Have you ever wondered what drew you to a new iPad, a new smartphone, or any other modern gadget? Was it its fascinating technology or its simplicity of design? Design has become an essential communication tool and it is hard to imagine a new technology without it. I wanted to look at the timeline of history to define the correlation between technology and design and their mutual impact. I used an art history timeline to compare the evolution of both areas.

1750-1850 The Industrial Revolution and Romanticism.

The first prominent interaction between technology and design (art at the time) began with the Industrial Revolution. It goes without saying that the Industrial Revolution was the starting point in the development of modern technology and has changed the social, economic and cultural conditions of the time.

Design existed primarily in the form of art at the time and was in transition from the Baroque movement (1600-1750) to Neoclassicism (1750-1850) and later to Romanticism (1780-1850). While Neoclassicism was inspired by the “classical” art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome, Romanticism was already a reaction to the Industrial Revolution with its population growth and urban sprawl. Romanticism portrayed the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose pioneering examples would uplift society.

Highlights of the period:

• 1765 Steam engine.
• 1783 First hot air balloon.
• 1796 Lithographic printing process.
• 1816 First photographic negative.
• 1835 First photograph.
• 1843 The typewriter is invented.
• 1847 Rotary printing press.

1850-1900 The Second Industrial Revolution and Realism.

The second part of the Industrial Revolution is also known as the electromechanical era. Technological and economic progress led to the development of steamships, railways, electric power generation, and many more.

The visual art of the time was about truth and precision and was called Realism. Many paintings depict people at work, emphasizing the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Advances in photography, made during the 19th century, took the popularity of realism to the next level, creating a desire in people to reflect everyday reality. Art during the second half of the 19th century was called Impressionism and it emphasized an accurate representation of light that could have been influenced by discoveries in photography.

Highlights of the period:

• 1867 Dynamite.
• 1876 ​​Telephone.
• 1879 Electric light bulb.
• 1892 Diesel engine.
• 1894 Radio waves.

1880-1914 Art Nouveau.

By the end of the 19th century, the production of machine-made art was on the rise. The first device that could quickly and easily set up entire lines of type for use in printers, the Linotype machine (1886), revolutionized the art of printing. This invention increased the demand for typeface and resulted in the design of Akzidenz Grotesk (1898), the first sans serif typeface to be widely used.

The same 1898 was a year of the first commercial film. Many others soon followed, initiating a new and separate form of visual art: moving images.

This period was critical in the history of design, as it broke away from art and found its way into all kinds of commercial design. The so-called Art Nouveau movement initiated graphic and advertising design and by 1909 magazines had become the main advertising channels. Art continued to evolve from one movement to another, from Post-Impressionism, Expressionism to Cubism and beyond.

Highlights of the period:

• 1886 Linotype (typesetting).
• 1892 Alternating current generator.
• 1900 First mass-marketed camera: the Brownie.
• 1903 Motorized airplane.
• 1907 color photograph and helicopter.
• 1908 First mass production of the Ford Model T automobile.

1910-1930 Art Deco.

The growth of the professional graphic design industry has grown in parallel with the rise of consumerism. As technology continued to improve and monetize his inventions, design evolved into a communication tool. Art Deco was an ornamental design style based on geometric shapes inspired by technologies such as aviation, radio, electric lighting, and others. Its linear symmetry was a distinct step toward the simplicity of the flowing asymmetrical organic curves of its predecessor Art Nouveau style. The Art Deco design was suitable to be read from a speeding car.

In 1919 the first model of the modern art school was founded in Germany: the Bauhaus, which had a profound influence on art, architecture, typography and all forms of design, ultimately providing the framework for modern design.

Highlights of the period:

• 1919 First air service and first electric typewriter.
• 1920s Regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment.
• 1923 Electronic Television and first sound cinema.

1930-1945 Modernism.

The technology of the Industrial Revolution found its way into the daily lives of ordinary people. Electricity, the telephone, the radio, the automobile created the most visible social changes of that period. The need to learn, work and live with technology demanded new skills and the ability to perceive a lot of information.

Modern ideas in art and design appeared in commercials and logos in rejection of the ornate flourishes of preceding design styles. With more new information for the average person to understand, so did the need for a clear, easily recognizable and memorable design. Straight lines, minimalism, lack of clutter, primary colors prevailed in Modernism design and art.

The Times New Roman (1932) font was designed. The Bulova Watch Company aired the first television commercial with the tagline “America runs with Bulova time!” (1941).

Highlights of the period:

• 1936 The BBC began broadcasting the world’s first public service.
• Jet engine of 1937.
• 1938 Ballpoint pen.
• Kodak negative from 1941.
• 1943 Aqua-lung.
• [1945Theatomicbomb[1945Labombaatómica

1955-1980 Pop Art and Minimalism.

The post-war technology of that period buoyed us with several great inventions and gave birth to a new type of human species: the geeks. The invention of the personal computer dramatically impacted and forever changed the way people live, work, and communicate.

In art history, this period is known as Pop Art and Minimalism, which we can also see reflected in the design. The rise of different forms of media and the modern advertising industry increased the need for a type that was readable and easy to display. The new font, designed for simplicity, was the Neue Haas Grotesk (1957) font, later renamed Helvetica. With the rise of personal computing in the 1980s, Helvetica was replaced by Arial as the digital standard.

Minimalism also played a pivotal role in advertising. A new streamlined approach to advertising appeared among the bundled and flashy ads. The “Think Small” advertising campaign (1959) for the Volkswagen Beetle became the number one campaign of the 20th century.

Highlights of the period:

• 1951 The Universal Automatic Computer (Univac).
• 1956 Videocassette recorder.
• 1961 The first human being to orbit the Earth.
• 1968 First computer mouse.
• 1968 Computer video game, compact discs, and email.
• 1974 Personal computer.

1980 – 2000 Postmodernism.

With the release of the first Macintosh computer in 1984, a new era in technology and design began: an era of collaboration. Technology continues to open new doors in consumerism and everyday life, but design drives the aesthetics and usability of more technological innovations. Apple computers gained popularity not because of their unique technology (the first personal computer was created a decade before the Mac), but because of their unique design and simplicity.

Apple created a new standard in design – web, print, advertising, marketing, product design – but it didn’t invent any of the above. He was surely the first to successfully take advantage of the symbiosis between technology and design.

In 1990 the first Photoshop software was released and at that time the technology gave everything it could at the time to invite design on its side.

Highlights of the period:

• 1984 Apple’s first Macintosh computer, with bitmap graphics.
• 1985 CD-ROM; Pixar digital image processor.
• 1990 World Wide Web.
• 1994 Internet advertising.
• 1995 DVD.

Since the industrial revolution, technology began to develop rapidly and today it occupies every corner of human life. Although art as a form of communication existed long before technology (since cavemen), it only became a powerful communication tool after merging with technology in the mid-20th century.

So, although art and technology had different roots and development processes, now both are parts of an inseparable unit. One can not exist without the other.