IIID Public Library Information Design 6 Predecessors & Pioneers Rune Pettersson Institute for infology IIID Public Library The “IIID Public Library” is a free resource for all who are interested in information design. This book was kindly donated by the author free of charge to visitors of the IIID Public Library / Website. International Institute for Information Design (IIID) 1170 Wien, Palffygasse 27 / 17, Austria www.iiid.net Information Design 6 Predecessors & Pioneers Predecessors Pioneers Rune Pettersson * Institute for infology Drawings and photos are my own, unless other information. ISBN 978-91-85334-33-9 © Rune Pettersson Tullinge 2013 2 Preface Information design is a multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional, and worldwide consideration with influences from areas such as art and aesthetics, behaviour and cognition, business and law, communication, information, language, as well as media pro- duction technologies. Since my retirement I have revised, edited and expanded sections of my books, conference papers and reports about in- formation design, message design, visual communication and visual literacy. The result of this work is a series of six books about information design. Information Design 1–Message Design Information Design 2–Text Design Information Design 3–Image Design Information Design 4–Graphic Design Information Design 5–Cognition Information Design 6–Predecessors & Pioneers These books include definitions, selected results from research, and theoretical considerations as well as practical design guide- lines. The intended reader is especially interested in research and theory related to message design, and the design of infor- mation sets and information materials. Tullinge, Sweden Rune Pettersson, Ph.D. Retired Professor of Information Design 3 Contents Preface 3 Contents 4 Introduction 9 Our oldest pictures 11 The Blombos Cave 13 Basic elements in a picture 15 Graphic symbols 17 Body art 18 The Chauvet Cave 20 Carved figures 23 Pottery 25 Ertebølle culture 26 Funnelbeaker culture 27 Pitted ware culture 29 Corded ware culture 30 Rock carvings 31 Northern rock carvings 32 Southern rock carvings 35 Newgrange 38 A large turf mound 38 The winter solstice 39 Neolithic rock designs 40 Stonehenge 42 Sierra de San Francisco 45 The Bronze Age culture 49 A rich visual world 50 Purposes and functions of rock art 50 4 Motifs in rock art 54 Design or art? 64 Early writing systems 69 Books of the dead 71 Pharaoh Amenhotep II and Sennefer 73 Rune stones 75 Image stones 77 Inscribed verbal and visual messages 81 The Tjängvide rune stone 81 The Sparlösa rune stone 83 The Ramsund inscription 87 The Spånga rune stone 88 The large Jelling stone 90 Pictures in churches 97 The movie in Chichén Itza 98 Temple cities 98 Chichén Itza 101 An early “strip” 106 Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi 108 The Upper Church 109 Giotto di Bondone 110 Parish churches 111 Why were churches decorated? 112 Albertus Pictor 113 The church decorations 115 The audiences 120 Lighting conditions 121 Sources of inspiration 122 5 An early information designer 126 Architecture and sculpture 128 Bernt Notke 130 Gianlorenzo Bernini 132 The father of the Baroque style 132 Motion designer 134 Light designer 137 Sound designer 139 Paintings and drawings 140 Leon Battista Alberti 142 Peter Paul Rubens 144 Early books 147 Manuscripts 148 Aesthetic decorations 148 Visual instructions 149 Woodcuts 150 Biblia pauperum 151 Johann Gutenberg 156 Movable type 156 The 42 line page 158 Rapid dissemination 160 Technology for words 161 Andrea Alciati 162 Renaissance emblem books 162 Emblematum liber 164 Cesare Ripa 171 Iconologia 171 Conscious work 175 6 Andreas Vesalius 176 The Fabrica and the Epitome 178 Controversial knowledge 180 Iohannes Amos Comenius 182 Philosophy of education 182 Orbis Sensualium Pictus 184 Dénis Diderot 186 La Grande Encyclopédie 186 The Age of Enlightenment 190 Graphic design 192 Geoffroy Tory 197 Stanley Morison 199 Max Miedinger 200 Early posters 202 Jules Chéret 204 Modern technology 204 The father of the poster 204 Huge production 206 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 208 Bohemian lifestyle 208 Moulin Rouge 209 Japanese woodcuts 212 More posters 213 A short life 214 Alfons Maria Mucha 215 Educational posters 217 Early diagram design 219 Joseph Priestley 221 7 Charles Joseph Minard 223 Michael George Mulhall 226 Willard Cope Brinton 228 Harry Beck 230 Early photography 233 Early film 234 Early television 236 References 238 8 Introduction Where are the roots of information design? Where are the early examples of artefacts where the creators have used combined and effective verbal and visual messages? Who are the major predecessors and pioneers in information design? This book in- cludes some examples of people who have served as inspirers and sometimes as guides in the design of messages with words, images and form. In this book I have used the word predecessor for people who are unknown to us today. In these cases we