Chapter 5

Modern Typography and

the creation of a public sphere

[1660-1880]

Period Introduction

This period built on the advances.  The monumental invention of copper plates took new steps forward as improvements allowed greater detail, increasing the richness of designs and drawing more audiences to illustrated media.The Baroque movement heavily influenced graphic design sensabilities of the period, increasing it's elegance.  New administrative tasks in government expanded the role of writing to to include statistics.  Writing also became much popular among ordinary citizens.  Sporadic political satire of the rennaisance evolved in the press, a highly evolved system for reporting news to citizens.  Design and print continued to expand further into  th epublic sector and shaped culture there.  Meanwhile, scientific rationality flourished and typface design headed into different directions, as a result of cultural and ideologic shifts.  With the increased empircism, the disire for knowledge was abundant; And the press delivered in many forms.

Social/Political Characteristics

• Public sphere : virtual arena denoting public opinion.  Was shaped by the press.
• As scientific thinking gained a large commitment, it conflicted with religios groups and prior schools of thought.
• Printed news came to be a regular cultural occurence, and it's content provoked rigorouse debates.
• News sheets satisfied public demand for curiosity and scandal.
• Coffee served as a new social context to consume the news and discuss.  It became a way of life.
• Information and opinion became a commodity.
• Newspapers gradually incorperated other cultural things like advertisements.
• The priniters helped to instill a strong sense of indidualism in north american colonists, provoking their desire to seperate from the crown.
• News papers helped public to keep informed.
• Amendmant provided protection for the press for censorship.
• Knowledge embodied freedom.

Graphic Design Developments

• The role of design was contiually expanding in trade as well as poltical institutions.
• Advances made it easier to record history and knowledge.
• Printing became a highly inolved trade itself, which people prepared for extensively and dedicated their lives to.
• Visual designs were used to condense information such as statistics.
• Visual differences identified different businesses.
• Type design became it's own independant area of specalization.
• At the turn of the 18th century, public interested shifted back to classical styles (hairline serifs for example)
• Design of font faces was highly rational and founded in rational thought and geometrically based.
• Gone was the human feel of the renaissance.
• Roman de Rois, for example, created a type face that emphasized rationality and formality overy creativity.
• Pierre Simon created a standardized system of font sizes, which further brought printing  into the realm of consistency.
• As a a result of the printing press's ability to circulate information, design from the far east came into contact with european design philisophy.
• John Carlson created what came to be widely accepted as the standard English type face.
• John Baskverville pioneered many breakthroughs : darker ink and calandared paper (smoother and glossier)
• Giambattista  Bodoni tooktype face design into the modern age with a series of neoclassical fonts firmly grounded in modernity.
• Book illustrations became common.
• Academic groups' demand for graphic materials grew substanitally.

Person responce

The news paper, I feel, was a remarkable advance of this period.  It really established the newspaper as a personal commodity.  Before information was mostly for official purposes.  But now information became a liesurely thing.  People would sit in a coffee shop much like they did today and discuss the days news, as they do in a Starbucks these days.  I think that this would really have brought communities together.  Now, they would all have access to a regular standardized form of news.  Much like today, the newspapers seem like they would affect peoples opinions on a wide variety of subjects.  The debate over the newspapers of the time seems very similar to the debates that are currently going on over our media outlets such as Fox News.  

This periods take on graphic design seems really similar to today's.  Visuals played a large role in communication just like they do in any of today's informative works (such as documentaries.)  There were a variety of fonts tooo, and these became a serious aesthetic consideratio in design.

On the other hand, the conflict between religion and secular school of thought seemed to be much more active than it is today.  Religion still played a larger role and I think it would be de-emphasized in the comming decades.

I think the upcomming invention of the type writer will have an almost equally impressive effect on printing as Gutteberg's press did.  It wil be probabaly be cheaper than the press was, so a much wider variety of people can enter the trade because of the reduced entry barrier.  People will no longer need patrons to open up a shop.  Anyone could do it.  On the flipside, with the reduced cost, large businesses will also be able to hire many many more people and distrobute information even faster than ever.

