Chapter 10 after class

1.) The Victorian Era, woodblock printing and the industrial revolution.

2.) Today Amanda presented on the Victorian Era. It was very interesting to watch and it really gave me a better understanding on what exactly went on during this period. Their designs were very intricate and detailed especially with the typography and their pages contained little white spaces. After her presentation, Laura showed us two interesting video clips about printing. 

3.) The most interesting thing I learned today would have to be how the woodblock printing actually worked. I thought the quality that the printing style produced was really cool and it definitely gave me a better understanding of how that printing press worked.

4.) How long do you think it will take for these printing styles to completely disappear?

Chapter 10 Before class

1.) Summary of Chapter 10: This chapter discusses the arts & crafts movement. It begins with a man named William Pickering, who held a passion for design and beauty rather than just focusing on the printing which the industrial revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement began in England in the 1800's and began the creativity again that was lost before. The leader was named William Morris and his philosophy called for "individual expressionism by both design and worker". John Ruskin was also a man who influenced this philosophy further. He encouraged other designers to regain this creativity. Although his first intentions were joining the ministry, William Morris soon leaned towards pursuing a career in design. He started by doing architecture, but he saw it as boring and joined a man named Edward Burne-Jones in painting. Many accomplishments he later made included establishing an art decorating firm, where he and several others decorated various things such as furniture, pottery, tile making, and stained glass. Later on he invented the Kelmscott Press and began to create several typefaces. The first typeface that William Morris created went by the name "Golden" which got it's name from his original plan of printing a book called The Golden Legend. He moved on creating other typefaces which were called Chaucer and Troy.

2.) The most interesting person in the reading definitely had to be William Morris. I liked that he made such an effort to make the creativity in design flow again, since the focus was mainly on the industrial revolution. It was interesting to see him bring quality back into printing and design rather than just mass producing things.

3.) Why did William Morris decide to create these typefaces  that were inspired by past ones? Why didn't he just make a brand new one from his own ideas??

Chapter 9 Before & After

Before:

1.) Summary: The Industrial Revolution period could be not only just be described in just the graphic design standpoint, but as a time where the economy and mechanical advances were dramatically changing. The focus of most things was inventing machines that would all for mass production, rather than the traditional ways of things. Education and communication increased immensely, the demand for graphic design increased, and many costs were lowered due to advances in technology. Typography began to evolve from a more handwritten quality, to more bold, larger and abstract typefaces. William Caslon was said to be the main leader in this movement, as well as his two apprentices Joseph Jackson and Thomas Cotterell. Cotterell was known for his bold lettering and it was soon innovated by Robert Thorne, one of his students. "Fat-face fonts" which were extremely bold fonts were created. Printing at this time was also being improved and soon evolved into the steam-powered printing press, which was created for efficiency and speed. It was invented by a man named Friedrich Koenig which resembled a hand press, but with a steam engine. Not only did more innovations come from this invention, but it also made mass production of things such as newspapers available and more affordable for everyone. Soon this steam-powered printing began to take over the traditional hand printing press.  Photography was also a major invention at this time and was first done by Joseph Niepce. He experimented with different ways of creating art rather than just by drawing, using light sensitive materials and by allowing one of his first exposures to be in the light all day. Soon Louis Jacques Daguerre joined Niepce since their researches were similar, and continued to innovate the photograph. As time went on George Eastman produced the first Kodak camera and really made photography available to a variety of people. Lithographic printing was also invented, by using a stone and the idea that oil and water would not mix. It did not use engravings or a raised surface and was first used by a man named Aloys Senefelder. Color printing was improved with this and Richard M. Hoe created a rotary lithographic press which allowed for a quicker printing process. Chromolithography was quickly spreading to outside areas since it allowed a whole new level of colored prints and illustrations. Also printing that was targeted towards children came into play as many picture books were created. 

2.) I thought the most interesting part was the invention of lithographic and chromolithographic printing. It was cool to see how this advanced printing so much by using brighter and more colors and also more detailed, realistic images. Production increased dramatically and there was many more opportunities for advertisement and other things.

3.) I don't have any questions.

