A History of Design¶

In which we view fifty millennia of humans doing design, and do little justice to any single area and none to quite a few.

Jesal Mehta — PG-II, Product Design, 2011
Presented to Prof. Deepankar Bhattacharyya

“Design is that area of human experience, skill and knowledge which is concerned with man’s ability to mould his environment to suit his material and spiritual needs.” — Archer, B (1973) “The Need for Design Education.” Royal College of Art

With apologies to Leonard Archer, design may actually be older than the human race itself, since the tool making of chimps has been well documented in the past century¹. However, the history of design, for all practical purposes (which is what design is about anyway) refuses separation from that of the human race and all the myriad activities it has been up to. Indeed, design has often been stated to be one of the hallmarks of human civilisation.

The earliest instances of design were concerned with survival. Biped apes on the African savannah who had freshly (relatively, on a geological timescale) learned to stand upright long enough to free their arms hunted and defended using stone spears and axes. They used stone knives made by chipping and flaking stone to cut meat, and bone needles to sew fur together for warmth.

As intelligence developed, awareness arrived. Acts of nature needed explaining, records needed keeping, and the accrued knowledge needed passing on to the next generations. Thus were gods invented and appealed to, and cave walls got painted.

The knowledge of Fire was probably the greatest acquisition of the age (probably of all the ages, including the age of sliced bread) and fuelled a great surge of development. Flintstones were treasured items and tinder selection was elevated to an art. Campfires, cook fires and torches were developed, and the first charcoal pencils came into being.

As humans spread across the planet, with weapons being refined and ever newer tools being created, the last great ice age occurred and forced them into another rush of invention to survive. Tents, shoes, and clothing - all went through intense development. Food preservation was an essential skill.

The ice age peaked about 20,000 years BCE, and then waned. It left in its wake a planet devoid of Neanderthals (who died out at its beginning) and flourishing grasslands. The first pottery was created during this time, about 10,000 years BCE, and dogs were domesticated as hunting allies.

The climate succeeding the end of the ice age favoured plants that were annuals and stored reserves in their seeds. Thus, Agriculture, another milestone of human history, was developed around 8000 BCE, most notably in Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent, but also in other regions of the planet like China and Africa.

The rise of agriculture brought about major changes in the lifestyle of its practitioners. No longer nomadic, humans settled down in one place for extended periods. The abundance of food meant that more time could be devoted to other activities. Societies and then civilisations rose across the fertile plains.

There was a great surge in building skills, as huts and shelters were built from local materials and as required by local conditions. Crafts flourished, the division of labour was initiated, and the systems of law, society and education gradually evolved and developed. Pottery, painting, sculpture, as well as dance and music, all gained momentum. Trade began, and this resulted in travelling again, but now as a specialized activity. Writing was developed as twigs were used to mark clay tablets.

The greatest mechanical invention of all time, the wheel was created sometime during this period, about 4000 BCE. The first wheeled transport – sleds had been already in use – came into existence. Animals were domesticated and used to pull wheeled loads, whether to transport goods or in devices like water wheels and flour mills which had other daily functions.

The first civilisations rose around agriculture. The Sumerian empire in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq, Iran, and surroundings) came up around 3300 BCE, while Egyptian civilisation was coming to birth along the Nile Valley. The Bronze Age was ushered in.

The harnessing of metal marked another major point of technological progress. Bronze being the dominant hard material of the time, and better than stone, it was used for all sorts of tools and weapons. Techniques were created and discovered not only to use this new material, but also to produce it and refine it. Mining, smelting and alloying techniques were developed. Trade networks flourished and writing was widespread across various civilisations. Transport – usually cargo, but also of people – was refined. Horses were domesticated, and horse drawn carts were developed. These later developed into the chariots used in war and for speedy travel. The first true glass was made in Egypt.

Epic architecture was created with the increased ability, and stone ziggurats in Iraq and pyramids in Egypt were built. The Indus valley civilisation produced great examples of urban planning, including plumbing and road technology. Fortified walls secured large populations, and made large cities possible. This was the time of Babylon and Ur, of Jericho and Harappa, the biggest cities of the period.

The beginning of the Iron Age, c 1200 BCE, was heralded by a disruptive transition to the use of iron instead of bronze. Major cities along the eastern Mediterranean, including Troy, fell into ruin at the hands of sea faring peoples with superior weapons. The old civilisations collapsed, including the Egyptian, Sumerian, Mycenaean, and Harappan, ushering in the Greek Dark Ages and the post Vedic civilisation in the Gangetic plain.

