Week 6

Vienna Succession

Negative space starts to become form

Peter Behrens - 1900s

- young guy experimenting with Art Nouveau ideas

- young people interested in sexuality

Text

- text very clear and legible

- believed to be first usage of running sans serif type

- cool looking border with justified columns and a good chunk of white space

- running text at the time set at serif

- first comprehensive identity program (typeface, unifying mark, layout system)

- pioneered non load bearing walls, columns in middle that support structure and wall can be windows

- close association with Miesvan Derrohe (last director of Bahaus) + Walter Gropius (1st director of Bahaus)

Order an SVA catalog because it's the coolest cover ever

- printed with temperature sensitive ink

- touching it reveals the typography

Back to history...

- rectilinear things

Bahaus foundation program

- 1904 German guy comes and joins factory

- he's a master at geometry apparently

- he likes grids with circles and squares

- Behrens likes what he hears from this German guy

- a grid doesn't have to be anything

- it's just a system of rules

- what can we do with a circle and a square?

- something about math and intervals, I'm confused

- basic system of proportions why should I care?

Exhibition Pavilion

- based on circle square system

- flier for linoleum exhibition showing the pavilion

Logo (still Behrens)

- uses metaphor of some kind

- looks a beehive or something

- well I was write it's a honeycomb

- it's about structure with the workers and whatnot

- what a clever metaphor

develops comprehensive system of a brand

- logo

- typeface

- consistent layout

Poster from German workshop

- you don't see the circle but it still has the same proportion

- allegorical torch bearer

- something about a designer shedding light

- really dark colors and the guy on the horse looks naked

Guidebook for AEG, German Ship Building

- Germans bragging about their cool ships

- there goes that consistent layout again

Cover for Electrical works Magazine

- this guy is the shit he applies this consistent grid system to everything

- good grid structure tells you how to play a game

Tea Kettles

- he even used this structure on tea kettles

He used the word groovy hahahahhahah.

- Dorian admits he didn't care about dates

- AIGA founded around WWI

- Bahaus opens around the time Hitler decides to take up literature and write Mein Kampf

- Dorians mom cried when his mom found out he's doing art

- people love to exploit students doing competitions

When WWI comes around...

- people are excited because we have machines like tanks and what not

- then people realize that's bad and there's backlash

Now I kind of dozed off and stopped paying attention so I don't really know what's going on.

- something about judges

- Priester?

- black background with what looks like two red chopsticks

- placka is a paint you can buy

- i probably spelled it wrong

- blackest black you can paint "satan soul black"

- well I don't know who did this poster so I should probably read the bottom left corner

- some poster about enlisting to work on uboats

- the "u" becomes the form for the person

- sunken ship inside in the distance

- all i heard was this poster in lady liberty handing someone a really big sword

- "thick syrupy illustration"

Watched some American movie.

Week 4

John Ruskin

• philosophical leader of Arts & Crafts movement
• rejected idea of mercantile economy
• believed your work should be in service of society
• as a model he points to construction of a gothic cathedral
• publishes first set of poems when he's 24

people start having utopian ideas
their thoughts are bigger
how can I make a better world, a system of art

return to medieval
we tend to remember how good the old days were

William Morris

• mostly remembered for his pattern designs
• developed interest in book arts
• first typeface Golden (old style), used to print book called the Golden Legend
• also designed troy (blackletter) and smaller version of troy called chaucer
• tonality of initial cap is perfect

Roycrofters

• take idea of arts & crafts movement and bring to America
• americans made practical for commerce and added humor
• do a lot of things out of pressed tin and copper/ceramic

Week 3

Iron printing press - 1800

Iron can be fabricated

this is something that can be cast, pieces can be made

more durable

greater force with less human power (gear system)

cheaper, quicker, easier

cast iron with a screw

using 1/10 the force to create its impressions

Powered Presses

made 10 years after iron press

can print 400 impressions an hour

Double Cylinder Press

4 years later

1000 impressions an hour

industrialization affects fabric industry

steam powered machines come in

less need for workers

this leads to rebellion

people rioting smashing machines

led by ned lite

ledittes = anti technology

London Times

1814 printed by steam powered press

had to print in secret

had to convince public electricity was a good idea

people didn't want it, didn't see the point of it

Papers become popular

easier to produce

less expensive

shift in business model

newspapers sold by subscription

Penny Papers

sold to average person on street

start selling ads to make up money

start off visually conservative

John Cooper

first ad men were brokers of space

starts first ad agency

Ottmar Mergenthaler

1886 linotype machine

"line of type"

can do the work of 7-8 hand compositors

Victorian Era graphics

marked by aesthetic confusion

strong moral beliefs

religious beliefs

loved fussiness

rise of middle class

more people with disposable money

a lot of influence from the east

decline in quality of craft

Lithography and color lithography

invented in 1796

able to have gradations

chromolithography - color lithography

Ephemera

printed documents not meant to collect

Louis Prang

father of scrap language

scrap cards were like promos

Personalities in products

products start adopting personas

Rise of popular magazines

The Practical Housekeeper

placing ad next to article create relationship

Toybooks

made as entertainment for children

Kate Greenway

idealized children in dresses

generous use of white space

Thomas Nast

father of american political cartoon

uncle sam

republican donkey & elephant

modern depiction of santa claus

gives us Columbia

one of the reasons that led to tweeds downfall

John Ruskin

how can society consciously order the lives of its members so that the most people are happy and satisfied

people starting to have big thoughts

belief that beautiful things are valuable just because they're beautiful

William Morris

father of Arts & Crafts movement

inspired by writings of John Ruskin/social movements

son of a wealthy merchant

lets become craftsman again, build a quality chair

flaw in logic is the higher cost

Morris has the idea to turn away from industrialization to go back to making things

Conclusion

There's a lot of different types of presses that we learned about today in class and I thought it was interesting to see how they worked. You start to see a sort of progression when it comes to the printing press where they just keep getting better and better and better. Knowing that a certain press can make a certain number of impressions per hour is useful to know because it gives me an idea of how efficient they were. Seeing examples really helps also because I get an idea of what the presses were capable of.