After:

1.) This discussion we had in class today was mainly about the Industrial Revolution. We also talked about how typography was evolving and the use of photographs.

2.) Different qualities of the styles at this time could be described as being bold and almost boring due to the focus being on mass production rather than quality. The typefaces were definitely thicker and bolder as well. Also, advertisement came into play as more of importance in the design industry so more color was being used.

3.) The most important thing from todays discussion I found was the process of photography and more about the first cameras. It's kind of neat to look back and see how everything has evolved to what we use today.

4.) I don't really have any questions from today's discussion, but I would like to learn more about the first photographs since I found this very interesting... 

Chapter 8 after class

1.) The Renaissance, Old Style, Transitional, and Modern Typefaces.

2.) Today we went over the Renaissance and the movement of typefaces throughout Europe. We also focused on the differences in typefaces from Old Style all the to Modern Typefaces. We discussed influencial people such as Casion, Baskerville, Didot and Bodoni. The modern typefaces seemed to be more machine-like rather than handwritten.

3.) The most important thing I learned today was the distinct differences between each of the styles. It's easy for me to see know how Old Style evolved into the more modern typeface because we actually got to look at and analyze each of the fonts instead of just reading a description from the book.

4.) I can't think of any questions at the moment, but I will update this if I come across any.

Chapter 8 Before Class

Summary: The reading is introduced by talking about 1600's lacked creativity in graphic design while the 1800's was a whole new beginning. They tried to improve the Roman face type by creating a grid of 2,304 squares. The newer font, Romain du Roi, made the thin and thicker strokes have more contrast, a more balanced form, and the serifs were sharper horizontally. Many people tried to creates types similar to the Romain du Roi since it was only to be used by the royal printing office. The Rococo era consisted of strong designs in their pieces of work. Fournier le Jeune created many type faces similar to the Romain du Roi and the idea of a "type family" was made. He had created "roman, italic, script, and decorative type styles, rules and ornaments." In one of Jeune's books he introduced a new measurement by point and many engravers began to use his new innovations. Engraving increased in popularity and the engravers became very skillful, creating many intricate and delicate designs. The next section introduces William Caslon who created fonts such as Caslon Old Style with italics, which was favorited by the people for quite some time. His fonts were not decorative but more seen as easier for the eye to read.  John Baskerville had broken all the rules of printing during his time and began to create his own typeface. It consisted of wider letters, increased contrast, and more intricate type of serif. He created a new type of smooth paper which is unknown what his exact methods were, but caused great jealously and resentment to Baskerville's new innovations. However, his typefaces were spread and favored by many later on. The next section introduced Rene Descartes who had created the X and Y axis charts we see today with what was called "Cartesian coordinates". William Playfair later followed by creating the line graph and the bar graph. He also introduced  the pie chart, which definitely set a new standard for graphic design's necessity in society. Bondi was a man that was influenced by the Baskerville and le Jeune and soon created a standardized size for the typefaces. A man named William Martin was ordered by London to create types as well as cut them. Thomas Bewick also was addressed and was said to be the "father of wood engravings." Lastly, the man by the name of William Bolmer combined both Martin and Bewicks ideas in wood engraving and type in order finish his many volumes of books.

 

2.) The most interesting person I found in the reading was Baskerville. He seemed the most innovative in my eyes since he was able to create a brand new type as well as invented the smooth surfaced paper that he printed on. He showed works of fine craftsmanship and we still see and use his fonts today.

 

3.) How many different types of Baskerville fonts are there?

After Class chapters 6 and 7

1.) Incunabula

2.) We basically went over the readings today. But for majority of the time we were separated into groups to form a debate about each of the Renaissance men of the time: Ratdolt, Manutius, and Tory. My group had to look over Ratdolt's accomplishments and we found that he was very important since he eliminated the fear of a lot of scientific areas that the people once thought was witchcraft. In the end we found that Tory was pretty much the most influential of the time since he was so advanced in several areas of graphic design and he made many innovations that really set the pace for Graphic design in the future.

3.) The most important thing I learned was mostly about the Renaissance movement in the graphic design perspective. Those 3 men really influenced change in their cultures.