In the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians were excellent sailors and sea-farers, who traded in the hard volcanic stone Obsidian, as well as other goods, among all the various peoples around that sea, including the Anatolians (Turkey), Egyptians, North Africans, the Balkan areas and Iberia. The floundering remnants of the Mycenaean civilisation adopted Phoenician alphabets and writing and became the precursors to the great civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome.

In India, the Iron Age started as early as 1800 BCE, around the end of the Vedic civilisation, and saw the rise of the Magadha Empire, among many others. It lasted till the Maurya Empire, which saw Ashoka raise non-rusting iron pillars bearing his edicts across the land.

The Iron Age saw great progress in metallurgy as well as metal working. The foundations of modern metal work were laid down, including processes like forging, casting, hot working, etc. Steel was created and the control over its hardness and brittleness was achieved.

Technological progress was slow but steady in the ensuing centuries. Advances in transport like stirrups for horses were developed. Pottery styles changed from the bronze-age rectangular style to newer styles with curves and flourishes. Regions and periods of intense development also existed, such as the Greek Golden Age, with major advances in mathematics and sciences, as well as numerous inventions by notables like Aristotle and Archimedes. The latter is famous for many things, chief being his Eureka moment in the baths of Syracuse, but also for numerous others including a defence mechanism consisting of giant bronze mirrors using the sun to set fire to invading Roman ships while still in harbour.

Gigantic empires developed, fuelled by the progress, and in turn fuelling more progress. Newer technologies were harnessed to feed and protect the people, to travel, to make war and further build the empires. Architecture flourished, and the classical style was established. Columns and arches were popular, and the giant Roman Colossi were built. Aqueducts supplied water from distant aquifers to the cities, and a road network was established and standardized. Trade prospered, resulting in further diffusion of technology. Great sea trade routes were established, enabled by advances in ship building. The Silk Route to China was discovered, and a massive exchange of goods and technology occurred not only at its ends but at every place along.

The first Capitals of the Latin alphabet appeared in Rome, carved into stone. This was followed by Rustic Capitals painted on walls and other surfaces. Brahmi script developed in India, the precursor to classical Sanskrit. It was used in Ashoka’s edicts as well as other monuments. In Persia, Persian calligraphy, called the Khat-e-Mikhi (script of nails) was developed for monument inscriptions by the Achaemenid kings, while Avestaee was created to write the hymns of Zarathustra.

Glass making, lost with the end of the old civilisations, was revived, and techniques for making colourless glass were discovered. While beads and core-formed pots were common, other techniques like moulding, slumping and millefiori were developed. The discovery of glass blowing technique revolutionised the industry and made glass vessels accessible to ever larger numbers of people.

The Iron Age was the last age of the Ancient period, which ended with the decline of the great empires. The Roman Empire decayed and fractured from the 2nd century CE, at first gradually, forming the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern or Byzantine Empire. The Western Roman Empire disintegrated into warring states loosely affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Christianity spread west from the Middle East during the same time. India saw stability till about the 5th century CE under the Guptas in the north and the Cholas and Pandyas in the south.

The fall of the Roman Empire marked the beginning of Europe and Western Civilisation’s Medieval Period, or the Middle Ages. While also called the Dark Ages, this was not generally true outside the West. Islamic culture saw a great golden age from 750 CE, bearing the torch which had escaped Europe’s reach.

The Middle Ages saw the rise of the Church as a seat of power in Europe. Churches were built extensively. While not usually as epic as the buildings of old, they were many in number. The monasteries became the holding place of collected knowledge while ordinary life was plunged into instability. Trade and learning both suffered in absence of certain protection from the local rulers who had no means to administer logistics on the scale needed by standards of a far flung Empire.

Regional developments occurred in isolation, such as various calligraphic scripts developed across Europe. The Uncial script that was mainly used earlier developed into many variations like the Visigoth script of Spain, the Benvenatan script of southern Italy and the Merovingian script of France. The Carolingian script of Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire evolved into the Gothic Blackletter script. By the 15th century, Italian scribes returned to the Roman and Carolingian models of writing and designed the Italic hand, also called Chancery cursive, and Roman bookhand.

In Europe, the middle ages were also the time of much urbanization, as people chose safety in numbers and cities swelled.

