At its most basic, the earliest forms of visual communication can be traced back to paleolithic and neolithic eras almost 40,000 years ago, where early humans began painting on the walls of caves across the African and European continents (Meggs & Purvis, p. 5). These cave paintings – some of which still persist today in the Lascaux caves of southern France and elsewhere – typically depicted animals with spear marks and were painted using pigments made of animal fat mixed with charcoal, iron oxides, and other materials they could forage (Meggs & Purvis, p. 5). Despite their drawn nature, these paintings were not artistic in intent nor did they exhibit any compositional considerations, but are commonly thought to have been early rites and warnings for power and success during hunts (Meggs & Purvis, p. 5).
Over time, people all over the world would begin developing petroglyphs, or stones with simple signs, figures, or drawings carved into them (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 5-6). These tended to be pictographs in nature, depicting events and observations around the environment around the artist with increasing accuracy and precision over time (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 5-6). However, as common motifs began repeating, many petroglyphs began to shift towards ideographic in nature, illustrating important concepts and ideas as opposed to physical objects (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 5-6). These motifs would become more simplistic and stylized with time, reducing the lines used to draw them and becoming more symbolic in nature, almost resembling early forms of letters (Meggs & Purvis, p. 6).
Fast forwarding to around 8000 BCE, civilization would start to take root in ancient Mesopotamia as humans began to abandon nomadic lifestyles for a growing agrarian society, bringing with them numerous technological advancements (Meggs & Purvis, p. 6). The first city-state would come about in 3000 BCE, when the Sumerian people along the lower crescent of Mesopotamia introduced many intellectual developments that would allow for highly-concentrated living, of which included religion, social orders, and – perhaps most importantly – writing (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 6-7). Used to record extensive information regarding trades, taxes, and inventories, the writing system would begin as pictographs and early numerals arranged in separate frames and slowly transform into an abstracted sign-writing system arranged in horizontal rows, known as ‘Cuneiform,’ or ‘wedge-shaped’ in Latin (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 6-9). In turn, Cuneiform symbols started to represent not only a single object, but also thematically-relevant and phonetically-similar objects as well, creating a sound-based meaning behind cuneiform symbols (Meggs & Purvis, p. 9). The increasingly versatile system would thus allow for the standardization of symbols, measurements, and certifications, while also creating codes of law, mathematics, religious texts behind them (Meggs & Purvis, p. 10). All the meanwhile, as invading peoples began to conquer and rule Mesopotamia over its history, they would adopt the culture and writing systems for themselves, spreading its civilization beyond just the land itself (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 11-12).
In Egypt, the Mesopotamian cuneiform system would go onto inspire the system of Hieroglyphics, which laid the basis for its own intellectual dynasty over the next few centuries (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 11-19). Unlike Cuneiform’s abstracted symbols, however, Hieroglyphics would maintain pictographic symbols but associate them with phonograms to create a phonetically-based system of writing (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 13-14). As such, Hieroglyphics were heavily design focused, with the direction of text determined by which way its animals face, and particularly important lines of text surrounded by a ‘cartouche’ frame (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 13-14). Great consideration was given to the texture and decoration of hieroglyphics, often carved into stone as raised symbols, given color to the different patterns, and inscribed into riches and jewelry (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 14). With the advent of Papyrus ‘paper,’ hieroglyphic text became more accessible to write and store, and soon after simplified into Egyptian hieratic, or ‘priestly’ script, and even more so into Egyptian demotic, or ‘popular’ script (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 14-17). Using papyrus, Egypt became the first civilization to create illustrated manuscripts, which used both pictures and words to convey information, prayers, and stories (Meggs & Purvis, pp. 17-19). These were typically laid out in rectangular sections, with text written in vertical columns separated by lines, while associated pictures were drawn in adjacent (Meggs & Purvis, p. 17). The concentrated text next to the open drawings often created a striking contrast, and other decorative flourishes were created to fill in the complete page (Meggs & Purvis, p. 17).