Typographical Communication: A History

Typographical Communication A History

Written & Designed by Danielle Metzger

Pictographs & Ideographs

HOUSE = HOUSE The first form of visual communication

was pictographs, or simple illustrations of elements from humans’ daily lives.

These drawings could have been of

animals, weapons, other humans, and many

other things, and were meant to represent the immediate object being drawn. For instance, a drawing of a house simply represented a house. This method of

communication and storytelling would lay the groundwork for the development of visual communications in the future.

HOUSE = HOME Eventually, humanity had the need to

While pictographs and ideographs

This led to the emergence of

in visual communication and written

communicate more abstract concepts. ideographs, which represented ideas rather than objects. A symbol of

a house could now mean shelter or

family. Ideographs functioned in the same way that skull and crossbones represent danger in a contemporary

context, rather than representing the object of a skull at face value.

represent a significant development language, these systems contained an

immeasurable number of complex symbols that made communication tedious and inefficient.

OX = “A” In ancient times, the Phoenicians were a people of merchants and traders, and as such, needed a more streamlined way of documenting the details of their

business as well as of communicating

with those they did business with. Thus came the concept of using symbols in

language to represent sounds of speech, rather than the original representation of objects and ideas. With that said, the Phoenicians assigned some of their

original pictograph symbols to particular sounds of speech in order to makeup

their alphabet, according to the sounds within what those symbols represented.

For example, the Phoenicians assigned

the symbol for an ox, or aleph in their

language, to be what is now recognized as the letter “A”.

(1200 BC)

The Phoenician Alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet had fewer symbols than the original picto-ideographic

system of communication and was more efficient and quicker to learn. This

alphabet would lead to the development of the modern alphabet known and used today.

Greek & Roman Alphabets ALEPH < ALPHA The ancient Greeks began to adopt the alphabet system of the Phoenicians.

They altered some of the letters’ names slightly, such as by changing aleph

to alpha. While the Greeks used this

alphabet system for business and trading, similar to the Phoenicians, they also saw its potential for preserving knowledge.

The Phoenician alphabet originally

contained only consonants and no vowels, so words appeared more like modern day abbreviations. The Greeks recognized

that while this was sufficient for trade purposes, it would not be effective for broader uses, like in their endeavor to preserve knowledge; consequently, they added five vowels to their alphabet.

ALPHA < a Similar to the Greeks’ adoption of the

Phoenician alphabet, the Romans adopted and altered the Greek alphabet for

themselves. They also added two letters, resulting in an alphabet of twenty-three letters. The Romans also rejected the

Greek titles for the individual letters

and designated their own, simpler sounds to refer to the letters, similar to our modern alphabet letter names.

Lowercase letters & Punctuation abc When the alphabet was first introduced and adopted by ancient civilizations, capital letters were solely used in

writing. Small letters, or lowercase

letters, emerged naturally from writing

and rewriting characters in pen. As more and more people started writing, there

was a demand for more compressed letters

in order to fit more characters and words in a single line of text.

?!

During the beginning of the development

of the alphabet and writing, there was no official punctuation. Words were either

written together or separated by a dot or slash. Grammar and punctuation would not become formalized until the 15th century due to the invention of the printing press.

A New Beginning...

Craftsman and inventor Johannes Gutenberg created the movable type printing

press during the 15th century. This machine allowed type to be arranged

in a particular manner and led to the

emergence of new styles of typography.

Printing became cheaper and more

efficient, and thus literature and

knowledge were more accessible. This lead to the growth of literacy and

education, as well as inspired printers

and designers to experiment with type and layout design for the first time.

(1440 AD)

Gutenberg’s Printing press

BIBLIOGRAPHY Craig, J., Scala, I. K., & Bevington, W.

(2006). Designing with type (5th ed.).

Watson-Guptill Publications.

E., R., Bailey, K., & Jundi, L. A.

(2023, April 2). How did Gutenberg’s invention of movable type

revolutionize graphic arts? Linkedin.

https://www.linkedin.com/advice/3/howdid-gutenbergs-invention-movable-typerevolutionize#:~:text=Gutenberg’s%20 invention%20of%20movable%20type%20

had%20a%20profound%20impact%20on,in%20 Europe%20using%20movable%20type.

Encyclopædia Britannica. (2024, January

31). Johannes Gutenberg. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica. com/biography/Johannes-Gutenberg

A Brief History of typographic communication and how it has become what it is today From the very beginnings of human civilization to the 15th century AD, this book traces back to the origins of how we communicate typographically. It explores how humans went from relying on cave drawings to memorizing their ABC’s, where our modern alphabet comes from, and when elements of typographic and layout design first came into play. Readers will journey across civilizations and technologies

to discover

the impact

typography

has had

on our world, and what impacts it could have in the future.

Danielle Metzger is a passionate student pursuing a degree in Digital Media and Design. With a deep fascination for design, language, and communication, she embarked on a personal journey to explore the history of typographical communication. This journey led her to meticulously research and compile the rich tapestry of human expression captured within the pages of “Typographical Communication: A History.”