Journal #11: Final Project

Similar to pictographs, petroglyphs are also images instead of letters, but are engraved into a cave or a rock. A pictograph maybe be a pictograph as well. Pictographs are basic drawing or sketches literally representing an object, idea, or an animal. Unlike petroglyphs, pictographs were not sketched into a hard medium like a cave wall.

Ideographs are symbols inside the pictograph or the petroglyph that represents ideas or concepts. Ideographs are similar to modern-day traffic signs. Phono, meaning sound or voice, and grams meaning a drawing or something is written; phonograms are images that illustrate a sound the picture would make. Phonograms created a type of writing called, cuneiform. Cuneiform, is a complicated writing system with 560 signs.

An alphabet is consists of graphic symbols or characters, that when put together, create the basic sound of a language. Alphabets are much more efficient than cuneiform or hieroglyphics that required the memorization of hundreds of symbols and their meaning. The early writing systems required a tedious time to master and study. Using an alphabet, it allowed for a quick study and access to knowledge to a vast amount of people and larger groups of people were becoming literate.
Printing has been around for thousands of years and is one of the most important inventions. The first method of printing was called relief printing. Relief printing uses an image on a flat surface and cuts away into the space surrounding the images. The remaining surface area is then inked and a sheet of paper is put on top of the surface and rubbed to move the inked image to the paper. There is two main hypothesis about how printing came about. The first says that using unique engraved seals eventually crossed over into printing. The second theory hypothesizes that the Chinese practice of making inked rubbing from inscriptions carved into stone. No one truly knows how relief printing was invented only that it was revolutionary.

Movable type was another form of printing invented by the Chinese around 1045 CE. Movable type is when printing uses a movable component to print the document onto a piece of paper. Pi Sheng (1023-63), attempted with movable type in China. He concluded that if a character were made into a single raised form than any amount of characters could be placed into an order, inked and printed. His mixtures were composed of clay and glue. Then, baking the letters over a straw fire until they hardened, Sheng placed them side by side on an iron plate. The iron plate was gently heated with wax to secure the letters in place. A flat board was then put on top of the characters and pushed down gently. After cooling, a page of characters was printed. There was one final step; the letters were then heated again to melt away the wax, so the letters could be put into wooden cases. This lengthy and complicated process was never popular in Asia. The characters took a long time to produce and often broke easily.

In 1403 CE, Korea experimented with bronze movable type. Letters and symbols cut from wood were pressed into a trough filled with sand, doing so created a negative impression. A cover with holes was then put onto of the impression and melted bronze was poured into the holes. The bronze finally cooled and a physical character was created. This method of movable type was still delicate but produced a much more effective result than Pi Sheng.

Illuminated manuscripts use the gold or silver leaf on a page to create a gold reflection or illumination onto a page in a handwritten book. The term, illuminated manuscripts are describing the illuminated handwritten manuscripts produced from the late Roman Empire, up to when the printed book replaced handwritten manuscripts.

Creating an illuminated manuscript was incredibly expensive and time-consuming. The materials of the manuscript made it such an expensive and extensive procedure. The parchment took hours to create, and lengthy books took 300 sheep’s skin. Depending The ink used for lettering was hard to procure and varied from the different ink colors. Black ink was made up of soot or lampblack, gum, and water mixed sanguine or red chalk created the red ink. The brown ink used a combination of iron sulfate and oak apples, this is called “irongall.” Deep blue was made up a rare mineral, found only in Afghanistan called, lapis lazuli. Gold was applied to the parchment in two methods; grounding the gold into a power and then mixed with gold paint, creating an uneven and grainy finish. The second more preferred method is hammering the gold into a thin sheet of gold leaf and then placing it over an adhesive base. Metalworking, burnishing, were all used on the leaf for texture and design effects. The more valuable and important manuscript cover, likely had precious jewels, gold, and silver, or ivory.

The first known European block printing with a communication function, were small prints of saints. Many prints were colored by hand, suggesting that they were cheap alternatives for paintings. Eventually, these prints evolved into block books with a religious connotation or text. The pages were cut from a block of wood and printed as a single word or picture. However, it is unclear if the block book came before the typographic book.  

