Introduction Art Nouveau was an innovative international style of modern art that became fashionable from about 1890 to the First World War. Arising as a reaction to 19th-century designs dominated by historicism in general and neoclassicism in particular, it promulgated the idea of art and design as part of everyday life. Henceforth artists should not…

The Inception of Visual Communications in Ancient Egypt Wooden ushabti box and ushabtis of Pinedjem I. There is no doubt that ancient Egyptians were the originator of what is today defined as ‘visual communication design’. The Egyptian language of antiquity used the same word, sekh, to signify writing, drawing, and painting, and from the very…

  The “Spotted Horses” mural, painted by woman artists inside France’s Pech Merle cave dated 23 millennium BC is a fine example of the prehistoric graphic design. According to the analysis of Pennsylvania State University archaeologist Dean Snow many of the artists working in that cave were women. Until recently, most scientists assumed the prehistoric…

The earliest examples of Chinese writing date to the late Shang period (ca. 1200 BC). These are the so-called Oracle Bone Inscriptions (jiaguwen) which were found at the site of the last Shang capital near present-day Anyang in Henan province.Later on the bronze inscriptions (jinwen) which were texts casted or carved into the surface of…

Although after the birth of Islam in 7th century AD, Arabic inscriptions became prevalent in  the western and central Asia,  the origin of the Arabic script also goes back to the Phoenician alphabet, which a branch of it evolved into Aramaic, which evolved into Modern Hebrew and Nabataean. The Nabataeans, which established the kingdom of…

The Latin alphabet is originated from the Etruscan alphabet, in the 7th century BC. The Etruscans themselves derived their alphabet from the Greek colonists in Italy, more specifically from the Cumae alphabet. The Ancient Greek alphabet was in turn based upon the alphabet of Phoenicians who were living on the coastal area of Lebanon, Palestine…

A Sumerian tablet with cylinder seal impression of a hunter with hunting dogs and boars. 3100-2900 BC. Uruk   A Sumerian Writing Tablet.   History of Writing   Since the primordial time, spoken words and pictures have intermingled with each otheras a means of communication . Humans have used words to paint pictures verbally, and…

Peradaban Mesopotamia meliputi Sumeria, Babilonia, Assyria, dan Persia. Sejarah Peradaban tua Mesopotamia berkembang di antara dua sungai besar, Euphrat dan Tigris, yang merupakan wilayah Irak sekarang. Kedua sungai tersebut berhulu di Pegunungan Armenia (sekarang Turki) dan mengalir ke arah tenggara menuju Teluk Persia. Kawasan yang meliputi kurang lebih enam ribu kilometer persegi tersebut memiliki kesuburan…

Pada tanggal 8 September 2005 dalam acara “Gathering and Talk Show-It’s Graphic Designers United!” di arena FGDexpo 2005, Jakarta Convention Center yang diselenggarakan oleh FDGI, diterbitkan Memorandum ADGI kepada Gauri Nasution, Danton Sihombing, Hastjarjo B Wibowo dan Mendiola B Wiryawan untuk mempersiapkan Kongres ADGI dalam waktu 6 bulan. Pada bulan Oktober 2005 para penerima mandat…

Setelah membaca dari berbagai sumber tentang sejarah desain grafis di Indonesia, saya berniat untuk share kembali apa yang telah saya baca, ternyata geliat perkembangan desain di Indonesia di mulai pada tahun 1970, dimana pada saat itu telah terjadi peristiwa yang diberi nama Desember Hitam, peristiwa ini pecah di penghujung tahun 1974. Desember Hitam muncul karena…