1/27/10

-Victoria Period expresses a new consciousness of industrial era's large middle class; no design philosophy at this time
-graphic design emerges as a way to sell people things
-typography is stripped of it historical evolution for the sake of commerce.
-form of the book is lost to commerce
-design decisions based on pragmatism
-Scrap:trading cars, and collectables
-Chromolithography: multiple litho stones used to print component colors. (early 18th century) used on everything, how they made the popular graphics of the time
-Lithographic Naturalism: sweet piety drawn over everything; romantic
-John Buford: master draftsmen, crayon style tonal drawings
-Dreams and desires began to be marketed to the masses
-John Gamble: 1801, patents machine that cane make paper 12 x 45 feet
-Ottmar Mergenthler: Automation of type setting
-Rise of editorial design starts to bring about modern graphic design
-Thomas Nast: father of American political cartooning
-1841: first ad agency: Volney Palmer
-Arts and Crafts movement revived classic forms and is responsible for the reunion of art and craft (mainly in England) book comes back!
-Total Design: art and craft are combined to make beautiful objects
-Kelmscott Press: William Morris's idealized guild of artisans; had underlying ideas that heavily influenced modernism
-Art Nouveau: stemmed from Morris's movement; first large scale design phase; (1890-1910) Invented forms for the first time, Ornament becomes structure; Symbolic and philosophic concerns surface for the first time (a main characteristic of modern art)
-Julies Cheret and Eugene Grasset: pivotal in transition to Art Nouveau
-Cubism: shape becomes symbols of place and event
-The Beggarstaffs: used cut-out forms, flat color and sharp silhouettes,
-Meaningful incompleteness
-Jugendstil: German Art Nouveau- functionalism
-Vienna Secession: reaction against old style, against the floral movement
-Poster for the First Secessionist Exhibition- 1898- cause huge outrage, fueled public interest in the movement
-Wiener Werksstatte: precursor to Bauhaus movement
-Peter Behrens: intermediary between Jungendstil and Industrial Classicism; transforms the graphic image of a huge company marking the mergence of corporate identity

The influence that Art Nouveau still hold on today's graphic design, and the movements that followed directly after it, is astounding. So many design motifs and ideas we experience daily stem from the movement. I really had no idea that Art Nouveau was so all encompassing. I guess i was just ignorant to it. I really enjoyed seeing how it influenced Bauhaus and seeing the influence it had on Frank Lloyd Wright. It's crazy how much influence Art Nouveau still has on modern design and graphic design in general.

1/20/2010

Key Points

Earliest Mark Making - 2000 BC
Village culture and later civilizations were only possible because of writing
Papyrus made the first illustrated manuscripts possible
Chine created the first book - Diamond Sutra 860 AD
China also created the first paper, relief prints, and movable type
Phoneticians narrowed alphabet to 22 letters
Greeks stole and refined it; also created Uncials- rounded, evolved into lower case
Latin alphabet added letters to get to 26
Christians created the Codex
Illuminated Manuscripts- elevated books, gave them a magic air, is why books look like they do
Vatican Virgil was the earliest illuminated manuscript
Celtic book design used first space between words; was the hallmark of illuminated manuscripts
Douce Apocalypse used the first black letter
Textura was created during the gothic period, was the first type printed by Gutenberg
Incunabula was created in 15th century; set up how books were made
Psalter in Latin was the first color book
Griffo was first italic face
Claude Garamond eliminated Gothic style
1705 - letter forms become a conceptual idea
Modern style arrived in the late 18th century
San Serif was created but mostly ignored until the 1830s

This class informed us on the origins of type and why it is the way it is. It was very eye opening seeing how writing has basically created the modern world as we know it. Without writing none of the ancient civilizations would have been able to accomplish what they did or even form. It allowed laws to be made and got rid of some of the randomness in their lives. Writing also brought about Christianity and shaped the Industrial Revolution. Without books and writing Christianity wouldn't have had nearly the magical air it holds. The printing press shaped the Industrial Revolution and allowed us to move forward.

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