The Land of Communication!

                                         http://designobserver.com/images/features/Cover.jpg

           Have your ever wondered what the most basic and earliest form of graphic expression was? Or where early writing originated? How about the alphabet and some of the background behind that?

            Well according to Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish’s book Graphic Design History A Critical Guide, “Mark making is the most basic form of graphic expression and design.”(Pg 11) It is also said “Drawing a line in the sand or making a handprint on a wall is a direct sign of individual identity.” (Pg 11) In the movie 2001 Space Odyssey by Robert Colbert mark making can be seen in the beginning. During the movie there are a group of apes that are seen writing in the sand. It is not sure what it was that they were writing but, I believe that they may have been marking their territory for the fact that when another group of apes approach them they began to scream and bang on the ground.

            So where did this thing called writing originate. “Writing proper evolved in ancient Mesopotamia around 3200 BCE, in the Fertile Crescent that lies between the Trigis and Euphrates River.( Drucker and McVarish, p. 14) Many different writing styles may have evolved from this ancient Mesopotamia writing called cuneiform Script.” (Drucker and McVarish, p 15) Among these styles is “ Egyptian writing in the Indus Valley (present day Pakistan).” (Drucker and McVarish, p 15)

            Lastly, the alphabet, what may have been the first recognizable form of the alphabet and where may that form that we use today originate from? According to AncientScripts.com “the first recognizable form of the alphabet may have came from a particular script called Proto-Sinaitic.” Proto-Sinaitic is a “strange system whose symbols were very similar to Egyptian Hieroglyphs, but recorded a languages related to Phoenician and Hebrew.” Then “the English alphabet of twenty-six letters is derived from the Latin alphabet of twenty-three letters.” (The Origin, 2010) Also some of the letters we use come from both Roman and Greek background, and the “Greek traditions derives the alphabet for the Phoenicians.” (Bruce, 2010)

            So what was the earliest form of graphic expression; mark making. The fact that our alphabet can be traced back in time to more then one different culture is an awesome concept. It is evident that although we as people come from many different ways of life; we have something so simple as our ABC’s in common.

                               http://www.ancientscripts.com/images/alpha-map.gif

Drucker, Johanna and McVarish, Emily. Graphic Design History A Critical Guide. New Jersey: Pearson
        Education, 2009