A Brief History of Graphic Design Cindy Royal

A Brief History of Graphic Design Cindy Royal, Ph. D Associate Professor Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication croyal@txstate. edu www. cindyroyal. com www. onthatnote. com cindytech. wordpress. com twitter. com/cindyroyal facebook. com/cindyroyal

Zeitgeist • Zeitgeist – the spirit of our time; the cultural trends and tastes that are characteristic of a given era. • How would you describe the Zeitgeist of the various periods: 60 s, 70 s, 90 s, modern time?

Writing and Alphabets • Early human markings in Africa – 35, 000 B. C. – 4000 B. C Animals, geometric signs, pictographs – elementary sketches to represent things; ideographs- images represent ideas • Evolution to writing, symbols for spoken language • Why is writing important? • 2800 B. C. left to right, top to bottom format • Sharp stylus to triangle-shaped led to cuneiform writing (Sumerians)

Writing and Alphabets • Egyptians –hieroglyphics Used by priests, secretive, Rosetta Stone proved that hieroglyphics were writing. • Papyrus and writing – paper-like substance made from plants • Illustrated manuscripts – both words and pictures used to illustrate concepts and communicate information.

Rosetta Stone

Writing and Alphabets • Chinese calligraphy – 1800 B. C. • Paper 105 A. D. – natural substances wet and beaten to pulp. – Relief Printing – seals and stamps – 200 A. D. – Inked rubbings • Moveable type – first used in Asian cultures, but was not widespread due to size of alphabet • Greek alphabet 1000 B. C. • Roman or Latin Alphabet 75 B. C.

Printing and Typography • • Typography – printing through the use of independent, movable and reusable bits of metal Economic and multiple production of alphabetic communication 1422 - 122 manuscripts in the library at Cambridge Gutenberg printer – around 1450 – Style of letter – compete with calligraphers by imitating their style – Each character in font had to be engraved into steel bar to make a punch – Type mold – particular alloy with perfect composition for to hold up to thousands of impressions, but soft enough to mold – Ink – composition, thick, tacky ink – Sturdy press capable of sufficient force to pressure ink from type to paper.

Gutenberg Bible • 42 -line form – 180 copies were made, about 60 still exist

Printing • Incunabula – cradle or period of early printing through the 15 th century. • Printing spreads through Europe • Resisted in some quarters – threatened livelihood of scribes, type was inferior, libraries insisted on originals • Reduced price to a fraction of manuscript • Social, religious, and economic upheavals, most influential advance until mass communications • Spreading ideas • Decline of illiteracy • Rise of learning, education • Same time as Renaissance painting • Formulate own interpretations rather than relying on interpretations of religious leaders, led to Reformation

Renaissance Graphic Design • Development of printing in Italy, Venice • Wider letterforms, lighter tone, even texture • Wildflowers and vines • Borders as elements • Title page and page numbers • Censorship 1500 s • France – Geoffrey Tory (1480 -1533) – open, lighter style, Pot Casse trademark, initials in squares with meticulous designs • Claude Garamond – lighter typefaces, clarity of font, elimination of Gothic style

Dawning of Typography • Quality of printing due to mathematical processes, fewer calligraphic properties. • William Caslon ( 1692 -1766) – Old Style - 1700 s, used solely by English printing; Ben Franklin introduced in colonies, legible, sturdy, friendly to the eye.

Typography • John Baskerville – 1706 -1775 – wide margins and liberal use of space, smooth, glossy paper, transitional between Old Style and Modern design.

Typography • Giambattista Bodoni (1740 -1819) Italian – typefaces inspired by classical forms of Greek and Roman art, designed with more mathematical, geometric appearance, thin strokes, straight hairline serifs, open, simple page designs. criticized for loss of “antique virtue. ” • Francoise Ambroise Didot – family dynasty of printers 1730 -1840 • Both thin and fat styles, condensed and expanded font styles • Firmin Didot – stereotype printing – made longer press runs possible

Typeface Periods • • • Old Style - a typeface (based on an 18 th century design) distinguished by irregularity and slanted ascender serifs and little contrast between light and heavy strokes (Garamond/Caslon) Transitional - fonts that are based on more recent designs than the old style fonts (Baskerville/Times Roman) Modern - based on designs developed in the 19 th century or later. The moderns have a solid appearance due to their vertical stress. They tend to have more ``character'' or ``attitude'' than the old styles and transitionals, but still carry a certain amount of dignity and formality. They are not suited for writing long passages, but they are useful for adding character to a piece of writing (Bodoni) Slab Serif - a certain class of font whose serifs look like slabs ( e. g. flat lines or blocks ) and not hooks; serifs are simple and strong (New Century Schoolbook) Sans Serif - fonts without serifs; good for headlines; work well on monitors (Arial) Display – wacky, novelty, good visual, poor legibility; advertising developed; limited use; attention getting (Jokerman)

