Influential Designers- May 13

Amanda- Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan sounds like a very interesting guy, of course because he worked with my designer, Tibor. After working with TIbor at M&Co. he learned to think like Tibor and design like Tibor. His quote that Amanda told us, Go out and find people dont wait for them, is true and it is something that my parents tall me all the time.

Jenna- Clement Mok

I think it is soooo awesome that he worked with Apple! That would be sooo cool and the connections that you would have would be great as well! Also to learn the techniques and to be able to apply them to your own business would most likely make your business successful!

Sarah- Leo Burnett

His website was AWESOME!!!!!! I think that his 3 symbols were great for describing himself. He also worked with a lot  of very well known businesses. And i really enjoyed his designs.

Influential Designers- May 11

Katie- David Carson

His typographic design and asymmetrical layout inspired abstract artists. Being a surfer influenced his work. His designs had no grid or layout, they were cluttered, his lettering was all over and different sizes, and expressive. He became highly successful despite the fact that he never actually went to school for design, he only attended a few workshops. Carson opened his own design business, and is well known for designing covers for Ray Gun magazine. 

Alexis- Matthew Carter

Called the father of typography, he learned to do type by hand from his father, who was also a typographer. He created many fonts and created ink traps, all of which are still used today. He was the founder of Carter & Cone Inc. and redesigned MoMA logo. In his work he used different fonts and colors. I found it pretty awesome that he used the linotype machine to lay his type even after computers. 

Influential Designers- May 8

Barber- Neville Brody 

Neville Broady worked with typography but he did it differently from other typographers. Brody always pushed himself to find new ways to make the text look. He would use like 4 or 5 different programs at the same time to get different effects for text. He also believed that the typeface he used made a difference to the reader. I agree with this, just like colors, fonts can give you a different feeling or attitude towards something.

Amanda- Art Chantry

Amanda told us that Art witnessed a lot of abuse as a child until he and his mother moved away from his father and even then they struggled financially. His childhood influenced his art. His work was not clean cut and most of the time it over lapped. The use of images in his work shows that he has a dadaist philosophy.

Zak- Storm Thorgerson

Storm knew the members of Pink Floyd since grammar school and created a lot of their stuff including their logo. He like to use a major central object with a smaller object next to it, which I find interesting because you don't usually hear it put like that. Most of the work he did seems to have been for music, album covers and some music videos he made. I feel that his close relationship with Pink Floyd are what made his work popular.

Influential Designers- May 6

Allie - April Greiman

I liked the way April broke away from the normal typography. Her art is very bright, bold, and collage like. I like that the elements overlap each other giving it the collage look, it is unique. I think that staying with New Wave Design and using it in her career is ultimately what made April impact graphic design so greatly. 

Sam- Milton Glaser

Milton accomplished a lot working at Push Pin Studios, New York Magazine, WBMG, and his own Milton Glaser Inc. His I <3>

Anna- Seymour Chwast

Seymore also worked at Push Pin Studios and was actually one of the guys whose work was in the Push Pin Almanack, which is what led to Push Pin Studios. Anna had on her powerpoint something about Disney, was it that he worked with Disney? I found it very interesting that he preferred woodcuts and speedball pens and I liked that he focused on a large central image. 

Research Thesis

Tibor Kalman used art and design to promote his views, such as environmentalism, and influence culture and society. 

Chapter 21: The Poster Mania

The majority of 1960's posters were not advertisements, they were statements about social views such as the public protest against the Vietnam War.  These posters were called psychedelic posters, they used swirly forms and warped lettering and seemed to be related to rock music and drugs. They were not hung on the streets but rather in apartment buildings.  I found it interesting that Victor Moscoso was the only major artist during this movement who had formal training and that the pioneers of this era were all self- taught.  Would you consider this style to have been caused by rebellion?

Chapter 20: Corporate Identity and Visual Systems

Throughout history symbols and trademarks were used as identification symbols, but the 1950's began a new era of visual identification systems.  Corporate identity was born with Peter Behrens's AEG logo and continues today to represent businesses, events, organizations, and more.  The Olympics brought another challenge to designers, creating symbols that could be understood by the many different languages of the world.  These corporate identity logos achieved this as well as helping to restore the Olympics as an international celebration.  The MTV logo was the beginning of motion graphics on cable television. I found it very interesting that almost all of the logos that were talked about in this chapter are still used today.  

What does a slab-serif typeface look like? 

Chapter 18: The international Typographic Style

This style emerged from Germany and Switzerland during the 1950's.  During this period many different typefaces were born.  Siegfried Odermatt majorly influenced the use of the International Typographic style into the communication of business and industry.  Much of his work is typoraphic and he believes that a black and white composition can give the same feeling as a colored composition.  This design also had a major impact on postwar American design.  I think it is interesting that this style and corporate identity were linked into one movement. What connected these two movements?

