Chapter one

1.)Summary: The reading began by talking about the earliest forms of design which were known to be done by cavemen in the southern parts of Europe. They created images on the walls of caves in order to survive, for ritualistic purposes and for superstitious purposes. They left many pictographs and petroglyphs on the cave walls. The "land between the rivers" or the land of Mesopotamia was known the be the cradle of civilization. Many technologies necessary for human life began here such as a system of gods, which was created by the Sumerians. Religious life dominated the Mesopotamian city-state so therefor it was necessary for the priests and scribes to create and organize records. Visible language also began to evolve when it became necessary to identify the contents of food in pottery and sacks. Eventually the writing style evolved into cuneiform which was pictures or pictographs which depicted a certain word or syllable with similar sounds. With cuneiform being made, a knowledge explosion occurred. Soon the code of Hammurabi was created on the Blau monument, which listed a set of rules and laws that were to be followed. Next cattle brands and cylinder seals were created and used to distinguish people's property. As the Mesopotamian culture became knowledgeable and rich, it soon fell to the Persians and the evolution of writing passed on to a new culture. Egyptians used hieroglyphics on many things and it was never understood for a long time what it meant. Until the Rosetta stone was found, which contained the languages Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian Demotic Script, it was soon possible to begin translating the mysterious language. Hieroglyphics was composed of pictograms of objects or beings which were put together to create certain ideas and phonograms were used to express sounds and determinatives that identified categories. It was read by whatever way the creatures or beings were facing. The writing was done on paper called papyrus which was a huge step in the evolution in writing. They used the plant for an extensive amount of different things besides creating the paper. Scribes in Egypt definitely had authority in society since few actually knew how to do this task. They carried wooden palettes which helped identify that they could read or write. The writing kept on evolving and instead of a picture it became just a quickly drawn gesture. In 1500 B.C. hieratic script was created. They created the first manuscripts such as the Book of the Dead. These were used and contained information about the person's life and was used to help them pass on to the afterlife. Mainly people of higher status' could afford more extensive manuscripts but many people could afford at least one page. The journey to the underworld was very sacred to the Egyptians. Lastly, Egyptians used proprietary marks as well as cylinder seals on their property which they adopted from the Sumerian culture. The Egyptians survived for 3000 years and definitely left a legacy of visual communication.




2)I found the most interesting thing was the Egyptians. I'm pretty fascinated with their extensive use of design on things.


3) I don't really have any questions at the moment.