Once again I see the connection between Graphic Design and Advertising which is one of the topics I'm most interested in. Even though I've never heard of some of the names mentioned in class I knew that the first admen weren't really admen at all. I get to learn a bit more about advertising from a different perspective which I find pretty interesting.

I also liked learning about Thomas Nast and Boss Tweed. I remember hearing of Tweed back in high school but I didn't remember much about him or Nast. It's nice to make connections with people I learned about in high school in my history class and how they relate to the history of Graphic Design.

Week 2

Lascaux Caves

beginnings of visual communication

Storytelling

before written communication you need to be a good storyteller

Cuneiform Tablet

process of abstraction

begin with the picture of an idea

this picture leads to sounds

Phoenicians

wrote the sound of an object

Romans

adopted different parts of Greek culture

spread ideas by conquering people

spread language

Roman alphabet had 23 letters, predecessor to our own alphabet

Quadrata / Capital Rustica

Book of Kells

made around 1880

quicker to draw curves than verticals

isolation, speed, efficiency

Charlemagne

hired Alquin of York to be his squire

Woodblock Printing

everyone can afford to have one

changes the architecture of the human brain

Parchment

stretch skin on frame

peel skin with blade making it thinner and thinner

Letter of Indulgence

“get-out-of-jail-card”

Swveydem & Pannartz

evolution to Roman letters

style based on humanist writing of Italian scribes

Calendarium

belief in human spirit

interest in science and Earth

calender interesting at this time

printed disc, seperate sheet on top, and attached string

first example of tippet

Stephen Day

brought printing to colonies

worked as locksmith

went to colonies and set up printing shop

first book was full of songs

Rococo

decorative borders

fanciful French architecture

floral, intricate design

Engravings

1695 engravings of letterforms

square divided into grid of over 2000 units

more contrast between thicks and thins

serifs getting thinner

Copperplate Engraving

not limited to horizontal/vertical setting lead type

allows you to draw whatever you want

extreme thick and thins, thin limited to stylus

lots of swirls and curves

influenced design of metal type

England

government controls printing

King Charles 2 demand reduction of printers to 20

printing allows people to rally together

Giambattista Bodoni

page design have Roccoco traits

French revolution rejects Roccoco

looks at base units when designing letters

interchangeable units

reinvents serif without bracket

letterform built by few units

Bodoni typeface

brackets very tight

Fatface

made by extending a Bodoni

display typeface

Industrial Revolution

people want to sell things

development of brands

big typefaces become popular to attract attention

world affected econimcally, socially, politicaly

possible because of power

development of factory system/division of labor

Industrialization leads to consumerism

people begin to want stuff

loss of humanization with Industrialization

growing of literacy

Vincent Figgins

Egyptian faces

name so because we were digging in Egypt at the time

also known as slab serif

Sans serif

2 line Egyptian

cut off serifs

Tuscan Letters

display faces

done with routers

Posters

designed by what would fit into the space and what materials are available

Lithography

grind smooth marble slab

allows for mix of colors and near full color images

growth of newspaper and magazines

Historical Families

Old Style (Garamond)

based on traditions of hand

based on Roman faces

Transitional (Baskerville)

evolution to modern

contrast thicks and thins

vertical stress

Modern (Bodoni)

extreme thicks and thins

no brackets

Egyptian (Clarendon)

even weight

slab serifs

Sans Serif

no serifs

12 points = 1 pica

6 pica = 1 inch

72 points 1 inch

Conclusion

If someone asked me where the "beginnings of visual communication" began Lascaux Caves probably wouldn't even pop into my mind. I've heard people mention the caves a several times in several different courses but I never really thought of it as Graphic Design. After hearing about it in class it makes more sense to me now.

Learning about what things were like before the Industrial Revolution and before technology was around is interesting to me. I always wondered how typefaces were made in the past and even in the present. I knew it was probably a really long and annoying process but I didn't know any of the details.

I also made a connection with the History of Graphic Design and the history of my major, Advertising Design. Advertising started when people needed to sell things and crazy display typefaces became popular because of this. It's a pretty simple concept and it makes sense. If I want to sell something I have to be different than everyone else. I have to stand out. Why should someone look at my stuff and not his or his or hers. I've got to draw people in. If you use an obnoxious and bold typeface on your posters then they will draw attention. I just found it really interesting how certain things are connected.

Week 1

We started off talking about the paintings in the Lascaux caves. We also talked about how hard it is to truly be original nowadays just because so many things have been done before. Not only that, but we also look into the past a lot and use that as inspiration for future projects.

Printing needs 3 things to grow.

1. Growing middle class

2. Students in an expanding university system

3. Increase in literacy

When all 3 of these meet together they equal a demand for print.

Johannes Gutenberg

In 1448 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in Germany. That's what history says but the truth is there were other people that invented their own type of printing press. The reason this invention is credited to Gutenberg is because his system had 3 things:

1. Press

2. Ink

3. Paper

His system was made from a modified wine press and he developed a system of casting the letterform. The alloy was a mixture of lead and tin and used the typefaceBlackletter/Gothic/Textura. This typeface was based on the letterforms used around that period of time.

We also learned about these 4 terms:

xolography - printing with wood

ligature - two characters designed to work together such as "fi"

incunabala - the first 50 years of printing

fluerons - cast decorative elements

All 4 of these terms relate to Gutenberg.