4.) I still just would really like to find more about Tory's life accomplishments.

Chapters 6 and 7

Summary of Chapter 6: The reading introduces the term incunabula which is defined as "cradle or baby linen", and was also the name century writers decided to use for the creation of Gutenberg's typographical books. This sort of printing spread and had many affects on society such as a lesser demand for books and knowledge, illiteracy rate declined, and changed their ways of education. It also kept order to information. Martin Luther used this printing style to get his opinions and views out quickly and to a broader range of people. Without typography movements such as the protestant and reformation era would have almost been impossible. Albrecht Durers used this kind of printing in order to print illustrations into his books. And lastly, the creation of broadsides (usually referring to a single sheet of paper that was only printed on one side) made it possible for many things to be printed such as advertisements and several posters.

Summary of Chapter 7: This chapter introduces the renaissance or "rebirth" of society and writing. A man named Nicolas Jenson created what is known as the first Roman type, which was unique since it was very clear to read and contained spaces that made it an even tone. The first title page to a book was printed in Calendarium by Regiomontanus. New style of illumination contained a detailed border as well as geometric pictures placed in the margins. Also typographic books contained a more asymmetrical look to it and fine-line style in their wood block printings. This chapter mainly talks about the innovations of Ratdolt who created a book explaining the different phases of lunar/solar eclipses as well as created the first title page. It also discussed the many innovations of Manitius, and also the greatest advancements in the Renaissance of Tory. Tory was also known as "Renaissance man" during his time.

2.) I thought that Tory was the most interesting part of the reading since he was an expert in so many different fields. He was definitely a great influence on the French culture and had actually developed a type for the French. He clearly was one of the most influential people of his time in the graphic designers perspective.

3.) I just really like to learn more about Tory's accomplishments throughout his life.

Images

These are two images that I found on a guy named Nadeem Muzaffar's graphic design portfolio that I came across on the internet. www.nadeemmuzaffar.co.uk./ The picture on the left is what he called a "brand" or logo design and the the one to the right is the alphabet collage. I thought these were both very interesting because they are pretty unique and clever designs. It relates to what we have read since brands or seals were created and used way back in the day and they are still being used today to trademark different things or to identify a piece of work someone has done. Also, we have done a lot of discussion on the alphabet and I thought this picture just was a really cool reflection of it.

Chapter 5 after class

1. We finished discussing chapter 4 on illuminated manuscripts and began to talk about typographical printing.

2. We looked at different Celtic designs, Spanish pictorial expressionism, Romanesque manuscripts and late medieval illuminated manuscripts. They all contained unique design qualities and different colors. We also continued to talk about printing and Gutenburg's advances in typographical printing and how it really helped out society in Europe.

3. I learned how big of a deal it was that Gutenburg created this sort of printing since it made it easier and more available to educate people.

4. I have no questions.

Chapter 5

1.) Summary: The reading introduces two new advances in graphic design: Xylography (technical term for relief printing) and Typography (Term for single and moveable blocks with a raised letterform on them). These innovations and also paper being invented made the demand for books higher as well as increased the amount of literate people. The watermark was also invented during this time for trademark purposes. At this time playing cards became extremely popular, and they were the first form of block printing. The ars moriendi, a book with 11 illustrations that showed the devil's temptation and an angels comfort, was one of the first block printed books. Many times the illustrations were printed and then later colored in and they were only printed on one side due to the pressure of the printing on the paper. Johann Gensfleisch Gutenberg was the first person that was able to make a typographic book possible to make by bringing necessary complex systems and subsystems. The first typographic book created by Gutenberg, was the 42-line Bible. Gutenberg had created a type of mold for the letters that casted soft enough but was able to sustain many printings which was a combination of 80% lead, 5% tin and 15% antimony. Gutenberg also developed an ink that was better to print on paper with and also a press which was used for a while and modified later on. With typographic printing becoming more popular, Gutenberg began to create a typographic Bible which ended up being 1,282 pages consisting of two lines per column. The project was not yet finished when Johann Fust decided to sue Gutenberg, and soon gained all of Gutenberg's printing equipment and the project. He and Peter Schoeffer, who was formerly Gutenberg's skilled assistant and printer, teamed up to become the most important printing firm everywhere. They made innovations such as 2-color initials and a small sized style of typing which saved space. Printing was soon spread to outside areas such as France, when a war broke out and many printers fled to outside countries. While typographical printing was invented, a person referred to as the "Master of Playing Cards" made earliest copper-plate engravings. 