Chapter 4

Renniasance Design : Standardization and Modernizatio in Print

[1450-1600]

Introduction

The rennaisance saw a charactertistic revival in the interest of scientific pursuits and endeavors, primarly due to the increased ability to distrobute written texts.  Graphic design also had a greater impact on the culture from which it originated, which in turn entailled greater responsibilties for designer.  Design was now firmly enshrined in all principle aspects of society  : religion, government, etc.  Printing mostly revolved around the use of modular technology called letter movable type, which standardized the process of printing even more.  Poltical environment was heavily shaped by this new development in printing as well.

Politica/social Developments

• Political power now depended on who controlled the press, which in turn affected what information reached people.
• Writing was the catlyst for the protestant reformation in that it allowed protestants to devise objections to catholics and distribute them around.
• Printed works became widely available to the common person and they began  be offered as a commodity, as opposed to a neccesity.
• Caused Humanistic ideas to emerge.
• Women were excluded from this intellectual shift.
• Feudalistic societies had a thriving econamy
• The desire for education spread with the flourishing of utopian societies.
• Explorations were sponsored, and as a result of the ensuingdiscoveries, people began to see the world in a completely different way.
• New inventions like the microscope allowed academics to scrutinize and explore their world on an unforseen leve.
• Scientific thinking became more widespread.  People now regarded the world around them with a more rational, logical approach.  Proof was vital, unlike before where religion compelled people to blindly submit to any idea.
• In the 1530s, the english government intituted a requirement that books had to be approved by them before they could be printed.  Introduced the concept of censorship to the political scene.

Developments in Graphic Design

• The printing press was a radical departure from previous methods of duplicating text.
• The printing press was an instrument of social change.  Ideas could now be spread much faster and to much more people.
• The creation of texts was now standardized.
• The printing process was broken down into small pieces, each entailing a different area of specialization.
• Standardization lent consistency to records and official texts.  Society became more structured.
• Emergence of a means to reproduce visual designs.
• Visusal works expanded in their scope, to include purposes such as erotic.
• Graphic design facilited a rich academic scene.
• Written records formed the framework of feudal economies.
• The development of oil paints added increased realism as well as the element of luminosity in a visual work.
• A new design concept emerged with oil paints : perspective.  This was a monumental change in the way designers portrayed reality.
• Design was often done in the service of wealthy patrons who requested works.
• Graphic design helped to spread knowledge in a wide variety of technical fields such as metallurgy.
• The design of the letterpress was atttributed to Johannes Gutenbergm, an engraver from Germany.
• The letterpress represented reproducable models in type face and informtation.
• Aldus Manutius designed a type face that owed more his time than the influence of previous scribes.  With the press's ability to accurately reproduce, many other designs followed.
• Modularity took it's toll on the individuality of each copy.  Small touches like overlawpping swatches became an inconvinience.
• Letterpressing opened up many related skills, such as paper making letter design.
• Stqandaradization in information  was critical to the creation of knowledge bases in various academic sectors.
• Copperplate printing emerged and it enabled the creatio nand dissemination of designs with a higher level of detail.
• Visual communication played a big role in the Renniasance due to it's widespread accesability;  Many people could correctly interpret it's message.
• Graphic representation shaped public opinion about a wide variety of subjects as politics and class systems.    It became  culturally influencial.  
• Improvements in map making technique sparked expeditions, which in turn led to a dramtic change in Europeans' understanding of the world.
• The criteria of repeatability in scientific thinking was well suited to the standardization of print making.
• Monumental lettering became common place in front of  prominent buildings, such as churches.
• Graphic represntations signified and standards and shaped people's ideas on a wide variety of cultural issues.