Coming from China to Europe, Woodblock printing was an early form of block printing. Playing cards became popular after the crusades became influenced by Eastern cultures. Playing cards was outlawed by the clergy, so the block printing industry thrived in an underground printing production. Playing cards, mainly played by the peasants or working class,  were the first to be printed and then moved into a illiterate culture. Now games were being played by both the peasants and the king’s court.

Humanism, hugely impacted not only the Renaissance but the production of the book as well. Humanism is the philosophy that dignifies the human being using both scientific and self reasoning. France, despite being a country at war, held a humanist spirit in the Renaissance and even had a school for design. The model of the roman alphabet, designed by Sweynheym and Pannartz, and the emelashing of the book’s broders, are accredited to France. Type design, page layout and illustrations, were all from the Italian Renaissance. While Sweynheym and Pannartz built the first printing press in Italy, the biggest step toward the modern printed book. The German illustrated book was first born in Venice, and is most similar to books we have today.

Germany was initially the home of printing but slowly made its way into the rest of the world. Arnold Pannartz (died in 1476) and Conrad Sweynheym(died in 1477), were printers who took the first step towards a Roman-style typography, with its origins in Italian scribes. Pannartz and Sweynheym rediscovered lost copies of the ninth century Caroline minuscules, as well as creating a “double alphabet.” They moved to Rome, after having spent three years in Subiaco, where he designed a more Roman alphabet. In 1473, they printed over fifty copies. They could not meet the market demand and the two printers went out of business.

William Caxton(1421-91), set up a business as a merchant and a diplomat in Bruges, after leaving England. Caxton spent the early portion of the 1470s, in Cologne, learning how to print and translate from French to English. Once he returned to Bruges, he and illustrator and calligrapher Conrad Mansion, set up a printing press. By 1474, Caxton’s translation of Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, from French to English, became the first topographic book in English. Later, he moved his press on English soil, when he was forced to flee from his creditors. Caxton, then printed the first book on English land, in the English language.

Printing first came to France in 1470. Three German printers(Michael Freiburger, Ulrich Gering, and Martin Kranz, were sponsored by the librarian of the Sorbonne to set up a printing press. Initially, they used Roman letters, originally used by the Italian types. However, once they lost the sponsorship in 1473, the three printers used more Gothic types familiar to the French. More so than anywhere else, French block printers and typographic printers collaborated to copy the design of the illuminated manuscript.  Early French printing, had woodcut illustrations with modular blocks and flowers, leave, birds and animals, patterns and portraits, to fill up space. Philippe Pigouchet, both a printer and an engraver he initiated a technique called “crible.” Crible, is when black areas of woodblock are punched with tiny white dots. His editions are greatly reminiscent of the manuscripts of a past era.

The industrial revolution came with mass workers, and factories came to the need for mass communication, that could no longer be satisfied with 26 phonetic symbols. Willam Castor played an innovative part in typography during the industrial revolution. Castor, and his two former apprentices, Joseph Jackson(1733-92) and Thomas Cotterell(d.1785), had been fired for leading a workers’ revolt and then became type designers. In 1765, Cotterell started the trend of sand-casting large, bold letters.This led to the creation of ‘fat faces.’Fat faces type is a roman face with weight and contrast increased with expanding the thickness of heavy strokes. Fat faces were designed by Cottrell's pupil, Robert Thorne(d.1820).

One of the most high-speed printing came into existence by German printer, Friedrich Koenig. Koenig, came to England in 1804 to present his idea to major London printers, for a steam-powered printing press. After receiving financial backing in 1807 and getting a patent in 1810, his dream became a reality. His printer printed up to 400 sheets per hour, the average printer at that time could only print up to 250 sheets per hour. Koenig’s first steam-powered printing press, was much like a hand press, attached to a steam engine. His innovative printer included inking the type by rollers, instead of hand-inking balls. The type forms in the machine moved horizontally and the movement of the type man and frisket were automated.