2.) I thought it was terrible that people such as Johann Fust were out to get Gutenberg's ideas and printing equipment throughout the being of typography. Gutenberg seemed like a very creative and knowledgeable man and I didn't think it was really fair that people got credit for his ideas.

3.) I have no questions.

Chapter's 3 & 4 After Class

1.) Today we focused on note taking and how it affects how we understand the readings. We discussed the papers and projects we were going to be doing. Also, we discussed the chapters 3 mostly at the end of class.

2.) We need to pay closer attention to details when we read and take more notes. We discussed picking topics and then talk about Chinese innovations in writing. We talked about printing, moveable type and the invention of paper.

3.) I realized that I need to take better notes in order to understand what I read better.

4.) I don't have any questions right now.

Chapters 3 & 4 before class

Summary of chapter 3: It begins by talking about the many innovations the Chinese culture had made that definitely influenced everyone in the world. The first one addressed was Chinese calligraphy. Every word had its own symbol in the Chinese writing system, and they were all logograms or signs the represented an actual word. The earliest form of Chinese writing known is called Chiaku-wen and it was composed of pictographs and was very closely related to the "art of divination". The next script was called chin-wen and it was mostly written on bronze. The 3rd phase of Chinese calligraphy was called hsiao chuan, which had a more abstract look to it than the past two.  The last evolution of the chinese writing was called chen-shu and its is seen as a high art form in the Chinese culture. As stated in the text Chinese calligraphy, "was said to have bones (authority and size), meat (the proportion of the characters), blood (the texture of the fluid ink), and muscle (spirit and vital force)." They used nature and movement as an inspiration making the script truly artistic. The reading moves on to talk about the invention of paper and how it came about. The Chinese first started writing on bamboo slats or strips of wood. Silk was also used for writing since the slats and wood were far too heavy, but the silk was costly. They soon created the first paper out of mulberry bark and other materials. 

The next section talks about the origin of printing.  There are two different theories of how it began: Using engraved seals was soon turned into printing and the other was the Chinese practice of making ink fubbings from the inscriptions in stone. It is unknown exactly the origin, but the first known printing was in 770 A.D. and it was perfected after. The oldest printed manuscript that was able to survive was called the Diamond Sutra consisting of 7 sheets that were put together to form a scroll with Buddhas revelations.  Also this advance in printing also allowed for money to be printed on paper. Other things were also invented such as the actual book and playing cards. The Chinese also invented moveable type, where they made different character blocks and arranged them together to be printed where they were joined by a material such as wax or bronze and then reheated again to separate. This was difficult for the Chinese to do since their language was not in alphabetic structure, but it definitely made printing a lot faster for many other writings.

Summary of Chapter 4: This chapter begins to describe how manuscripts began to be illustrated upon and designs were made because it became important in its own way to each culture. "Gold leafs" were used in manuscripts for very important or sacred manuscripts and several ink colors were introduced. Punctuation was eventually added to separate pitch changes and pauses. Most illustrations were for educational purposes and knowledge was spread very slowly during this time, so many styles began to emerge. The classic style consisted of rustic capitals, one column which was on each page, illustrations that were framed in bright colors in the top, bottom, or middle of the page, and the major figures in the drawings were labeled. As the fall of Rome came about and the middle ages came into play many magnificent crafts were created. Letter styles began to evolve in order to find a simple more efficient way of writing. Two new techniques were developed called Uncia and lowercase letters were developed. Celtic designs that soon emerged were seen as colorful, complicated patterns and were abstract. Not only was the distinct illustrations an innovation of the Celtic culture, but also the creation of spaces to separate words was created in order to better understand the readings. The Celtic culture soon ceased as the island of Ireland was invaded. Since the Celtic style was the only writings really designed at this time Charlemagne began to try to find a standardized page layout and revive designing. The Caroline miniscule was created and it made writing more legible by using spaces and uppercase and lowercase letters.  Spanish designs were influenced by Islamic designs with bright color and intricate frames. It continues to talk about other designs such as romanesque scripts and Gothic scripts which used a bolder, black type. It also addresses judaic manuscripts which were rare, but reflected emphasis on religious topics and used bright blues and gold ink. Next the Islamic style was explained to have little spaces, not really any figurative drawings, and a lot of bright colors. Most of their designs were geometric or arabesque. Lastly, it talks about the late midieval illuminated manuscripts which were beautiful, using a lot of illustration, color and detail. 

