,
but also by the prints that are obtruded on their
notice, in the windows of shops conspicuously
situated in the most frequented streets. And I
believe, they often receive impressions, either
favourable, or unfavourable, to their honesty
and happiness as they loiter at a window, with a
burden on their backs, and gape, unmindful of
their toil, at the comical productions of the
ingenious designer.”

25. Vicesimus Knox, "On the Effects of Caricatures
exhibited at the Windows of Printsellers,"
Winter Evenings (London: 2 vols. Charles
Dilly, 3d. ed., 1795): 139-144.
“ The mode of ridiculing by prints has
some advantages over that by writing and
argument. Its effect is instantaneous; and
they who cannot read, or have not sense
enough to comprehend, a refined piece of
raillery, are able to see a good caricature,
and to receive a powerful impression from
it.”

26. stereotype,
caricature,
satire
Charles Philipon, Les Poires,
Charivari, 1832

27. Satirical cartoons remain an important vehicle for political critique.

29. new combination of
technologies in the 1820s
steam power
iron presses
higher pressure for reproduction of images
larger printing area
endgrain wood engraving (produces harder, smoother
surface that can hold finer lines)
These technological improvements led to an explosion of printe
materials in the 19th century.

30. hand-cranked printing press,
but now in cast iron, allowing
greater pressure to be exerted
on the plates

31. early design for steam-powered printing press

32. Charles Frederick
Ulrich
The Village Printing
Shop, Haarlem,
Holland
1884
Oil on panel
21 1/4 x 22 15/16
inches

33. Published in The Illustrated London News, June 15, 1861, p. 555.

35. what happens when print is
mechanized?
• Ephemera: printed paper meant to be thrown away:
tickets, menus, billheads, public notices and posters
• Illustrated weekly magazines begin publication.
• There is enough work for skilled designers,
illustrators, caricaturists, beginning of advertising
profession.
• Also impacted publication of books and prints,
increasing print runs and opening up a mass market.

42. cover of Harper’s Weekly,
February, 1895

43. changes in advertising

44. These small text-based
ads will give way to an
entirely different regime
of promoting products.

47. Sir John Everett MILLAIS
“A Child’s World”
1886
oil on canvas

48. “Bubbles” Pears Soap ad, 1890

53. what is graphic design?
visual communication using combinations of text and images,
organized to produce maximum impact
a modern design field of relatively recent origin, arising as
mass print communications reached ever wider audiences
earlier, the printer would design the printed material, choose
the font, etc.
1820 to present, the graphic designer handles only the
design aspects, the printer handles only the production
aspects
so, graphic design today is a profession, but if you've ever
made a flyer or a sign for a garage sale, you have done it

54. not professionally designed

55. birth of graphic design
• ongoing innovation in production methods continues to
increase volume and variety of printed media
• communicating through print comes to be expected
• every single sheet of paper produced has to be designed,
by someone, at some point
• commercial artists separate into a distinct category
separate from fine artists
• trade publications and advertisements for graphic design
services demonstrate the rise of a professional group

56. 1880s-1910s
• as industrialization progresses, a craft revival gets
underway
• valuing the traditions of the handmade and the singular
vs. mass-produced items in quantity
• stylistically, folk and historical motifs coexist with abstract
forms (both geometric and organic)

57. Advertisement Calendar, 1885

58. Jugend No. 14
April 1896

60. Peter Behrens, Corporate logo design and publications for AEG, 1907

62. 1910-1930
• new modern world demands new modern forms—in
architecture, product design, and graphic design as well
• Bauhaus revolutionized design thinking and design
education
• designers have a significant role in the creation of social
protest art and propaganda
• graphic design is a key player in the rise of consumer
culture; rise of brands
• commercial artists and layout designers are joined by art
directors as the profession becomes increasingly
differentiated

63. Bauhaus "Building House"
(1919-1928)
Walter Gropius was appointed
Director of the Academy of Fine
Arts in Weimar.
He merged it with School of Arts
and Crafts—no distinction
between the arts, all are
governed by the same basic
principles.
Collaboration and context were
key principles.

68. 1930s and 1940s
• wartime imagery
• propaganda
• public service campaigns

69. mixed messages for women

75. 1960s
• Pop, protest, and counterculture complicated the picture
• rise of humor and anti-advertising
• era of McLuhan's Understanding Media (1964): analysis of
different communications media and their impacts on our
human existence

78. layout, type, and
photography collaborate
to produce sensation

81. Jimms Nelson
Handbill for The Doors Concert, 1968

82. Sarah Whitcombe,
jacket design for
The Electric Kool-Aid
Acid Test, 1968

83. John Alcorn
7 Up
late 1960s

84. 1970s
• graphic designer's role expands from composing and
styling specific messages to creating total brand identities
• corporate logos drew on Bauhaus principles of universal
design
• television means brand identity must be coordinated
across a variety of platforms

85. Paul Rand (1914-1996)

89. Rand's impact
“He almost singlehandedly convinced business that design
was an effective tool. [. . .] Anyone designing in the 1950s
and 1960s owed much to Rand, who largely made it possible
for us to work. He more than anyone else made the
profession reputable. We went from being commercial artists
to being graphic designers largely on his merits.”
—Louis Danziger, 1996

90. The evolution of logos across time. What trends do you no

91. Well-known logos today.