"Benjamin Franklin's ingenuity gained in strength as did his cunning and in 1737 he had replaced his counterpart in Pennsylvania, Andrew Bradford as postmaster and printer after a competition he instituted and won. Graphic design in the United States began with Benjamin Franklin who used his newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette to master the art of publicity, to promote his own books, and to influence the masses. In graphic design, "the essence is to give order to information, form to ideas, expression, and feeling to artifacts that document the human experience." In advertising, the ultimate objective is the sale of goods and services.
They share many elements, theories, principles, practices, languages and sometimes the same benefactor or client. In both its lengthy history and in the relatively recent explosion of visual communication in the 20th and 21st centuries, the distinction between advertising, art, graphic design and fine art has disappeared.
During the " Dark Ages", from 500 AD to 1450 AD, monks created elaborate, illustrated manuscripts. "The Rosetta stone, found by one of Napoleon's engineers was an advertisement for the Egyptian ruler, Ptolemy as the "true Son of the Sun, the Father of the Moon, and the Keeper of the Happiness of Men" The Egyptians also invented papyrus, paper made from reeds found along the Nile, on which they transcribed advertisements more common among their people at the time. The Egyptians developed communication by hieroglyphics that used picture symbols dating as far back as 136 B.C. This was the first known road sign announcing the name of the governor of a state or mayor of the city. The bricks gave information such as the name of the reigning monarch, the builder, or some other dignitary". In "Babylon, artisans pressed cuneiform inscriptions into clay bricks or tablets which were used for construction. The origins of graphic design can be traced from the origins of human existence, from the caves of Lascaux, to Rome's Trajan's Column to the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, to the neon lights of Ginza, Tokyo. Given the rapid and massive growth in information sharing, the demand for experienced designers is greater than ever, particularly because of the development of new technologies and the need to pay attention to human factors beyond the competence of the engineers who develop them. In this sense, in some countries graphic design is related as only associated with the production of sketches and drawings, this is incorrect, since visual communication is a small part of a huge range of types and classes where it can be applied. For example, it can be applied in advertising strategies, or it can also be applied in the aviation world. Graphic design has, as a field of application, different areas of knowledge focused on any visual communication system. The design work always starts from a client's demand, a demand that ends up being established linguistically, either orally or in writing, that is, that graphic design transforms a linguistic message into a graphic manifestation. They work on the interpretation, ordering, and presentation of visual messages.
The role of the graphic designer in the communication process is that of encoder or interpreter of the message. It is also known as visual communication design, visual design or editorial design. This activity helps in the optimization of graphic communications (see also communication design). Therefore, it is an interdisciplinary branch of design whose foundations and objectives revolve around the definition of problems and the determination of objectives for decision-making, through creativity, innovation and lateral thinking along with digital tools, transforming them for proper interpretation. Graphic design is the profession and academic discipline whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, graphic design can be performed in different areas of application: branding, technical and artistic drawing, signage, photography, image and video editing, 3D modeling, animation, programming, among other fields.