Twentieth Century

As the twentieth century rolled around, so did a new called “modern style”. The organic drawing became a thing of the past, something that a new generation of designers shied away from, as they embraced a culture with a more structural style. Interior spaces that were organized spatially, by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was a main influencer to beginning this twentieth century design class. His idea of “completeness” by entity in order to create a true purpose and meaning was followed in his design spaces. He was taught from a young age while working at a printing press with a friend, that incorporating blank space into design, along with combining a variety of materials, should not be frowned upon. In the early 1890’s, a group of Scottish artists from the Glasgow School of Art came together to form a design group that embraced this more mechanical notion. They focused on simple bold lines and symmetry in order to create symbols in their imagery. Though many spectators frowned upon their posters, the editor of The Studio was quick to come to their aid by reminding his readers in an article that a poster’s main purpose was to attract, and lead interest. The Four lead inspiration to Jessie Marion King who then used medieval figures to display romantic compositions. Her illustrations are what influenced the movement of fiction and fantasy throughout twentieth century design.

In the meantime, there was a lot happening in Austria, such as the movement known as the Vienna Secession. Consisting of four artists and designers, a group was formed to revolt against the traditional art nouveau styles of the past. This group, much like The Four, embraced contour lines creating mystical shapes and they even included nude bodies, which of course, outraged the traditionalists. Ver Sarum, which was a beautiful design magazine in Vienna during this time, flourished with the new clean secession look and became very popular throughout this period. The magazine was different in everything from its sleek type, to its more minimal and structured layout, to the execution in its unique sort of production. Design became an important aspect to not only artists and those who were interested in stylistic techniques, but even to those trying to sell. It was so important that advertisers were required to pay for the designs they wanted for advertisting, which seems redundant today, but at the time was a new importance that was put on visual communication.

After looking at some of the monograms that were designed by the Secession artists in Vienna, I can’t help but think this is where the modern day logo’s stem most of their inspiration from. The fluid and consisted line weights, and shapes that are created within the negative spaces of the designs, not only draw visual interest but also give a mood and concise flow that goes along with the corresponding names. This symbolism is less abstract in some of the posters from this movement, though just as significant. For example, in a poster advertising “Fromme’s Kalender” in 1899, Koloman Moser executes a beautiful profile figure holding a snake ring and hourglass. The hourglass object represents the passing of time, and the ring, more abstractly, represents the circle of life. According to Meggs’s A History of Graphic Design, this poster was used for a good fifteen years, with only some color variations made. This time period may have drastically pushed away the floral intricate designs of the century prior, but it sure made a mark on the design world.

 

Victorian Beauty

I have always been intrigued by Victorian art. It may be because I love fashion and nostalgic things, but there is something about the beauty of what the introduction of color printing and photography did to this time in history. Before the Victorian era, creating both type and pictures was extremely desirable, but the two had yet to become completely successful in being integrated together, in my opinion. It seems along with the Victorian era came this sense of knowing how to combine beautiful pictures with not only set (metal) type but also extravagant handwritten lettering. Along with the strong moral and religious aspect Queen Victoria brought with her rule, came a sense of beauty and optimism that shows in the designs of this era. Painting, type, and graphic design were not the only art forms that this overall proper and piety mood was expressed in, of course. Women’s fashion involved beautiful (modest) dresses and bonnets that included lots of lace, color, bows, and puffy sleeves. Ornamental designs were popular in everything from tiles, color plates, and tapestries to the details in buildings, homes, and churches. The insides of Victorian churches were inspired from gothic architecture, consisting of extremely intricate details throughout not only the high painted ceilings and windows, but throughout the outside as well.