Week 7

I restyled the Gatorade label to look as if it was designed in the into the style of the vienna secession. The artists used text with san serifs that were also a little curvy. I tried to create a style which I thought fit this. 

For #4 I chose to create an American Red Cross poster in a futuristic style. I did this by using typography, I used words to shape a drop of blood. I also used the word american and exaggerated iCAN to express that the viewer can give blood and that we can help. 

Week 6

I apologize for the pictures all over, Im not quite sure how to get them in how I want them. I chose to Draw The Morton Salt girl in victorian style.  During the Victorian period the style was lacy and little girls wore big bows in their hair, I tried to incorporate these things into my sketch. I also chose to make the Red Cross logo in Arts and Crafts. Arts and Crafts used lots of busy geometric shapes and nature in their work so I incorporated that into my sketch. 

American Kitsch

American Kitsch can still be seen today and not just on Antique Road Show. It is very cheaply made things and things that serve no purpose like porcelain figurines. WWII posters used geometric shapes, posters were recruiting for help. I think it is interesting the ways that Kitsch still exists.

Can you say it is still in-style or just still sitting around (like ugly paintings or porcelain figurines)?

Chapter 17: The Modern Movement in America

As the Nazis began to take over Europe many Europeans moved to America, including many graphic designers. These designers brought with them their talent and ideas which greatly influenced graphic design in America. The closing of the Bauhaus by the Nazis caused modern design to disperse throughout the world along with its faculty, students, and alumni. These immigrants brought almost nothing with them to the United States except their talent but greatly influenced the course of graphic design. Their influence can be seen in World War II posters and magazine covers.

I found it interesting that magazines such as Seventeen and Vogue were being printed at this time.

What was the reasoning behind the WPA's Federal Art Project?

Chapter 15: A New Language of Form

El Lissitzky understood the constructivist idea and applied it to his works. Kisimir Malevich introduced him to a 3D style called PROUNS. Lissitzky went on to experiment with photomontage, printmaking, painting, and graphic design. His hard work greatly influenced the course of graphic design. After his death, Jan Tschichold, wrote that he was one of the great pioneers and that a generation that has never heard of him stands upon his shoulders. In the early 1920's the Soviet government encouraged the new Russian art and offered to help publicize it. The Isms of Art was one of the most influential book designs at this time, its architectural framework was an important step toward the creation of a visual program for organizing information.  Gustav Klutsis was the master of propaganda photomontage, his work has been compared to John Heartfield's stong political statements. Unlike Heartfield, Klutsis was arrested for his new style approach during the Stalinist purges and died in the labor camps. Vladimir Vasilevich Lebedev is another constructivist who greatly influenced Russian modernism. He is the father of the 20th century Russian picture book, influenced by propaganda posters for ROSTA. Piet Mondrian was part of the De Stijl movement and painted geometric abstractions. The primary colors and geometric abstractions became very popular in the works of artists in this movement. Geometric construction was a big step in the direction towards organized printed pages.

I found it very interesting that Gerrit Rietveld's Schroder House was found so radical that people threw rocks at it and that the children were given a hard time at school.

What affect did the political trauma in Russia have on Russian art?

Class March 11, 2009

Victoria presented Pictorial Modernism, it was the move towards simplicity.  Poster artists used bold colors and flat images. The father of Pictorial Modernism is Lucian Bernhard. Posters became propaganda pieces. She talked about the Dada movement, Early Modernism, and Man Ray. In class we talked about  the differences between Central Powers and the Allies propaganda posters. We then split into groups and had to decide what a poster would look like today.

I found it interesting that Dada artists put the word Dada on their art.

Why did Man Ray change his name? 

Chapter 14: Pictorial Modernism

The needs of communication during the World War influenced the change in style of the European poster. Cubism and constructivism were very popular at this time. A poster designer knew he needed to maintain a pictorial reference in order to communicate persuasively with the general public. Collage became a new technique developed by the Beggarstaffs, James Pryde and William Nicholson. Lucian Bernhard moved graphic communications a step closer to a simple visual language of shape and design with his famous Priester matches poster. A sans-serif lettering that Bernhard developed impressed a staff member of the Berthold Type Foundry, who based a typeface on it, Bernhard was surprised to see his lettering cast in metal for the whole world to use. Bernhard was a key designer, his work may be considered to be the sensible resolution of the turn-of-the-century poster movement. Emil Cardinaux created the first modern Swiss poster which was very similar to Germany's modern poster, Plakatstil.  A frequent device artists used in their propaganda was to show destruction of enemy symbols or flags. Narrative design was replaced by persuasive propaganda, illustrators had to combine words and images. Ludwig Hohlwein was a leading Plakatstil designer, his work agreed with Adolf Hitler's idea of effective propaganda. His collaboration with the Nazis ruined his reputation as a designer. 

