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.