Typography in the Industrial Age Shift in political power away from aristocracy, toward manufacturers, merchants, working class. Scientific knowledge applied to manufacturing processes. French and American Revolutions led to greater public education and literacy Decline of handicrafts- specialization of factory system Graphic design separated into design and production factions Advertising and posters - not same as book printing; abstract visual form Improvements to printing processes, converted to high speed printing operation, steam-powered Improvements to paper-making

Typography in the Industrial Age • Mechanizing typography beyond setting type by hand (timeconsuming) • Linotype – Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854 -99) – Typewriter like keys, released a matrix that was put in a line and filled with melted lead, cast slug bearing raised type 1886, cost of newspapers reduced, pages increased, circulations increased, periodicals Saturday Evening Post and Colliers • Led to age of mass communication • Three-dimensional • Depth of shading and perspective, outlines, reversing

San-serif • William Caslon IV 1816

Photography • Joseph Niepce –France - first image of nature by light, not by hand 1826 • Process perfected by Louis Jacques Daguerre, 1839 • Daguerreotypes • Image on copper plate, exposed to chemicals and light, very sensitive process • Image often reversed itself, improved by Englishman, Henry Fox Talbot, who used negatives or reversed prints to make positives.

Photography • Images in print – early images were woodblock imprints • Artwork onto metal presses • Halftone and color separation – changed visual appearance of printed page • Matthew Brady – Civil War photographer, idea of documentary photography Freedmen on the Canal Bank in Richmond

Graphic Movements • • Victorian Era – lithography for printing images, elaborate typefaces Arts and Crafts Movement – influences of art and architecture William Morris effect; private press movement Art Nouveau – turn of the century, English and French

20 th Century Design • Frank Lloyd Wright and Glasgow School • Cubism, Picasso, challenged natural look of Renaissance Picasso - Reservoir at Horta - 1909

Futurism • Words as images; bold use of typography; writing as visual form • Manifesto by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian Poet Filippo Marinetti, Mountains + Valleys + Streets x Joffre, 1915

Dadaism • Rejection of traditional; mocking society; horrors of war, blind faith in technological processes. John Heartfield - Adolf the Superman - 1935

Surrealism • More real than the real world; naturalists of the imaginary; Max Ernst and Salvador Dali - Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand, 1931

Expressionism • Concern with feelings and emotions in visual communicationsempathy for poor/human condition Paul Klee Fish Magic 1925 • Influence on photography, exposures and filters • War posters • Art deco – 20 s and 30 s

Other Influences • Piet Mondrian, born in 1872, is often called the father of graphic design. Although he was a fine artist (not a graphic designer) his use of grids inspired the basic structure of the modern advertising layout known also as the grid system, used commonly today by graphic designers.

Bauhaus design and after • Concern for the entity rather than ornamentation - an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933; functionality and efficiency • American influence – immigration, New Deal, flight from Facism of Bauhaus, WWI • Post-war consumer culture

The Age of Information • The New York School –- focus on unique and new – post European influence - Paul Rand – logos ABC, IBM, Enron • Editorial design progress, large pages, photographs, and design components, Life, Look, Saturday Evening Post – move to more specialized publications – 1960 s

Changes in Advertising • Doyle Dane Bernbach- talk intelligently to consumers 1950 s – fusion of word and image • 1950 s – letterforms as images, visual properties of words or their organization in space • Corporate Identity and Visual Symbols – advertising, communications, packaging, vehicles, signage – visual identification system

Modern Imagery • MTV – logo design was changeable, multiple forms, different than previous idea of identity, animation, illustration, photography • Conceptual imagery in contrast to photography to evoke emotion, expression of our time, iconic and symbolic, rather than narrative.

Postmodern Design • Multiperspectival, reflects an end to modernism, questions tenets of modernism • 1970 s, intuitive and personal • Influenced by postmodern architecture, industrial design, interior design

Digital Revolution • Removed specialist nature of graphic design; greater control over design and production process • Growth of cable and satellite – more options • Apple, Adobe, and Aldus, • 1984, 1 st generation Macintosh, bitmapped graphics, represented by pixels, mouse • 1984 Ad - http: //www. applehistory. com/

Digital Revolution • Early fonts dictated by matrix of dots on early monitors • Post. Script, not bitmapped, but electronic information on how to draw, generated as outlines and then filled. • Aldus Pagemaker, first layout program for personal computer • 1990 Macintosh II – color, increase in companies doing graphic design, increase in untrained also • Quark. Xpress and Photoshop/Illustrator, later In. Design • Interactive Media and Internet • Problems with html and browsers; fear of a decline in design • Ability to add multimedia, animation, instant updating, access; now interactivity • Nature of authorship, professional designers, others designing within their profession, those who do it as a hobby, etc.

References • A History of Graphic Design by Phillip Meggs • http: //www. linotype. com/7 -297/fontdesigners. html - Font Designers at Linotype • http: //www. wtamu. edu/~bcaruthers/history. ht ml - A Brief History of Graphic Design