I found it interesting that at age fifteen, Lucian Bernhard repainted his family's home while they were away and ran away and never returned after he was called a potential criminal and criticized by his father.

What are pseuo- nyms? (The Beggarstaffs adopted them to protect their reputations as artists.)

Class March 9, 2009

Today in class Alexis presented The Influence of Modern Art. She talked about all the movements during the twentieth century, then quizzed us over the different styles those movements used. Then Laura talked about what graphic design is, Frank Lloyd Wright, AEG, and Peter Behrens.  We talked about Wrights work and style. He was the master of organic architecture. AEG or General Electric Company is still around today Peter Behrens worked for them. Behrens is the father of industrial design, he designed the tea kettle and street lamp. I found it interesting that he made somethings for Hitler and AEG made planes for the germans during world war 2.  

What did Frank Pick do?

Image Post (Week 5)

This past week we talked about lithographic printing or "stone printing". In chromolithographic printing each color had to be on a separate stone.  I am not familiar with this type of printing but as I read it and Laura explained it it sounded to me a lot like the way my dad and I screen print.  The image I chose is of a screen printing machine, you can see the different colors on the different screens, these machines can have different amounts of arms on them. In the close up you can see the arms that hold the screen and the board that the shirt is laid over. After the design for the shirt is done we have to print it on special photo-like transparent paper, but when the design has two or more colors the colors have to be printed separately. After the colors are separated and printed out they are put on a mesh screen. In another machine the image is laid on the screen where a light and special chemicals that were applied to the screen open up the mesh in areas where the design is. Once the screen is washed off and dried it is put on the screen printing machine, this goes for each color screen. Ink is then placed on the screen and once the shirt is on the printing board the screen is then pulled down on top of the shirt and ink is squeegeed across the design. After the first color is dried the next color is applied the same way and so on for any other colors. So in this process the screens each have different colors and in chromolithographic printing each stone had a different color. I have never seen chromolithographic printing but I imagine it is very similar and that is how I pictured this stone printing when Laura explained it. 

Chapter 13: The Influence of Modern Art

Cubism began from a series of works from Pablo Picasso, it was also greatly influenced by Paul Cezanne.  In cubism figures were abstracted into geometric shapes. Cubism was developed by Picasso and Georges Braque, as the art movement that replaced the rendering of appearances with the endless possibilities of invented form.  Futurism was a movement in which all the arts were to test their ideas and forms against the new realities of scientific and industrial society. This movement was led by Filippo Marinetti. Futurism used typography to make poems a work of art, words and letters were not always strung along the page in a row or standing straight up.  Futurist painters were strongly influenced by cubism but also added movement in their works. Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini were futurist painters who published Manifesto of the Futurist Painters. Antonio Sant' Elia was a futurist architect, he declared decoration to be absurd. His ideas and drawings influenced the course of modern design and art deco. Dadaists rebelled against world war horrors and other norms.  Marcel Duchamp, dadaists most prominent artist, outraged the public when he painted a mustache on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa. John Heartfield used photomontage as a propaganda weapon, The Weimar Republic and Nazi Party were his targets and even after his studio was raided he moved and mailed postcard versions to major Nazi leaders. Dada eventually led to surrealism and then died off. Andre Breton founded surrealism. It was a way of thinking and knowing , a way of feeling, and a way of life.  Giorgio de Chirico is considered to be the first surrealist painter. A large amount of artists joined this movement,  several majorly impacted photography and illustration.  Expressionism was a movement which dipicted emotions and personal responses. There were two early expressionist groups created by the Germans, Die Brucke and Der Blue Reiter. Man Ray was the first photographer to explore and create pictures using solarization. 

I thought the most interesting part of this reading was that even after Heartfield's studio was raided he still sent his propaganda to Nazi leaders, it was as if he had a death wish.

What are schadographs?

Class March 4, 2009

Today, Anna presented to us 20th century design.  This was a time of transition from art nouveau to modern.  Modern style artists used geometric shapes and white space. Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect, believed "space was essence of design" and in his works he experimented with white space. "The Four" innovated the "Glasgow Style" which used curvilinear elements with strong rectilinear structure. Anna also talked about the Vienna Secession, it was the movement away from traditional design. Gustav Klimt lead the revolt; Joseph Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann, and Koloman Moser also played an important role in revolting against traditional design.  Ver Sacrem was an important design resource during its time, it showed artists compositions with which they  had experimented, these artists used and combined different elements to create a new style.  I would have to say that the most useful thing i learned about today was Vienna Secession, before class I was a little confused as to what it was all about and what Klimt was revolting against.  

