A Picture's worth a thousand words

Comic books are a part of our society nowadays, an accepted sub-set of literature, but they weren't always. When they were first published they were actually aimed at the illiterate. I found that very interesting, I suppose due to the fact that, in our culture anyway, the majority of people are literate, most learning to read at the age of 4 or 5. It's harder to imagine a time when a lot of people couldn't read, when newspapers, books etc weren't accessible to everyone. That's were the lowly comic book raises its head. With the popularity of early comics they moved into the papers and the "funny pages" were created. This brought the medium to a much wider public, allowing even those with no reading ability to share in jokes and stories.

The printing press also brought cartoons to a wider public and so changed the themes of those produced. The images, once aimed at a wider audience, could represent a wider audience. This meant parables of local everyday life began to be introduced so that people could relate.

I find both these examples quite interesting as it seems to be showing how artists and designers of the times were trying to bring art into the lives of everyone, not just the rich. This is still going on today. In our society a lot of design is hidden from the public, the people feel they have no relationship with designers and artists and therefore can't connect to it. I wonder if us as new students can gain inspiration, from how cartoons and comics were made accessible to everyone, to introduce modern innovations to the public domain. Can we make design accessible?