Personal Responce/Reflection

With thedramatically increased ability to circulate ideas and knowledge, writing really became a true intellectual medium now in this period.  The effects  of this new ability would be extensive. Previously, a copy of a work could take days or weeks, but now it could be done in a few hours.  People could be informed of changes very quickly.  In turn this gave thinkers the idea to effect social and political change much quicker than was previously possible.  Words now were a symbol of power, they gained value through the ways that they could society.  Previously writing was primarly a means of exchanign ideas, but the printing press really made it much more capable.

It also seems that writing brought out a sinister side of human nature.  When governments realized how powerful writing and knowledge, they would obviously prevent any disadvantageous ideas from reaching the public.  It's incredible to think that the concept of censoring dates back that long, because it's still used today.

The emergence of visual design seems to have been equally valuable in distrobuting ideas accross a wide region. As with writing, the limited speed at which they could be repduced limited their effiveness.  But with reproducable copper models, they could reach a much larger audience.  This also seemd to be the first time graphic design was used with themes like political satire.  The prinitng press seems to have created a new consumeristic market for design and writing.  Before, writing was onyl used for official business, but now it was being sold as a commodity for the average person.    

This realls seems to have taken graphic design to the place it is now.  

In the future, I suspect, academics will seek to free themselves of the corruption of censors.

Chapter 3

Midievil Letterforms and Book  Formats

[400-1450]

Introduction

Letter design became even more of a creative element. Letterforms became more distinct and varied. It now became suffienctly more complex in that it now carried with it the visual history of itself.  Along with their functional value, these graphic letters represented cultural identity.  The iddle ages also saw the introduction of schematic designs like maps and diagrams.  These were highly useful in conveying information to an exapnded audience.

Historical / Political / Social Developments

• The medievelage followed the fall of the roman empire which in turn gave way to the assumption of power by the catholic church.
• Literacy was rare and it came to symbolize power and the insitutuions that held it.
• Artistic element in society exapnded.
• Church controlled most design and the flow of ideas.
• Church obstructed scientific progress through it's influence
• New education insututions created a demand for books/visual media
• Increased demand for books created positions for professional scribes.

Graphic Design Developments

• Graphic design played an increased role in the dissemination of information.
• A new kind of medium, the codex book, was introduced around  400 CE.
• These introduced new ways to process information through navigational mechanisms, such as page numbers.
• The design of text became increasingly rich and colorful.
• Different lettering corresponded to different locations.  Even more so, it defined regions and could be used to identify them.
• Parchment was invented. It was flexible and it could contain more information, as scribes could write on both sides.
• Paper later arrived in the 11th century, imported from China.
• Graphic expressionism took off with the church's demand for artistic architectural designs.
• Illuminated manuscripts emerged in which the text was supplemented by lavish designs.
• Adminsitrative insitutions depeneded heavily on written manuscripts.
• Codex books popularised the use of visual communication in many institutions, most of all religious.
• Religion influenced graphic design deeply.
• Graphic design was frequently used by academics to portray their ideas and standardized school's of thought.
• Graphics assisted in the portrayal of ideas in an accurate fashion, with no room for misinterpretation.
• Literary audience emerged; Numerous authord created works of fiction and graphic design helped to illustrate the tales they told.
• The creation of visual information became in industry.
• Visual media helped to tie together different groups.

Personal reflection / reaction

The middle ages represented some very drastic advances in design, which brought it closer to what we know as Graphic Design Today.  The Middle Ages was home to some truly fantastic designs.  The illustrated books looked fantastic.  Their combination of richly shaped lettering with vivid, colorful designs made for some truly magnificent presentation.

The Middle Ages also contributed to the trenad of the increasing role of visual communication in society's insitutions.  The church used extensively it in their holy scriptures/architecture and  astronomers used it to lay out their ideas for how the universe worked.

The root's of modern graphic design were also strengthened as the combination of lettering and graphics became the the foundation of visual communication.

The book was a great invention because it made large ammounts of information much eiser to approach and as a result created a larger demand for it.

It's a pity that the church had such a tight grip on the artistic community. The scope of visual designs would have undoubtedly been much larger had the church not insisted on controlling things.

