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?