When it came to the printed work, the religious and newly rich has a major influence on the layouts and concepts. Puppies, kittens, children, flowers, and young women were consistently at the centers of the poster and produced designs of this era. The ability to reproduce these graceful looking paintings was enabled by the invention and development of lithography, which was invented by a Bavarian author by the name of Aloys Senefelder in 1796. This process is based on stone and oil based paints used for transferring the image. Separate color plates were a later addition to this system, which allowed for the beautiful Victorian designs to come to life, using chromolithography. This system did not only enhance the romantic paintings of the Victorian era, but also influenced the style. Luois Prang was a press printer who moved to America in 1850 and joined a printing firm, which he eventually took over. Because of Prang’s interest in collecting sweet, romanticized naturalistic pieces, he dramatically influenced the output of the printed material. He used his color printing presses to being so many different subjects, civil war maps, scenes, and album cards to life.  This style is what began the creation of holiday, greeting and birthday cards. Naturally, it all arose with Christmas, first publishing an English Christmas card in 1873. Following this, came the creation of cards with the sweet innocence this style demonstrated throughout. Advertising ate this concept up, and eventually this put Prangs creations behind in competition, pushing him more towards some magazine designs. Once his daughter was born, he concerned himself with the art education field and started to make materials suitable and safe for children to use (water colors/crayons.)

Patterns and pictures continued to be produced, and yet the people who were surprisingly just as inspired by the invention of chromolithography, were typographers who were now able to use unlimited color and reproduce their lettering without the restrictions of metal type. This resulted in the ornamental details of the Victorian era being integrated into the letterforms that could now easily be tied into the images in the compositions. This sweet and romantic era influenced graphic design to be pretty yes, but stylistic and collective as well.

Capturing the world

The invention of photography took not only graphic design, but the way people perceive life to a completely different realm. Our minds perceive the world around us and we then immediately have this desire to capture it, to document it, and to share what we see. I think that as visual learners, both graphic designers and artists in general have this longing in them even more so than non-artists. This is why it does not come as a surprise that the invention of photography began with illustrators. The word photography itself came from the Greek words photos graphs, which literally means, “light drawing”.

Joseph Niepce, the inventor who first produced a photographic image, began as a lithographic printer. He originally made images with the help of his son’s drawing skills and transferring them on to paper. Once his son was drafted in the army, Niepce began to search for alternate ways to make a photograph by using light and transferring methods. He would expose images all day, and use lavender oil to create these hazy pictures. Once Niepce teamed up with a painter/performer, by the name of Louis Jacques Daguerre, more materials were added to the process and people lavished at the rich accuracy of the new images. While this progress was being made in France, William Henry Fox Talbot had the same desire to bring his sketches to life. He was incredibly frustrated by not being able to capture exactly what he saw in the landscapes and plants that he was attempting to re-create. Because of this, he began to use light, leaf paper, and glass to expose the images of leafs and flowers onto paper. Talbot later combined these micro-studies with the discoveries of Daguerre’s and began to release to the public the beginning of the “Art of Photogenic Drawing,” as he called it. Once the first developments of the camera had been made, a scientist (astronomer and chemist) came to rescue some of the technical issues and take the recreation of what we see, even further. Sir John Herschel used chemicals to halt the action of light, in order to fix the images. Herschel shared his discovery with Talbot, and together they took off with more improvements. By using negatives/positives and increased light sensitivity, Talbot was able to eventually make an unlimited number of prints, which because of their ability to be resized and reproduced were extremely desirable. However, because of Talbots methods were difficult to spread throughout without more contacts, Daguerre’s process, which created far sharper photos, became most popular.

The only thing that seemed to be missing from these discoveries at this point, was the lack of availability. A wet-plate method involving negatives and reflection, led to the discovery of the dry-plate system. This in turn was what led George Eastmen, an American dry-plate manufacturer, to create his Kodak camera.

The availability and development of pictures made people see life in a different light. One’s memory was captured not just by a thought, but by an image that could be shared to other’s memory. The perception of oneself, others, events, landscapes, etc. was engraved on this sheet of paper, and all of a sudden time was reborn. People adored this phenomenon, but the artists of this world were forever changed. Some flourished because they were now able to use this new concept as a way of art that never seemed plausible beforehand. But even so, some of the talented painters and drawers felt threatened by this invention because of what it took away from their previously so desperately needed talents. However you decide to look at photography, it dramatically changed history and the art world forever in more ways than many of us will ever understand.

Meggs, Philip B. “The Prolouge to Graphic Design.” A History of Graphic Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. 4+. Print.