2.) I thought the most interesting part was the section on the Celtic designs. I just found their designs to be so complicated and beautiful in a way since nothing like this was ever really done before. It gave their writings a unique style and definitely set the tone for illustrations and illuminated manuscripts to come.

3.) Is it wrong if I don't have any questions??

After Class Chapter 2

1.) Today we discussed how the Alphabet was formed and how it has evolved over time to be more efficient, quicker and more available to people. 

2.) We went through the many different alphabets starting with cretan which may or may not have been the first real alphabet to the Phonecian alphabet, the Greek alphabet, Latin and our alphabet today.

3.) It was interesting to see how our alphabet that we used was formed over time and how much easier it is to learn our language and how to write by creating this alphabet. Without it we wouldn't have been able to accomplish a lot of the great things that we know today for instance math, science and even astronomy.

4.) I don't really have any questions besides the one I had before class.

Picture.

This is an image of pictographs found in caves located in California. The picture is color enhanced so you can see the designs more clearly, but I thought that it added a neat effect to the picture. The function of these drawings were for survival purposes as well as ritual and superstitious purposes as we discussed throughout class. I found it while searching through several pages online and it caught my attention especially because it had a lot of bright colors and I thought it related well to things we have discussed so far. I thought the design was cool since they altered the colors and made it more attractive looking, however it does not contain any sort of typography. It especially relates to us talking about how the history of visual communication began. We talked about cave paintings found in France and i thought it was cool that this one was found in California.

Chapter 2

1.) Summary: The reading begins by talking about how creating the alphabet was a major step in human communications. It is conflicted on where the alphabet originated. Cretan pictographs may have possibly been a precursor to the Greek alphabet, but we may never really know. Northwest Semitic or the Phoneician alphabet writing is also considered a possible precursor. The Phonecians wanted a writing system that would be their own Northwest Semitic language. Sui generis was one of the major steps to creating an actual alphabet. Ras Shamara was a true semitic alphabet which used 30 different "cuneiformlike" characters that were the same ones used in Greek and Phonecian alphabets later on. North Semetic writing branched off into other directions such as the Aramaic alphabet. The Aramaic alphabet consisted of 22 letters and was read from left to right. It is the predecessor of Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew had 22 conconantal letters found in the North Semitic alphabet. Arabic consisted of the same 22 letters, but 6 additional characters were added to the end. 2 modern Arabic scripts are Kufic and Nashki. Arabic is the most widely used after the Latin alphabet. It is highly used in the Indian culture. The reading continues talking about the Greek alphabet. The Greeks used the Phonecian alphabet in 1000 B.C. They then changed 5 of its consonants into vowels. The Greeks added to the structure that made them into art and beauty. Writing was read from the opposite direction every other line (boustrophedon). They soon adopted the left to right style. By setting up a democracy the alphabet was a necessary role since it allowed allotment tokens. Knowledge and writing became necessary at this time in order to document everything. The Greek alphabet soon became the predescor of Latin, Etruscan, and Cyrillic alphabets. The Romans soon conquered Greece and adopted many aspects of their culture. They changed Z into a G, and the Latin alphabet became 21 letters. Z and Y were later added since the Romans found it more appropriate with the sounds of some Greek words. J, U, and W were later added as well. The Romans took pride at this and used the alphabet on several works of art and architecture. In 190 B.C. they began to use parchment to write on for common use. With the parchment being used the Romans and Greeks created a codex to replace the scroll, which became more functional. Christians sought this type over the scroll because they considered their writings sacred and to distance themselves away fromt he use of the scroll. The last section talkes about the Korean alphabet which was called Hangul. Sejong developed an easier alphabet to write rather than use the complicated Chinese alphabet, and it consisted of 14 consonants and 10 vowel signs. The consonants reflected movements of the mouth when spoken and the vowels were dots that were next to horizontal or vertical lines. The alphabet is written in blocks of syllables which is different than the Greek and Roman alphabet. Writing was no longer just available to the priests and scribes, but rather common people could understand it easier.


