Early Innovations In Visual
Communication and Printing
15,000–10,000 BC
The first known visual
communication, with pictographs
and symbols in the Lascaux caves
in southern France.
3600 BC
The Blau Monument, the oldest
artifact known to combine words
and pictures.They are thought to
be from the Iraq area.
105 AD
Chinese government official Ts’ai
Lun is credited with inventing
paper.
1045 AD
Pi Sheng, a Chinese alchemist,
invents movable type, which
allows characters to be
individually placed for printing.
1276
Printing arrives in Europe with a
paper mill in Fabriano, Italy.
1450
Johann Gensfleisch zum
Gutenberg is credited with
perfecting the system for printing
type in books.
1460
Albrecht Pfister becomes the first
to add illustrations to a printed
book.
The Industrial Revolution
Revolutionary Changes to
Typeface
1470
Nicolas Jenson, considered one of
history’s greatest typeface
designers, sets a new standard for
the Roman type.
1530
Claude Garamond opens the first
type foundry, developing and
selling fonts to printers.
1722
The first Caslon Old Style font is
developed. It would later be used
for the printing of the Declaration
of Independence.
The Industrial Revolution
1760
The Industrial Revolution begins and sets the
stage for advances in graphic design
production.
1796
Author Aloys Senefelder develops
lithography. This was the first "planographic"
printing method employed, meaning it used
a flat surface and set the stage for modern
offset printing.
1800
Lord Stanhope invents the first printing
press made of all cast-iron parts. It required
one-tenth of the manual labor of previous
presses and doubled the possible paper size.
1816
The first sans-serif font makes a subtle
entrance as one line of a book.
Design Comes Into Its Own
 Modern Design Styles Emerge
1861
Williams Morris, who became a highly
influential figure in design history, sets up
his art decorating firm.

1869
N.W. Ayer & Son is founded. Considered the
first advertising agency, they pioneered the
open contract and utilized fine art in design.

1880
Art Nouveau movement begins and changes
design, making its way into all types
ofcommercial design and utilizing all types
of arts.

1900
The Futurism style of design emerges. Influenced
by cubism and technology, it dropped all the
traditional features and concentrated on clean,
sharp, straight lines. It was popular through the
1930s.

1910
A style called Early Modern developed. It uses
photos rather than illustrations and a
minimalistic, geometric design sense. The style
was popular until around 1935.

1910
Hero Realism is influenced by the wars and
continues through the 1940s. This style relied
heavily on realistic illustrations of people and a
strong message: think Rosie the Riveter.