Did the Vienna Secession lead into modern style?

Chapter 12: The Genesis of Twentieth Century Design

The end of the eighteenth century ended art nouveau and brought on modern style. The twentieth century artists searched for new forms of expression. Frank Lloyd Wright inspired artists and designers toward a rectilinear approach to spatial organization. Wright believed that space was the essence of design. "The Four" innovated a geometric style of composition by tuning floral and curvilinear elements with strong rectilinear structure. Their work inspired many and they were celebrated on the continent, mostly in Vienna.  Vienna Secession artists experimented with unusual methods which would achieve an original looking visual elegance. Koloman Moser may have designed the first white-on-white embossed graphic design. He played a major role in defining the approach to graphic design. Adolf Loos banished useless decoration, he had the same views as Wright about the use of space. Decoration was only used when it functioned as a harmonious proportion. Peter Behrens was an important figure who played a major role in working towards graphic design, he was also called "the first industrial designer". He worked for AEG and designed street lamps and teapots. He used a grid system to structure space in his layouts. Klingspor Foundry released Behrens first font, Behrensschrift. He designed another typeface called Behrens-Antiqua especially for AEG. I found Behrens to be a very interesting man. He not only designed typefaces and styles but created street lamps and teakettles , he influenced and worked with many other designers. 

What were Thomas Edison's patents that Rathenau bought?

Class March 2, 2009

In class we chose partners and we were assigned to answer their question for our in class blog. Sam's question was... 

Did art nouveau affect other countries like Spain and Ireland, because they were close to the countries that did or did they have their own movement? 

France, Japan, England, Switzerland, America, Belgium, Germany, and Italy were the countries the book talked about. After searching online, I found that Antoni Gaudi was the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau. (http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Antonio_Gaudi.html)  I did not find much on Irish Art Nouveau except about the Irish poet Oscar Wildes, who was in the book. 

Chapter 11: Art Nouveau

Asian art revitalized graphic design in Europe and North America. Asians had adapted to woodblock print. Matthew Perry's navel expeditions to Japan opened trade to the West and closed the isolated policies Japan had for its people. Art Nouveau was an international decorative style that was very popular for two decades. The term art nouveau came from Samueal Bing's Salon de l'Art Nouveau, which became an international meeting place where young artists met each other. This new stlye embraced all areas of the arts, architecture, painting, furniture, etc. Art Nouveau was the bridge that led Victorian style into Modern style. Posters became a popular thing at this time, there was a close collaboration between visual artists and writers, and the lifting of the French law restricting freedom of press allowed posters to be posted almost anywhere; the streets became an art gallery for the nation. Jules Cheret introduced a whole new role model for women, his figures were called "Cherettes", they were neither prudes nor prostitutes but they were happy women who enjoyed life to the fullest, wore low-cut dresses, danced, drank wine, and smoked in public. Ethel Reed was the first American woman to achieve national prominence as a graphic designer and illustrator. I found it very interesting to learn about "Cherettes". I wonder what made Jules Cheret feel the need to change the view of women.

What was the Asian spell? (pg. 195)

Week 4

This is a picture of a heat press. It is used to press letters and numbers onto things like t-shirts. My dad and I use one at our family business, Gametime, where we screen print. It is like a modern more graphic way of printing. It is used most to put letters on jerseys but can also be used to put on pictures or any other design. The quality is good, as long as you press the design for the right amount of time and you put the design on straight. I was attracted to this piece because I was working at Gametime this weekend and had to use the heat press. It is not as easy as it looks, it takes a few tried to get used to it. I thought that it relates to the type press only it is a modern day type press and and used on a different substrate.  

Class February 27, 2009

In class, Amanda presented Victorian style. She told us about Queen Alexandria Victoria and how that style was very big, elegant, and floral. Type faces of Victorian style were very block-like.  Pages were always almost completely covered with block letters and floral borders.  The Victorian style was influenced by the Spanish, Chinese, and the Islamic. After Amanda's presentation Laura showed us some videos about the printing press. The videos were very interesting and I'm glad that in the videos that we watched, none of the printers had lost any limbs! Then we talked a little bit about early cameras and got to look at a few that Laura brought in.  The printing videos were the most useful thing, It was great to actually see the presses and how they work. I would also like to go to that shop where they used the roll press, I really liked that one!

After the picture was taken, did the film need anything chemically done to it like we do today?

