1st Chapter

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph.

The chapter starts at the beginning. It describes the earliest forms of visual communication starting with prehistoric cave drawings with primitive tools like plants, rocks and blood, then goes on to explain the first drawings from early mesopotamia used as portable means of communication with the earliest canvas: rocks/tablets. Eventually papyrus was used ect...

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.

I found it interesting that even before papyrus there were seals used to reproduce drawn images so that one could redo the exact same image over and over easily. It's kind of weird how early printing was used in the history of visual communication.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading.

Why do I have to ask a question?

1. Name of graphic style (or topic) studied this session:

The Invention of Writing.

2. Describe specific qualities of this style (or if it’s a topic-highlights of that topic) that will help you identify it in the future.

Specific qualities include simple drawing/pictures that are representative of things. For instance, a man is drawn like a man with head feet, hands and torso(pictograph).

3. What is the most useful or meaningful thing you learned today?


I think it is extremely useful to know that visual communication was developed at the dawn of civilization and, seeing that they started off with drawings and now we have letters, evolved over a long period of time; no doubt with many changes and alterations to get to the point that the form of communication is in today with all of its subtleties and advanced forms of color and 3D imaging ect..

4. State at least one question you have after the class.

I'm still a little shaky on the difference between pictographs and ideographs. Is it that pictographs are made to look exactly like the thing it represents and ideographs are drawings of something else representing something else...or what?