While Persia and the Middle East were always host to major kingdoms and civilizations, the coming of Islam ushered in a Golden Age across the region. Always a crossroads on various paths, the region flourished trading in all directions – Europe’s kingdoms to the West, Indian kingdoms to the East or by sea, the Silk Route stretching all the way to China, and the sea trade with southern Europe and east Africa. This was markedly different from the earlier agricultural civilizations. At its peak, Islamic civilization spanned from North India to the Mediterranean and across northern Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain).

According to Bernard Lewis², the Islamic governments inherited “the knowledge and skills of the ancient Middle East, of Greece and of Persia. They added new and important innovations from outside, such as the manufacture of paper from China and decimal positional numbering from India.”

Trigonometry was developed, knowledge of optics was advanced and astronomy was studied in great detail. Medicine was studied, and Muslim doctors were the first to use hollow needles to remove cataracts of the eye.

Islamic architecture reached its peak. The Great Mosque of Kairouan was built, along with various other mosques across the Islamic world. An artificial canal linking the Mediterranean and Red seas, a precursor to the Suez, was constructed. Sea faring was common, and sextants and telescopes were developed for navigation. This enabled sailors to sail across seas instead of skirting coasts and enabled them to travel farther and faster. Paper arrived from China in the 10th century and spread into Western Europe.

Calligraphy reached a new high with the development of scripts like the Thuluth, Naskh, and Muhaqqaq, culminating the creation and spread of Nastaliq.

As images of living creatures were forbidden in Islam, ornamental decorations and geometric designs reached high levels of development. Geometry was explored, and various tessellations and symmetries were discovered and distilled.

The Islamic culture flourished until various factors like the continuing crusades against them from Christian Europe, and the arrival of Genghis Khan’s Mongol Horde brought about its eventual decline after the 13th century.

At the same time in Europe, the Renaissance of the 12th century (precursor of, and not to be confused with, the 15th century Italian Renaissance) was in progress. According to Charles Homer Haskins³, “[the 12th century in Europe] was, in many respects, an age of fresh and vigorous life. The epoch of the Crusades, of the rise of towns, and of the earliest bureaucratic states of the West, it saw the culmination of Romanesque art and the beginnings of Gothic; the emergence of the vernacular literatures; the revival of the Latin classics and of Latin poetry and Roman law; the recovery of Greek science, with its Arabic additions, and of much of Greek philosophy; and the origin of the first European universities. The twelfth century left its signature on higher education, on the scholastic philosophy, on European systems of law, on architecture and sculpture, on the liturgical drama, on Latin and vernacular poetry…”

In 14th century Italy, and spreading across Europe from there, began the Renaissance, a period of history that saw the rediscovery of the classical world’s scientific contributions. Rational thought and reasoning were pursued as opposed to deferring to divinity. Major upheavals occurred in art, science, philosophy and all other fields. It changed medieval views of nature and laid down the foundations of modern science, directly predicating the Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Realism in the arts led to the development of the techniques of perspective, the study of light and shadow and anatomy. Oil paint and canvas were introduced.

Filippo Brunelleschi studied the ancient classical buildings. St. Peter’s Basilica was rebuilt, combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno, being one of the high points of Renaissance architecture. Roman columns and Arches came into use.

The single greatest achievement of the millennium, Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century. This sparked the printing revolution and aided the farther and faster dissemination of knowledge and increase in literacy. He also created the first typeface, Gothic, based on handwritten Gothic calligraphy.

Cranks and connecting rods, and flywheels, and other mechanical technology was developed and refined. This directly fed into the later Industrial Revolution. Mining and metallurgy underwent significant improvements resulting in increased production and better quality. Parachutes, Astrolabes, floating docks are all products of renaissance development.

The Renaissance was also a period of exploration and discovery. Major sea routes to Africa, India and the East Indies were discovered, the Earth was circumnavigated, and Columbus lost his way and landed on American soil, believing it to be India (It was thus decided that the New World would not be named after someone who missed his mark by an entire continent.)

The Renaissance directly precipitated the Scientific Revolution which in turn heralded the Industrial Revolution in 18th century Europe. Almost every aspect of daily life was affected, making this a significant point in history. Major changes occurred in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology.

There was transition from manual or animal powered industry to more mechanized forms of machinery and manufacturing. Iron making was improved and trade and commerce were greatly expanded by improved roads, railways and canals. Steam power was introduced, and powered machinery came to be commonplace. This was fuelled by the use of refined coal, and much effort was put into its continuous supply. There was dramatic rise in production capacity. To harness this increased manufacturing ability to aid other industries, more, and better, machinery was produced to work in those industries, increasing productivity across the board.