Running with the Renaissance

During the Renaissance period, amongst the paintings of Boticelli and Carvaggio, was another artist, by the name of Nicolas Jenson. His type began as a roman type design used in Evangelical Preparation, which was a roman typeface. His use of the shapes in the spaces between the letters, are what make his type so beautiful, and remembered today. In the later years of his life, Jenson made Greek and Gothic fonts, and from the words of Philip B. Meggs, his “fonts aligned more perfectly than those of any other printer of his time.” His font was beautiful, but above all, it was legible; and this is what helped him succeed. Along with exquisite type, the Renaissance artists and type designers loved nature, and flowers in particular. A decoration that was printed excessively, the designs were embraced because of their organic look that came with the humanistic approach of renaissance design and beliefs. These flowers were eventually led into the type, and along came ornaments. Though they may seem outdated, and maybe only used in letters or small ending marks to old books, ornaments are actually very well known among type designers. An extension and more “authentic” take on Jenson’s type was taken on by Aldus Manutius and the typeface designer, Griffo. This text face remains today, and is known as “Bembo”. Italics then stemmed off of this typeface, creating the slanted letters we commonly use for emphasis or in names/titles. “Small caps” accompanied this slanted type that Manutius was also working on perfecting up until his death in 1515.

Once the typography boom stopped thriving in Italy, it moved to France. Lead by the French language and the exquisite design influence of the renaissance, Geoffery Tory developed a Renaissance school of book design and illustration. His letterforms (consisting of very long ascenders and descenders), can be found in a 1506 manuscript called The Hours of Jean Lallemant. In a book made later on, called Champ Fleury, Tory created thirteen alphabets in the back of the book. One quirky, creative font consisted of letterforms made of tools. Meanwhile, Claude Garamond was creating a beautiful lighter roman typeface, which went beautifully with the Roman capital initials that Geoffrey Tory continued to make. Garamond was hired on as a punch cutter under a man by the name of Antoine Augereau. Once the combination of legibility and beauty was understood in regards to type, Garamond, Tory, and Augereau all continued to complete beautiful roman fonts.

Eventually, the fall of Garamond’s fonts occurred because of the popularity of metal type book making in place of the humanistic approach to letterforms that Garamond possessed. However, despite the desire to have less hand lettering, the shift to French printing did allow for a broader amount of typefaces and designs in books. From a more diverse use of caps and italics, to more than just one line weight in the design techniques, in less than 200 years the spectrum of type usage was broadening. Many printers, typographers, and illustrators flourished as the need for book printing (especially with this new and beautiful, unique style) emerged. In particular, Basel (a city in Switzerland), and Lyons in France, became the graphic design centers because of their printers, and prestigious schooling. Painters, illustrators, and type designers alike took on a morbid style during this time, because of the plague, and skeletons and graves became the go-to trend.

Throughout the Renaissance, type was not only developed, but argued about and then improved on. Whether you call the improvements stealing of previous styles or add-ons is a matter of opinion. But to give credit where credit is due, I believe all of the designers and printers of this time period deserve complete admiration from current designers who use ornaments and lettering as daily inspiration.

Meggs, Philip B. “The Prolouge to Graphic Design.” A History of Graphic Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. 4+. Print.

 

From watermarks to Gutenberg

Once letterforms and language existed, it was easy for people to communicate: to write things down, to understand each other not only through voice, but also through writings in history. Ink and handwriting made this reproduction of language beautiful, but not exactly easy- especially when it came to mass production. Once writing was established in Europe, libraries were able to start forming collections (if you consider 122 books at most a library). A book as brief as two hundred pages could take up to 5 months of labor by a scribe, and was worth as much as a Vineyard because of its effort and the paper making. If you think of it this way, you could either buy a farm for your family to live on or a single short book. Once papermaking made its way to Europe from Asia, the expensive sheepskin paper process was eliminated, and the Chinese flax and hemp paper replaced it. The first printing process known to us is the watermark. Though it was not used for writing at first, and mostly used for trademarks, it was a translucent reproduction that began the “reprinting” idea. After watermarks, came the early European block printing, which was originally used for mostly, playing cards. Some text, but mostly just pictures were used in these instances. The earliest block prints that were used for communication purposes were actually religious prints of saints. Image and lettering was engraved in the wood and then made into block books. Almost like comic strips, these books had little writing, and were image based. Nevertheless, they told short religious stories, which communicated strong messages.

