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.