Chapter 10: The Arts and Crafts Movement and Its Heritage

The Arts and Crafts movement was a time in which people thought that mass production was evil. John Ruskin inspired the philosophy of the movement, he said that beautiful things were valuable and useful just because they were beautiful. William Morris was the leader of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, he thought that mass produced goods were "cheap and nasty".  Morris was an important part of graphic design history, he influenced many people and accomplished a lot. He created three typefaces, had his own enterprise, and created over 500 pattern designs. He was inspired by medieval arts and botanical forms. 

I found it interesting that Morris and Edward Burne-Jones decided to become artist instead of clergy men, it seems that today those two would be very different subjects.

What did people like Morris dislike about mass production? Could they not see that being able to produce more things faster that they could share their creations and ideas with others?

Class February 25, 2009

In class we talked about the Industrial Revolution.  Three new type categories were introduced, fat face, Egyptian, and San-serifs.  Also, many new printing machines like the steam-powered press were created, over time they became more efficient producing more prints per hour. Gutenberg's metal type was so heavy that it was rarely used, wood type became more popular. Wood type was cheaper, lighter, quicker, and easier to use. Compositors began to lose their jobs to these new printing machines but many new jobs opened up.   The camera obscura was the beginning of todays camera.  It was used as a drawing aid and after experimenting with many different ways of taking pictures the Kodac camera was introduced.  When Laura explained what a compositor was and wood type a lot came together and I understood why compositors were losing their jobs. 

What is copperplate engraving?

Chapter 9: Graphic Design and the Industrial Revolution

The start of the Industrial Revolution began with animals and humans being the primary source of energy. Cities began to grow influencing the demand for mass production.

Graphics began to play a major role in advertising. During this time the range of text size and styles became vast. Fat face was a new text invention, it was a Roman face whose contrast and weight were increased and strokes were made heavier. Antiques and san-serifs were also major text innovations during the Industrial Revolution. Printing presses began to change, Friedrich Koenig introduced a steam- powered printing press. Following Koenig's press were more steam-powered presses with more cylinders. The invention of the Lineotype machine replaced thousands of highly skilled typesetters. Although typesetters lost their jobs many more jobs were opening up. Phototypography spread words and pictures world wide, this began the age of mass communication. Photography started with camera obscuras, Joseph Niepce was the first to capture an image of nature. Many processes were experimented with until George Eastman introduced his Kodak camera in 1888. The New York Daily Graphic printed the first photograph with a full tonal range in a newspaper, it was printed from a halftone screen which broke the image into a series of minute dots. Minute dots allowed tone by smaller or lager dots. Eadweard Muybridge's series of photographs of a horses movement influenced the creation of motion- picture photography. The Industrial Revolution came to an end with the creation and publishing of kids books.

When I came across Louis Prang I became very interested because I recognized Prang as the brand of watercolors I used as a kid.

What is wood type?

Illuminated Manuscripts (Week 3)

This image shows the use of type and color being used to draw interest and attention to the piece.  This past week we talked about illuminated manuscripts, which were created to be very fancy and colorful so that they would catch people's attention.  These manuscripts were used to interest people in Christianity.  Today this technique of using fancy type and color is still used to catch people's attention.  This image looks like it is being used as a business card or to promote this person.  This is an example of illuminated manuscript today. 

Class February 18, 2009

Today in class we discussed the different styles of type, Rococo style, the Romain du Roi, Caslon, and Baskerville. The Romain du Roi was designed by Louis Simonneau, based on 2,304 squares, and was used for royal printing only! Any commoners who used this font would be killed. The Caslon family were printers for about 60 years, William Caslon's fonts were reported to be "friendly to the eye".  When Caslon was introduced into the American colonies it became very popular and was useda lot, Benjamin Franklin liked it so much that the official printing of the Declaration of Independence was printed in Caslon Old Style.  John Baskerville created woven paper which was smooth, glossy, and easier to write and print on.  People were jealous of him and did not like his style, they said it hurt their eyes.  His style was the transition between old style and modern style.  Bodoni was influenced by the Romain de Roi and liked Baskerville's theory of making the light strokes thinner to increase contrast. Modern style was much more even and symmetrical.

I found it interesting that people said that Baskerville's font hurt their eyes when in reality it wasn't much different from Caslon's. 

Why did Baskerville hide his innovations? Did he not care that people didn't like his font?

