The history of graphic design goes further from the times of the printing press invention up to the days of the Industrial Revolution initiated in XVIII century in England. The movement spread to the other European countries and changed the face of entire world. However, before these alterations could have happened there were over 4 four centuries of development on social, political and technological fields, including the arts and graphic design. In the class we covered the material on the font evolution including the most ancient forms of writing up to the gaudy posters advertising commercial products.
Phoenicians later Greeks and Romans developed the alphabet based on the system of letters that replaced the pictographs used by Sumerians (called cuneiform) and hieroglyphs typical for the Egyptian civilization. Initially the letters had a rectangular shape but within the time they got simplified with round and smooth forms easier to write and read. In the Middle Ages an example of the developed form of type can be seen in Celtic Book of Kells, illuminated manuscript containing the New Testament written by Celtic monks around 800 AD. At approximately same time in continental Europe Charlemagne, the King of Franks was crowned as Emperor of the Roman Empire (768 AD). A new standard of writing called Carolingian minuscule introduced under the reign of Charlemagne unified the Roman alphabet (so that all regions of the Empire could use it) and turned them into blackletter type, typical for the Medieval scripts. Later, with the beginning of the crusades to the Holy Land in 1095 not only the type but also the material on which it was written changed. So far the most common surfaces were animal skins and parchment, expensive and time consuming to produce. However crusaders discovered a new medium used by the Arabic writers, the paper. After the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg the text became even more popular due to its fast and economic (comparing to the previous methods) production.
During the times of Enlightenment characterized with the quest for knowledge and humanist thoughts, books provided the people with a possibility for education, spreading ideas, new streams of thinking in religion, philosophy, politics, etc. Also the great discoveries opened paths that we had never dreams of before. Europeans started to introduce their culture and laws on new territories brining language, customs, technology. Steven Daye, a simple merchant was the first to bring printing to the colonies in 1638.
In XVII and XVIII century a new movement called Rococo pushed the boundaries of good taste. Over decorated style with a great fondness for gold, floral ornaments, mirrors, light was also reflected in the texts printed at that time. Louise XIV, king of France and an exemplary character of Rococo, introduced the royal font used only by his court. Although Rococo was an artistic movement it exposed political and social issues that turned into French Revolution in 1789. The Declaration of Independent in the United States in 1776, in Poland in 1791 (it was the second declaration of independence in the world, few months before France) and Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France in 1791 were documents that marked the modern era.
Neoclassicism was introduced taking over the playful Rococo style and turning to the masters of Enlightenment. In 1764 Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune published Manuel Typographique, later in 1771 Giambattista Bodoni wrote Saggio Tipografico followed by works by the Didot family in France. People looked at print as a powerful form of fighting political and philosophical opposition and show new ways of thinking in the essays. New technology, rapid growth of human population, interest in politics by common people gave a start for the Industrial Revolution, initiated in England in XVIII century by James Watt who constructed the first steam engine in 1778. Major changes in industry, agriculture, technology, transportation and culture also influenced the print. Not only more people became literate so that the necessity for books was greater, but print took a new exciting form exposed to even greater public in a form of a poster. People moving to the cities needed more manufactured products advertised through posters.
In my opinion the most interesting period discussed in the class was XVIII century, the time of great changes. The print became a tool for other fields, like politics and philosophy. The possibility to spread the ideas on paper so everybody could have an access to it through books, essays, posters, pamphlets made it very powerful. In the event the public aware of a real situation in a country such as France revolted against a ruler to fight for their rights. I think it shows how inspirational the written word could be and thanks to the previous development of type, printing press and paper the human history changed its way.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1791
Manuel Typographique byPierre Simon Fournier le Jeune, 1764/68
Phoenicians later Greeks and Romans developed the alphabet based on the system of letters that replaced the pictographs used by Sumerians (called cuneiform) and hieroglyphs typical for the Egyptian civilization. Initially the letters had a rectangular shape but within the time they got simplified with round and smooth forms easier to write and read. In the Middle Ages an example of the developed form of type can be seen in Celtic Book of Kells, illuminated manuscript containing the New Testament written by Celtic monks around 800 AD. At approximately same time in continental Europe Charlemagne, the King of Franks was crowned as Emperor of the Roman Empire (768 AD). A new standard of writing called Carolingian minuscule introduced under the reign of Charlemagne unified the Roman alphabet (so that all regions of the Empire could use it) and turned them into blackletter type, typical for the Medieval scripts. Later, with the beginning of the crusades to the Holy Land in 1095 not only the type but also the material on which it was written changed. So far the most common surfaces were animal skins and parchment, expensive and time consuming to produce. However crusaders discovered a new medium used by the Arabic writers, the paper. After the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg the text became even more popular due to its fast and economic (comparing to the previous methods) production.
During the times of Enlightenment characterized with the quest for knowledge and humanist thoughts, books provided the people with a possibility for education, spreading ideas, new streams of thinking in religion, philosophy, politics, etc. Also the great discoveries opened paths that we had never dreams of before. Europeans started to introduce their culture and laws on new territories brining language, customs, technology. Steven Daye, a simple merchant was the first to bring printing to the colonies in 1638.
In XVII and XVIII century a new movement called Rococo pushed the boundaries of good taste. Over decorated style with a great fondness for gold, floral ornaments, mirrors, light was also reflected in the texts printed at that time. Louise XIV, king of France and an exemplary character of Rococo, introduced the royal font used only by his court. Although Rococo was an artistic movement it exposed political and social issues that turned into French Revolution in 1789. The Declaration of Independent in the United States in 1776, in Poland in 1791 (it was the second declaration of independence in the world, few months before France) and Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France in 1791 were documents that marked the modern era.
Neoclassicism was introduced taking over the playful Rococo style and turning to the masters of Enlightenment. In 1764 Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune published Manuel Typographique, later in 1771 Giambattista Bodoni wrote Saggio Tipografico followed by works by the Didot family in France. People looked at print as a powerful form of fighting political and philosophical opposition and show new ways of thinking in the essays. New technology, rapid growth of human population, interest in politics by common people gave a start for the Industrial Revolution, initiated in England in XVIII century by James Watt who constructed the first steam engine in 1778. Major changes in industry, agriculture, technology, transportation and culture also influenced the print. Not only more people became literate so that the necessity for books was greater, but print took a new exciting form exposed to even greater public in a form of a poster. People moving to the cities needed more manufactured products advertised through posters.
In my opinion the most interesting period discussed in the class was XVIII century, the time of great changes. The print became a tool for other fields, like politics and philosophy. The possibility to spread the ideas on paper so everybody could have an access to it through books, essays, posters, pamphlets made it very powerful. In the event the public aware of a real situation in a country such as France revolted against a ruler to fight for their rights. I think it shows how inspirational the written word could be and thanks to the previous development of type, printing press and paper the human history changed its way.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1791
Manuel Typographique byPierre Simon Fournier le Jeune, 1764/68
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