2.) I thought the section on the Greeks was the most interesting. They accomplished so many things, they used a more geometrical standpoint, and were very artistic about their achievements with the alphabet. I liked that they changed the style of their writing to represent a more artistic and beautiful feeling because I think that makes them unique.

3.) Do you think that the alphabet that we know today will change in the future since the alphabet has evolved so much over time already??

Chapter One (after class)

1.) First we discussed different pictographs found today. Next we went over the reading of Chapter one which described how the earliest forms of visual communication began from the cavemen to the Egyptians.

2.) We talked about petroglyphs which were carved or etched into rocks. Ideographs were symbols that expressed a certain idea. Next we talked about Cuneiform which was pictures or pictographs that represented words and syllables with either similar or the same sound that the object expressed. Lastly we talked about Hieroglyphics which was the Egyptian form of writing which used a lot of design and detail.

3.) I learned the differences between all the different types of writing such as petroglyphs and cuneiform because I was really confused on which was which after I finished reading the text.

4.)Are they completely able to understand Hieroglyphics now? Or are they still determining what new things mean?

Chapter one

1.)Summary: The reading began by talking about the earliest forms of design which were known to be done by cavemen in the southern parts of Europe. They created images on the walls of caves in order to survive, for ritualistic purposes and for superstitious purposes. They left many pictographs and petroglyphs on the cave walls. The "land between the rivers" or the land of Mesopotamia was known the be the cradle of civilization. Many technologies necessary for human life began here such as a system of gods, which was created by the Sumerians. Religious life dominated the Mesopotamian city-state so therefor it was necessary for the priests and scribes to create and organize records. Visible language also began to evolve when it became necessary to identify the contents of food in pottery and sacks. Eventually the writing style evolved into cuneiform which was pictures or pictographs which depicted a certain word or syllable with similar sounds. With cuneiform being made, a knowledge explosion occurred. Soon the code of Hammurabi was created on the Blau monument, which listed a set of rules and laws that were to be followed. Next cattle brands and cylinder seals were created and used to distinguish people's property. As the Mesopotamian culture became knowledgeable and rich, it soon fell to the Persians and the evolution of writing passed on to a new culture. Egyptians used hieroglyphics on many things and it was never understood for a long time what it meant. Until the Rosetta stone was found, which contained the languages Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian Demotic Script, it was soon possible to begin translating the mysterious language. Hieroglyphics was composed of pictograms of objects or beings which were put together to create certain ideas and phonograms were used to express sounds and determinatives that identified categories. It was read by whatever way the creatures or beings were facing. The writing was done on paper called papyrus which was a huge step in the evolution in writing. They used the plant for an extensive amount of different things besides creating the paper. Scribes in Egypt definitely had authority in society since few actually knew how to do this task. They carried wooden palettes which helped identify that they could read or write. The writing kept on evolving and instead of a picture it became just a quickly drawn gesture. In 1500 B.C. hieratic script was created. They created the first manuscripts such as the Book of the Dead. These were used and contained information about the person's life and was used to help them pass on to the afterlife. Mainly people of higher status' could afford more extensive manuscripts but many people could afford at least one page. The journey to the underworld was very sacred to the Egyptians. Lastly, Egyptians used proprietary marks as well as cylinder seals on their property which they adopted from the Sumerian culture. The Egyptians survived for 3000 years and definitely left a legacy of visual communication.




2)I found the most interesting thing was the Egyptians. I'm pretty fascinated with their extensive use of design on things.


3) I don't really have any questions at the moment.