Chapter 8: An Epoch of Typographic Genius

Chapter eight introduces us to Rococo design, fancy french art and architecture composed of s and c- curves.  Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune was very successful at this time, establishing an independent type-design by age 24, publishing a book presenting 4,600 characters by age 30, and planned a four-volume Manual of Typography of which only two were assembled before his death.  Although he did not live to complete his greatest work, Fournier le Jeune had the greatest impact on graphic design and made more typographic innovations than any person his era.  In 1720, William Caslon took up type design and became immediately successful from his Caslon Old Style with italic, the font was used in majority of English printing for the next 60 years, and when Benjamin Franklin introduced Caslon into the American colonies it was used for the official printing of the Declaration of Independence. After Caslon came John Baskerville, who was involved in all areas of the bookmaking process.  Baskerville designed, cast, and set type, he improved the printing press, conceived and commissioned new papers, developed a new ink, and designed and published the books he printed.  His type designs still bear his name today and are still used.  He created a smooth, glossy paper by using a mold with a much finer woven screen and then hot pressing the paper after it was printed, this made the paper virtually texture free.  Giambattista Bodoni ended the Rococo style creating the modern style with new type faces and page layout.   Bodoni designed nearly three hundred type fonts and published them in a specimen book presenting his work, today it is considered a mile stone in the history of graphic design.

Chapter eight contained many famous names, it was interesting to learn about Caslon's font and how just one font made him so popular! Baskerville was also interesting to learn about because I see his fonts every so often but I never knew who he was or his accomplishments.  Some other names that caught my attention were: Eli Whitney, Rene Descartes, and Benjamin Franklin.

What is Art Nouveau? 

Class February 16, 2009

In class we talked about how typographic printing affected society, Martin Luther, and Albrecht Durer.  Typographic printing increased literacy, individualism, stabilized and unified languages, spread ideas, and lead to the industrial revolution.  Martin Luther started Lutherism by posting his 95 theses.  Albrecht Durer brought in Roman capitals, he visited Italy and noticed how much more advanced the italians were than the Germans and wrote a book about it. We then had a debate about who was the most important Renaissance Man.  A Renaissance man is someone who did everything and was great at it.  The class was split into three groups and each was given a "Renaissance man", Erhart Ratdolt, Geoffroy Tory, and Aldus Manutius.  After hearing about each renaissance man, Geoffroy Tory was named the Renaissance Man.  Tory was named "Renaissance Man" by the book, he created thirteen different alphabets, studied twelve different fields, introduced the apostrophe, the accent, and the cedilla, all of which are still used today.  Tory achieved more in his lifetime than either of the other men. 

I find it very intriguing that since Tory created the apostrophe, accent, and cedilla, alphabets have changed as well as writing style and they are still used today.  That is a major accomplishment.

What enable Tory to become the most successful of his time? What advantages did he have over Ratdolt and Manutius?  

Chapter 6: The German Illustrated Book & Chapter 7: Renaissance Graphic Design

Gutenberg's invention of typography named the period the Incunabula period, meaning the beginning and birth.  Typographic printing lowered the cost of books, increased literacy, and influenced the Protestant movement of the Reformation era with help from Martin Luther.  Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses for debate were posted on the door of Castle Church, his friends passed them on to printers who made many copies which  then spread Luther's beliefs throughout central Europe, creating Lutherism.  Albrecht Durer's broadside prints were very popular, his Rhinoceros being the most popular.  Broadside printing was when there was printing on both sides of a single leaf of paper.  Martin Luther also used broadside printing.  

Chapter seven is about the Italian Renaissance. Borders and initials became part of design, different type sizes and styles were created and used.  Italic and roman text style was created, pocket books invented, and page numbers were printed.  Italian renaissance was passed to France where Geoffroy Tory became "the Renaissance Man".  Tory created the apostrophe, the accent, the cedilla, 13 different alphabets, and studied 12 different fields. In the seventeenth century graphic design innovations slowed because of all the left over print materials there was no need for new layouts or typefaces.  Printing then moved to the North American colonies where The Whole Book of Psalms was the first book to be designed and printed.  When more and more printers arrived in the colonies a revolution began to brew just as it had in Europe. 

I found Geoffroy Troy to be an amazing person.  Troy was educated in 12 different fields, designed things we still use today on a daily basis, he was a teacher, the king's printer, and accomplished much more.  He achieved a lot for just one person and I think that he is the exact definition of a Renaissance Man.

What is crible? 

Paper Making (Week 2)

During this past week we read and discussed the substrates that were used to communicate and keep records.  Clay was used in Mesopotamia and papyrus was used in Egypt, parchment became popular because it was the first substrate that allowed writing to be written on both sides and it was much more durable than papyrus, the Chinese invented paper which is what we still use today. The same process they used is still used today only it is done mechanically now and not by hand.  Pulp is soaked in a vat of water where the vat-man dips a mold, a frame with a screen stretched across, and lifts it up shaking it side to side to lock the fibers while the water drains through the mold.  The paper was then laid down on a woolen cloth, or couched, where it would dry.  Paper was not only used to write on, it was used as wallpaper, wrapping paper, toilet paper, and napkins.  All of which are still used today.

