- 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.
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