The beginnings of graphic design history begin with the earliest cave paintings, where people begin to capture and express the things that are important to them. As societies grow and develop writing systems are created. As far as is known this has happened without role models three times in human history; in China, in Central America and in Mesopotamia. Each time the system began as a pictographic language and evolved from there.

Graphic expression is always linked to the values and needs of a society, the available technology (tools) and materials. There is always a connection between a new technology (like paper and ink, or writing systems) and the beginning of new kinds of visual expression. This is as true today as it was through history. Obviously graphic design is linked to society—it interests, upheavals, and developments—and serves in a way as a visual record of history.

Many times in human history visual inspiration has also played an important role in the development of graphic design. For example many different writing systems often originated from from a single source: for example, korean hangul was inspired by chinese hanzi, and arabic and hebrew (as well as greek and latin) all have roots in the phoenician alphabet. One might say that (visual) innovation is clever adaptation or combination of the known.