After the spread of paper and wood blocking invention took over Europe, the demand for books continued to grow. Mechanized production of writings through “moveable type” was desired throughout. After many attempts by others, Johann Gutenberg, an apprenticed goldsmith, developed a way of printing. Gutenberg formed a partnership with two others and together they began to create a letterpress system involving movable metal pieces. After many years, Gutenberg finally was able to bring together enough production pieces to create the first typographic printed book: the Forty-Two-Line bible. Though block printing was the last step in printing we know of before the mechanical letterpress, one would assume, it developed from the wood. However, wood was too fragile and did not play a part in the letterpress casting. Instead, a system similar to presses used for making wine, cheese, and paper was crafted. The type that went into this press was made of carefully molded and aligned lead pieces that were the exact same height. Gutenberg would set as many as fifty thousand separate parts of type at a time, and then use a thin tacky ink to daub onto the sets.

Just before Gutenberg finished his forty-two-line bible, he was forced to leave his shop because of the debt he owed in materials. Though all of this would have been repaid once his bible was created, he was out of time. The person to whom he owed money (Fust) and a man by the name of Peter Schoeffer took over his business, produced the bible, and also began to create colored manuscript pages, which transferred two colors. They became a world-renown production firm that continued in printing, and eventually publishing, for a hundred years. Eventually, Gutenberg was given financial support and was able to open a printing shop in which he made another shorter version of his original bible and then, an in-depth dictionary.

The invention of printing changed the world, as we know it. It made reproduction possible and most importantly made communication, history, and written language available to all.

 

Meggs, Philip B. “The Prolouge to Graphic Design.” A History of Graphic Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. 4+. Print.

Where type comes from

Printing, ink, and variations of beautiful type definitely exemplify the early movements for why designers today are so obsessed with typography and lettering. However, before any thought about printing aesthetics even began, the simple desire to communicate through writing was the only concern of our ancestral designers. Over 200,000 years ago, cave paintings of animals began. From there, more abstract signs and symbols started to come into play, and the elementary pictographs represented things that were happening in that region (whether it was warning future visitors about hunting, or telling stories which happened in their lifetime). These images then, became the beginning of the spoken languages in some way or another. Over several centuries these small simple drawings became more abstract, and represented syllables. This kind of writing/ language was called Cuneiform, in its most developed stage. The scribes who were chosen (before the age of 10, mind you) to write in this demanding form had very important jobs reserved for them and magical ceremonies even took place with this type of writing. With the discovery of cuneiform, there was an information bang, to say the least. Tablets filled with information about history, religion, math, etc. and from this stemmed society, as we know it. Laws could be written, and stability within cultures began.

Eventually, the Egyptians took over the writing reigns as hieroglyphics became more flexible in the way it was written. The advantages of hieroglyphics begun with the different languages they could be presented in, the direction in which they could be read, and of course the giant step forward with the invention of papyrus paper. The development of hieroglyphics and paper alone lead Egyptians to a diverse combination of both pictures AND words, which was revolutionary in Visual Communications. Once communicating in written form was invented, the Asian culture not only created a language method, they beautified it. Calligraphy: the merely graphical language fashioned by the Chinese, was achieved with a brush and ink on either paper or silk. Because of the scope of design possibilities, it was rightfully considered the highest art from in China. The beginnings of the design principles that we as graphic designers have in the forefront of our minds today are displayed in this early kind of communicating art form. From the structure of each letter, to the shape, the negative space around the figures, the thickness of the strokes, the relationship from one line to the next, and the arrangement of the writing as a whole, the designer mindfully considers every element.

And then came the one invention that could make all that time, energy, and focus useless – printing. When the Chinese invented printing, a stamp was the initial form. It made the calligraphy form much easier to reproduce. However, this definitely took away from the aesthetically though-out handmade beauty that went into it.

The history of the written language and the evolutionary steps it has taken, has not only shaped how people design today but also how people communicate and view the world. I believe in order to become a great designer, one must not only follow the trends of the present-day, but also look into the roots of type and language. New and innovative concepts are always going to be essential to designing well, but looking back at the raw discoveries of where it all came from is key.

Meggs, Philip B. “The Prolouge to Graphic Design.” A History of Graphic Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. 4+. Print.