This is a picture that I took of my friend in our J-term class this year.  We made paper for about two and a half weeks, thats all we did was make paper.  In the picture my friend is couching the paper, we used boards in place of a woolen cloth.  You can also see the mold that was used.  When I read about the process the Chinese used to make paper I was amazed at how I had used the same process in my class that had been used centuries before I was even born! 

Class February 13, 2009

In class today we talked about illuminated manuscripts.  Fancy manuscripts were made to catch peoples eye in hope that they would convert to Christianity.  The manuscripts were created in the scriptorium by the scrittori, copisti, and the illuminator.  The scrittori was the editor and the art director, he was educated in both Greek and Latin.  The copisti was the production letterer and the illuminator was the illustrator.  We also talked about typographic printing and the affects it had on society.  The Phaistos Disk is the earliest found evidence of an alphabet and printing, same symbols are exactly the same as if they had been stamped.  The chinese started printing on paper when they ran out of silver.  The chinese never caught on to moveable type because they had too many characters.  We talked about Gutenberg's 42 line Bible, how he was sued, and his other achievements that impacted printing.  

I was fascinated by the way Andrew Lloyd Goodman had never seen some of the illustrations we looked at but he was able to tell us about the meaning just by knowing specific symbols and what they symbolize.

We talked about how the cheese and wine press inspired Gutenberg to create moveable type, what is a cheese and wine press?

Chapter 5: Printing Comes to Europe

This chapter tells us about the beginning of moveable type and typography.  Moveable type was a step up from block printing, instead of wood a special metal designed by Johann Gutenberg was used.  The same ink used on woodblock printing would not work so Gutenburg had to also find a usable ink.  Needing assistance with printing he hired 1,600 guilders from Johann Fust, with whom he then established a partnership with.  Three years after the partnership Fust sued Gutenburg just as they were nearing completion on the 42 line Bible.  Gutenburg was locked out of his printing shop.  Fust then formed a firm with Peter Schoeffer and together they became the most important printing firm in the world.  During this same time and same section of Europe, an unknown artist created the earliest copperplate engravings. 

I found it very intriguing that Fust sued Gutenburg before the completion of the 42 line Bible which would have paid for all the labor of Fusts guilders. 

What did Gutenburg need 2,026 guilers for? Why so many?

Class February 11, 2009

Today in class we took the online quizzes over chapters 3 and 4, which took up the majority of class time.  After the quizzes, Laura quickly pointed out some of the important facts from the reading.  We discussed Chia-ku-wen, Bronze script, Chinese calligraphy, and chops. The earliest chinese writings, Chia-ku-wen,  were invented by Tsang Chieh who was inspired by the claw marks from birds and footprints of animals. Chops are very similar to modern day stamps.  Bronze script is chinese calligraphy inscriptions on cast-bronze objects.  The thing I found most interesting was that most people did not learn chinese calligraphy because there were over 4,400 characters! 

How did the Europeans come upon adapting the ancient chinese inventions?

Chapter 3: The Asian Contribution & Chapter 4: Illuminated Manuscripts

Chapter three discusses Chinese inventions and how they were adopted into Europe where the europeans used them to conquer the world.  Gunpowder, paper, printing, calligraphy, and the compass were the inventions the Europeans adopted.  The Japanese adopted the use of logograms from the Chinese calligraphy which used logograms as characters for text.  Ts'ai Lun's invention of paper was much more than just a substrate the chinese used it as wrapping paper, wallpaper, toilet paper, and napkins.  Printing was done with seals or chops which are much like our modern day stamps. Many more types of printing were created, moveable type was created in Korea. 

Chapter four is about illuminated manuscript which is decorated or illustrated books.  Colors were used in these books, the colors were made from minerals, animals and vegetable matter.  The most important contribution of graphic design was created by scribes in medieval monasteries who invented the musical notation using punctuation which evolved into the five line staff.  Many books during this period, most of them religious, had fancier scripts and illustrations.

I found it very interesting that the chinese used paper for other things than just writing on.  Also that they starched the paper to strengthen it.

What is Chi-Rho?

Class February 9, 2009

At the start of class we were asked two questions... how writing benefited society and why alphabets were a good thing.  Writing benefited society by allowing records and documents to be kept and libraries were created, alphabets helped civilize people and made it easier for people to read and write.  We then discussed chapter 2, the Phaistos Disk, the Phoenician, Greek and Korean alphabets.  The Phoenician and Greek alphabets are similar to ours today, but the Egyptian's Hieroglyphics were also similar to the Phoenician alphabet.  The Phoenician's were seafaring merchants so their alphabet influenced anywhere they visited.  The Greek's alphabet, like the rest of Greece, was based off geometry.  The Greeks also changed 5 consonants to vowels.  The Korean alphabet was created to look like the shape of the mouth when the symbol was said. We also talked about the different substrates used. Clay was mainly used in Mesopotamia because they had a large amount of it and Egypt used papyrus because the papyrus plant could be found right along their rivers.  Codex parchment replaced papyrus for some people because they found it to be cheaper and more durable. Codex allowed for writing on both sides and it could be rolled up and folded with out breaking.  The Chinese invented paper but we have yet to learn about the Chinese.