With the increasing secularization of works (as the middle ages beocmes the renaissance the grasp of the church begins to weaken), designs will probabaly become more varied in their themes and will probabaly start to explore more scientific issues.

Classical Literacy

(700 BC - 400 CE)

Introduction

This period saw great changes in the context of graphic design.  It adopted a whole new role in society.  Writing evolved a means of  Literacy shaped social statuses as well as the administrative system of various countries.  Writing became a representation of law and it came to visually distinguish the element of society that had created it.  Around the world, many variations of the alphabet continued to develope under various cultural and social influences. 

Characteristics of the Period and developements in graphic design.

• The new writing system was even a requirement for citizen ship, which demonstrated how significant a role the alphabet had created for itself.
• Tablet's and scrolls still held their place as the most common portable media.
• Copyists were employed to copy manuscripts and despite the time consumption of this process, they were widespread among the Romans and the Greeks.
• Uses of writing were all over the spectrum, from casual letters to official decrees and laws.
• Different graphical styles of writing emerged to suit different occasions.
• Graphics begun to take on a social message.
• Cursive, a new font style that mimicks elegant hand written gestures emerges.
• Constructed letters were a new style that sought to achieve beauty through rigorous attention to proportionality and other properties.
• Letter design was based on emulatable models.

Personal observation and Reflection

I am amazed at the advancements in design and visual codes.  Writing transformed from being purely communication to much more expressive in an artistic way.  Not only would this have made writing a lot more flexible, but it would also lend a degree of identity to each geographical region.  It unified people. Each could be characterized by it's writing style.  I also think that the enhanced graphicalization of writing would also help to give it a a stronger and more distinct role in society.  Imposing letters could be created for official laws where as more depressing styles could be created for funerals.  It helps to give the writing a social context and probabaly helped peopel relate to writing more.

More revolutionary than the writing advances of the period, I think is the introduction of graphics.  This was a totally new form of conveying ideas.  Unlike writing, which represented verbal speech (to some extent atleast), graphics (such as the designs Romans carved into the walls of their buildings) were a very visually elaborate approach to conveying ideas.  They appealed to the viewers imagination in a whole new way.  I think this was a very momnumental step in the history of graphic design, it really created on of the basic foundations of modern graphic design.

Chapter 1 : The origins of Writing

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Early Notation systems

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The earliest know examples of a graphic code date back to what is today France.  Scientists discovered rocks qith symbols enscribed on them.  Unlike today's alphabet, these symbols didn't represent language or words, they might have simply stood for ideas.  This system of notation was referred to as pictograms.

With this discoverery, the concept of a code was established.

Real writing emerged aroud 3200 BC in mesopotamia,in an rea between the trigris and euphrates rivers.  These were called cuneiform scripts and they were to be very influencial in future writing systems.  Cuneiform was a logographic code which represented words with schematic (simplified )  pictures.  Cuneiform was a breakthrough because it allowed ideas to be communicated on a more abstract/complex level and.  Cuneiform played an important role in the evolution of future writing systems and were adopted by many sorrounding countries, such as Turkey, syria, and lebanon.  Cuneiform also made possible, the first stable written record of human history, cultural developments, etc.

Hieroglyphs represented another advance in visual communication.  Thye may have been influenced by cuneiform or they may have been created independently.  What makes them so significant is that hieroglyphs took into consideration the arrangement of the consituent symbols and their direction.  Hieroglyphs were also based on a grid system.  These two reperesented a radical advance in graphic thinking.  Despite it's innovations, hieroglyphs did not spread.

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The earliest alphabets

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The earliest form of an alphabetic system can be traced back to caananite cultures, which are roughly 4000 years old.  The alpha betic sysem was by fat the biggest advance in communication.  It's artibrary symbolic combination was revolutionary.  It's flexability enabled communication on a level that was never even imagined.  Traders apread it to many other regions and because the letters could be used to repersent sounds from a wide variety of languages, it connected many cultures and geographic regions.