Before Print

Long before design had a name, people were designing: cuneiform tablets, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Roman carved capitals, medieval illuminated manuscripts. Every letterform we use descends from marks made by hand — with reed, chisel, brush, and quill.

The scribe's page established ideas we still rely on: hierarchy through size and color, margins as breathing room, ornament as a signal of value. Design began as the art of making words worth looking at.