I found it interesting to learn about serifs, when you choose fonts on the computer you

see fonts with serif in them and I never knew what that meant.

What was the significance of the Greeks changing 5 consonants to vowels?

Chapter 2: Alphabets

Chapter 2 talks about different alphabets, their markings, how many characters, what script it derived from, what tools and materials were used, how it was written and read (ex. left to right), what alphabets were influenced by another, and lots more.  Some scripts were too curvy to chisel into stone and had to be drawn in clay or on paper.  Some were read from left to right, some read left to right then right to left, and others read vertically from top to bottom.  Chapter 2 tells us that as more and more people began learning how to read and write people such as scribes and priests lost their political power.  Reading and writing had become more important because of the vast amount of information and knowledge exceeded the ability to continue to be past down through generations by word of mouth.

I was surprised to learn how parchment codex had more advantages over papyrus scrolls and yet the pagans continued to use papyrus.  Codex was more durable and both sides could be written as opposed papyrus which was too fragile to be folded into pages and you could not write on the back because of the vertical strip.

What are logograms?

Class February 6, 2009

Laura started out class by asking groups to draw 3 pictographs each which represent male and female, after discussing our results we talked about chapter one.  Chapter one tells us how visual communication first began as simple pictures and carvings in caves and as it evolved over time scripts changed and writing structure changed.

We discussed the differences between petroglyphs, pictographs, and ideographs.  Petroglyphs are carved or scratched signs or simple figures on rocks. Pictographs are elementary pictures or sketches representing the objects depicted.  Ideographs are symbols which represent ideas or concepts. We also talked about the Egyptian hieroglyphics and how the Rosetta Stone played a major role in translating the hieroglyphics.

Learning the difference between pictographs and ideographs really helped me to better understand what purpose they served in the drawings.

What is the difference between Cuniforn and Rebus? 

Megg's History of Graphic Design: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Invention of Writing is about the first records of forms of thought and communication from people.  Some early markings found in Africa date back to over 200,000 years ago.  Tools, pictographs, and ideographs show us the level of technology and communication these first thinkers functioned at.  Pictographs were simple drawings or sketches that represented objects, animals, or people.  Ideographs were symbols which represented ideas or words.  Pictographs evolved over time and started to resemble letters by the end of the Paleolithic period.  Copper replaced stone tools and weapons, and soon after the wheel was invented.  The arrival of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia influenced village culture to become high civilization, a system of gods was created and a social order was established so that large numbers of people could live together.  The need for recording information and identification forced writing to evolve, records were kept on clay tablets.  Writing structure changed from a horizontal and vertical grid to writing horizontal from left to right and top to bottom.  As writing evolved libraries were organized and laws were created.  The Egyptians had their own unique writing called hieroglyphics that they used for over three millennia. These hieroglyphics could be found on tombs, coffins, furniture, buildings, jewelry, clothing, and more.  The discovery of using the papyrus plant to make paper greatly and positively impacted Egyptian communication. 

The Rosetta Stone was a major discovery, it allowed us to understand Egyptian hieroglyphics.  It was found by Napoleon's troops in the Egyptian town of Rosetta in 1799.  The stone contained writing in two different languages and three different scripts.  The three scripts were Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian demotic script, and Greek.  Jean-Francois Champollion realized that the hieroglyphics functioned as phonograms and was able to sound out two names, Cleopatra and Ptolemy, which led him to translate more writings and begin to build a vocabulary of glyphs.  His translations made it possible for others to continue to unlock Egyptian writings after his death.  This writing system was found to contain over 700 hieroglyphics. 

How did the Greek script on the Rosetta Stone fit in with the Egyptian scripts?

In the "Cave"

Yesterday was our first day of class, Laura wanted to give us a hands on experience to the history of graphic design. She took us to the basement or "cave" as she called it, where we used clay to convey messages. She split us into groups and gave us each a sentence to mold. The sentences were not easy to turn into art which was the whole point of the exercise. How do you show Ryan Seacrest with clay? This exercise showed me how difficult it must have been for prehistoric artists to convey their messages in their writings on the wall.

My name is Laura Gordon, I am a sophomore in college and I am creating this blog for my History of Graphic Design class.