The Ancient Egyptians Were Geniuses

I took a trip to The British Museum and while there i realised something, the Ancient Egyptians were Geniuses. There is a definite correlation between how they evolved their use of type and image together and how we use the same techniques today.

At first the Egyptians kept image and type completely separate from one another but in 2100 there was a shift in style. Then they started to play with using type to surround the image rather than have a solid picture and solid block of text. The layout is similar to that of newspapers now.

860 saw a completely new style being used by the Egyptians. Rather than separating the image and type; they decided to layer the text on top of the image. This is particularly interesting because of the amount of extra effort and time this would have taken compared to keeping the two separate. Doing this however does make for a much more interesting piece. Today designers use this technique often in leaflets and small print ads where space is limeted and a prominent image and a large amount of text are both required.

Next they continued the overlaying of type and image further by having the type on top of the image at the same time as having the image intersect the type. This idea of having an image intersect the type, is used in magazines today to make the page layout more interesting.

In 728 the Egyptians experimented with type and image further. Here they produced a solid block behind the text separating it from the image but still incorporating it in the composition by putting it in the centre of the piece. This is a style that is popular among website design where a banner will have the company name on top of a solid colour with an image in the background.