Jan Tschichold(1902-1974) held a major part and influence of the spread of the new typography. He was one of the key leaders of the movement, “Elementary Typography.” He also created the famous typeface, Sabon. As a child, he was trained in calligraphy, which helps set him apart from the other artists. Tschichold began studying of Hermann Delitzsch in 1919 and soon became the pupil of Walter Tiemann. After his visit to the Bauhaus, he changed from traditional typography to a more modern typeface. In 1925, he became a leading member of the movement with an influential magazine supplement. By 1925, he put together his new ways of typography in, “Elemental Typography,” which included his thesis. In 1927, he had a personal exhibition with his most known work, Die Neue Typographie, a manifesto of modern design.

In 1933, both Tschichold and his wife were arrested by the Nazi party. He was arrested for creating “un-German” typography and labeled  "Cultural Bolshevik.” Luckily, a policeman managed to get him tickets for Tschichold and his family to flee to Switzerland for the rest of his life. During the 40s, he was a typographer for Penguin Books in London. He believed that “designers should draw upon the whole history of design to create solutions expressing content.” In addition, he was a big advocate for freedom of thought and artistic expression and brought back the humanist tradition of book design. Tschichold continued to design up until his death in 1974.

Expressionism started in the early 20th century and is the tendency to depict the subjective emotions and personal response to subjects and events. In Germany prior to World War 1, many expressists felt a sense of social crisis and as a result of intense idealism further strengthened the artist’s belief in a new social order and a new human condition. One expressionist artist, in particular, was very considered for the human condition and represented that in her drawings, prints, sculpture, and posters was Kathe Schmidt Kollwitz(1867-1945). Kollwitz was married to a doctor who ran a clinic in the working class district of Berlin, and Kollwitz obtained first-hand knowledge of the conditions of the poor. She was so moved, that she documented their struggles in her figurative works and in her posters.

International Typographic Style first began in Germany during the 1950s with visual characteristics included asymmetrical organization of the design elements on a mathematically correct grid, object photography and copy presenting visual and verbal information in a clean and factual manner. The origins International Typographic Style, are found in the advanced curriculum at the School of Design in Basel. Eccentric and personal expression solutions were rejected, and a more harmonious and scientific method was accepted. The leaders of this artistic movement, include Ernst Keller, Théo Ballmer, and Max Bill.

The developments in typographic expression in New York involved figurative typography. This took on many methods, such as letterforms becoming objects or objects becoming letterforms. Logotype, editorial layout, and advertisement were key in the topographic movement in New York and America.

In the 1960s, a new form of communications emerged by addressing the interest of a specific audience. This new editorial had longer text, an emphasis on content, and less of a chance for lavish visuals created a need for a new method of editorial design. The layout became more controlled, the use of a topographic format and grid became the standard. During the late 1960s, the ear if large pages, huge photographs ended. Television eroded magazine advertising revenue and supplanted their traditional role of providing popular entertainment. The rise of the public’s concerns about the Vietnam war, environmental magazines, the rights of minorities and woman created a need for different magazines. Magazines like Life, Look, and the Saturday Evening Post, stopped being published.

Electronic imaging software changed the graphic design. The software allowed seamless and undetectable image manipulation. Photography, illustration and the fine arts began to merge into one discipline. However, access to image manipulation was hard because the software was so expensive, and designers often refused hands-on access; they could only direct technicians rather than working with the software. Pat Gorman's MTV press kit cover, is an excellent example of the images made possible by digital computers. Gorman created color variations of the MTV logo, by discovering and exploring editing controls in a television studio.

Interactive media is the combination of audio, visual, and cinematic communications, connected to form a coherent body of design. Interactive media has a nonlinear structure, which allows the viewer to explore information along with a personally chosen path. Usually, creative teams of professionals (including audiovisual specialists, writers, computer programmers, content specialists, directors, information architects, image-makers, and producers) are required to create an interactive media. Interactive media programs are open-ended, while printed communications are completed after they emerge from the printing press. VizAbility was an early interactive CD-ROM program that taught concepts relating to visual perception and helped users develop heightened visual awareness. VizAbility program designed by the information graphic firm, MetaDesign San Francisco, and headed by Erik Spiekermann.

The beginning and early years of Website design posed great constraints for graphic designers. The computer screen size and typographic defaults often reshaped the intended page design. This was an issue until more sophisticated software download fonts created. Early on in the Internet Revolution, many feared a collapse of design standards because of the constants of HTML programming language and the widespread access to Website design without formal design training.