still have access to the results of some of their work. It may be a painting on the ceiling as well as the walls in a church. In this book I have used the word pioneer for people who we know by their names. These individuals were working as ar- chitects, artists, engineers, graphic designers, mathematicians, painters, photographers, printers, sculptors, statistics, teachers, type designers, typographers, and writers. Many had several professions or skills. Obviously there are many people who have worked in these occupations. I have subjectively selected a few individuals whom I find fascinating. They all lived long before information design was established as a scientific discipline and as an aca- demic subject matter. All of them were working in other occupa- tions. However, their widespread discoveries and their experi- ences can help us to convey clear messages today. Some of these predecessors and pioneers are discussed in the following chapters. There are a number of suggested Inter- net addresses for pictures and video sequences. 9 Memories of past experiences have largely been preserved in written records. Historians often focus on events and human developments that occurred in “blocks of time” or “periods” in our history. However, all these systems are more or less arbi- trary, and they are often very specific to geographical locations. Also the dates of the start and end of a particular period vary. This means that a specific year may a part of different “histori- cal periods” in different geographical locations. This book is an interpretative history of combined verbal and visual messages. It is not a linear sequence. The examples of predecessors and pioneers in information design are not discussed chronologi- cally but rather in a thematic manner. In this book historical periods are mainly related to the de- velopment of architecture, painting and sculpture in Europe. There is a European, or even a Scandinavian, focus in this book. 10 Our oldest pictures Prehistory is the period before written history. By studying carvings, drawings, paintings, pottery, sculptures, and other ar- tefacts, archaeologists may recover some information even in the absence of written records. The controlled use of fire occurred about 800 thousand years ago. Modern humans, Homo sapiens, emerged in Africa 250 thousand years ago. Around 60–70 thousand years ago modern humans migrated out of Africa and spread in different directions. They reached Europe about 40,000 years ago. The first lines in the comprehensive book “The history of art, architecture, painting, sculpture” begins with the following paragraph (Myers and Copplestone, 1990, p. 10): The earliest art known to us goes back to the very dawn of the history of mankind–indeed, it is fair to say that making art is one of the earliest human activities of which we now have a record. The painting and sculpture of the Old Stone Age provably antedates the majority of the basic crafts, even weaving or making pottery. It is far older than metal working, and belongs to a level of society which we now find almost unimaginably primitive.” Since the Neolithic period (approximately 10,000–2,000 BC) people have communicated not only through gestures and sounds, but also by means of visual language (de Jong, 2010, p. 7). Worldwide, hunters and gatherers and later early farmers made use of information systems to advertise services and pro- ducts. 11 Rock art is an archaeological term used to refer to human- made markings placed on natural stone. It is a form of land- scape art. Prehistoric rock art include images that are carved, engraved, or painted on cave walls and ceilings, and on open-air boulder and cliff faces, rocks or exposed glaciated pavements, and slabs, and engraved into the ground. In some parts of the world images were painted or engraved on bone, eggshell, ivory, leather, portable pieces of rock, and on wood. Human and ani- mal figures were also modelled and sculptured from bone, clay, ivory, and stone. Rock art is found in all parts of the globe ex- cept Antarctica. Many terms are used for discussions about prehistoric rock art in the published literature, such as: petro glyphs, rock carv- ings, rock drawings, rock engravings, rock images, rock inscrip- tions, rock paintings, rock pictures, rock records, and rock sculptures. There may even be more terms. It is not always pos- sible to distinguish between some of these terms. Actually some of these terms seem to be synonyms. Archaeologists studying these artworks often believe that they likely had some kind of magical-religious significance. The available knowledge about rock art is increasing rapidly as this subject becomes a more acceptable and respected field of study within the social sciences. Rock carvings and pictographs are still being found in new areas around the world. Archaeological artefacts provide the physical evidence on which archaeologists build their interpretations of the past. In a similar manner visual images provide records of cultural change through time.