Graphic Design in Spain - "Olé!"

One of our favorites from the 1996 Bull Fighting season

On our recent trip to Spain we were inspired by numerous graphic signage displaying effective logos, logotypes and illustrations. Many of them featured handcrafted artwork including painting, woodcuts and mosaic tiles.  

Graphic Design has been around since the caveman with pictograms, then developed to the first alphabet, hieroglyphs and cuneiform. Around 9000 B.C., it began to develop into a logographic writing system, which 4000 years later, led to one of the more influential aspects of graphic design, ideograms. The effectiveness of ideograms in graphic design lies within their ability to appeal universally across cultural differences and language barriers.  

Beginning in the late 15th century, typeface designs evolved into what we call now as Old Style types, which were inspired by capital letters found in ancient Roman inscriptions and by lowercase letters found in manuscript writing from the Carolingian period. The variety of typefaces we saw in Spain was amazing!

Bullfighting is a controversial sport and we respect its tradition. We can't help to recognize that it is a very spectacular sight. Each year since bullfighting began, one featured poster design was created to advertise the bullfighting schedule. Pablo Picasso, Ramon Casas, Miquel Barceló  and Francisco de Goya were among some of the more famous artists/designers who created posters. We placed over 20 addtional spanish signage images on our Facebook page.