In the early 20th century, electric power and the internal combustion engine produced a second Industrial Revolution that was seamless with the first one. Chemical, petroleum and automotive industries are also considered part of the second revolution.

The Industrial Revolution laid the stage for the coming of Design, especially Industrial Design, as a formalised field in its own right. Photography and printing technology transformed the visual media during the same period.

The two most important effects of the Industrial Revolution, vis-à-vis society in general, as well as Industrial Design, are the increased capacity for production, resulting in a plenty, even surplus, as opposed to the historical scarcity of goods, and the more subtle but far-reaching effect of enabling – by means of inexpensiveness of these goods as well as elevating the economic condition - these goods to be within reach of the people. The industrial revolution created the Middle class, its own largest market.

In 1919, Walter Gropius founded the Staatliches Bauhaus, commonly known just as Bauhaus, the first school of Design. It brought together a number of artists, architects and craftsmen who wanted to “reverse the split between art and production by returning to the crafts as the foundation of all artistic activity and developing exemplary designs for objects and spaces that were to form part of a more human future society”⁴. The 1923 exhibition reflected the principle of the unity of Art and Technology. The Bauhaus advocated turning away from decoration and focusing on function, allowing form to follow.

The Bauhaus had major impact on trends in Art and Architecture in Europe. After its dissolution in 1933, its influence was far more magnified as the students and masters spread across the world and carried the Bauhaus ideology with them to England, the US, Israel, and elsewhere.

Jan Tschichold was one of the most powerful influences on Typography in the 20th century. He emphasized new typography and sans serif typefaces and set out the rules of standardization for usage of modern typefaces.

Charles and Ray Eames pioneered innovations in architecture and furniture, using new materials like moulded plywood, fiberglass, plastic resin and wire mesh. They also turned to short films, including the amazing “Powers of Ten”.

Dieter Rams, German industrial designer, is highly respected and widely known for his iconic work with Braun, and his Ten Principles of Good Design. He is associated with the Functionalist School that advocates “Form follows Function”.

Jonathan Ive is the Apple Inc.’s leading designer and the conceptual mind behind some of Apple’s most iConic products, including the unibody MacBook Pro, iMac, iPhone and iPod, among others.

Philippe Starck is a prolific and versatile designer who has produced products ranging from tooth brushes to hotel interiors. His work focuses on usable everyday products which look streamlined, stylized and organic, and exhibit unusual combinations of materials.

The advent of the digital revolution, especially over the past decade, has turned the field of design around, revolutionising all the classic areas of Industrial Design, Architecture and Interior Design, Graphic Design. It has also introduced newer areas of focus, like Animation, Motion Graphics, Interaction Design or Human Experience Design, Web Design, Installation Art, Kinetic Sculpture, Game Design, etc.

Other technologies from digital photography to rapid prototyping, including compact printers, increased processing power of home computers, and the rise and reach of the Internet, among others, all make the process as well as products of design within everyone’s reach.

There is an increasing sense of awareness about the fragile state of our planet’s health among people, as well as sense of responsibility towards it. This is especially true for designers, or should be, as they were, whether in ignorance or otherwise, slightly more responsible than the rest for the excesses of the past, and are in the position to guide the change to a better future.

With the rise of globalisation, Western culture has spread across the planet. However, it has not overcome the regional cultures in most places. What it is doing is infusing a sense of self and individualism in people, which prevents simple aping of others. Also, there is a new appreciation of traditional practices, crafts and items that have evolved over ages into absolute classics.

The new designers of today are from this lot of global locals who, while appreciating the benefits of the western design principles, are at the same time influencing design with their own cultural backgrounds. Indeed it would be very difficult for them to not have their own cultural backgrounds inform all of their work, consciously or unconsciously.

Hand in hand with this, target audiences and target users also no longer belong to essentially Western cultures but spread across every culture on the planet. To cater to populations of differing sensitivities, the best placed designers are ones that emerge from those same populations and are aware of the differences.

It seems certain that the classical age of design as a formalised study is over. The core essence of all that is and can be Design has been established. But between all of the aspects about the state of design today, from the advent of technology to the sense of socio-economic and ecological responsibility, and the rise of design flavoured by distinct cultures, the field is headed towards, or already undergoing, a steady change. A change of form, and a change of function.

A History of Design¶

Further reading¶