Design

Essay Design - Typography:

For a book to be made, back in the day they only had scribes who wrote the book by hand. Very few books were around and only the highest of schollars had access to them. Each book was practically a one of a kind, unless the scribe was meant to write a book for about 2 to 10 times.

Later on the movable type was invented. Johannes Gutenberg was successful into printing the first book ever, called The Gutenberg Bible of 1454. The process of the movable type consists of punches made of steel with mirror images. It is practically by createing a mold of a letter,  after using steel to fill them up, they take the letters and put them into a matrix. Of course this is where ink is added hence the book can be printed.

The first typeface was also invented by him, but it looked quite difficult to read and apparently it used to smudge when it was printed. Statistics show us that people in his time, could not read it fast enough, with less speed of 15%. Also this needed quite an effort to be able to read it. Speaking for myself I feel like I am three years old again and I am just starting to learn words when I try to read a massive parapraph in black-letter. Today black-letter is used to give the feel of the past, and usually used in only headlines.
 
Later on the old style typfaces came around. These have low contrasts with diagonal stresses and bracketed serfis. In approximately 1499, Francesco Griffo invented the first italic typeface. Back then, saving money was somewhat of a priority and he wanted to design a typeface that can be typed in less space, hence saving money in ink, and papers etc. As of today, italics are used to quote someone or to emphasize emotions in the words.

Transitional types started to form with the characteristics of vertical stresses and slightly higher contrast than old typefaces, combined with horizontal serifs. These were somewhat in the middle of old style and modern types. These typefaces then began to turn into modern designs.

The typefaces Didot, Bodoni and Walbaum are the most used and can be noticed by their strong contrast and vertical stresses. Some criticized these as cold and harsh and probably can not be the most efficient typefaces to use for book texts.

                                 

Now today's most used Modern typfaces are many inspired designs from Bodoni's typefaces. These keep changing over time.

Caslon IV had another idea altogether. He did not like the serifs anymore so he decided to design a type form; the Sans Serif. This did not catch on right away but later on it became one of the most used type forms.

From all this, the typeface Helvetica was created, by Max Miedinger. This was available in my weights and widths and consisted of geometrical shapes as its base structure. It is said that it was and still is, the most font ever used.

                                                   

In the second industrial revolution, they started looking for advertising typefaces which resulted into experimentation with taller and wider letters. In the end, they kept choosing one typeface : Slab Serif: Egyptian type styles. These are made with block-like rectangular serifs, coming out horizontally or vertically, often with the same thickness as the body strokes.

 

When Art Deco came about, they wanted to create from geometric shapes as a base once more. From this, Renner invented a sans called Futura, which was smooth and easy to read at a lenght.

                                   

                       

 

Typography changed altogether when the computer came to life. It was hard to design a good typeface and the pixel type had to be used everywhere. It was more designed to accomodate the need of the computer technology other than worrying about looks or convenience.

Now it is all changed. The technology advanced so much that all types of typefaces can be used. Also it is possible to create your own typeface with great ease and no hassle whatsoever.

         

My inspirational use: Will be using typography - Font to use for my poster, choosing one depending on which era I will be needing for my final Concept. The chosen font will also have a certain amount of movement in it, to be able to reside well into the concept of movement.

Reference:

Graphic Design & Publishing Centre™, 1995, A Brief History of Typography. [online] Available at: <http://graphic-design.com/typography/design/brief-history-typography> [Accessed 15th December 2013]

The History of Typography - Animated Short. 2013. [video] s.l. (Narrated by Sam Jones)

Adrian Pingstone, 2005, Calligraphy malmesbury bible. [electronic print] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Calligraphy.malmesbury.bible.arp.jpg> [Accessed 15th December 2013]

User:Shizhao, User: Liberal Freemason, 2004, Gutenberg. [electronic print] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gutenberg.jpg> [Accessed 15th December 2013]

Movement.

The Arts and Crafts Movement.

At the end of the Victoria era, the Arts and Crafts Movement started to bloom. As England was practically an industrial doom, people started to notice that the produced design is not that prime and it does not have enough effort made into it to deserve recognition. Due to all this, handcraftsmanship became quite noticeable and  much more appreciated.

A little bit about William Morris is that he was an English textile designer.  He loved to work with floral designs and he produced movement in everything he created. Some say that he liked to be influenced by medieval styles and repetitive patterns which we all can see from his works.

                    

Artists from around the world are still looking and his works and inspire themselves from it. While even having his own company William Morris & Co. which still lives till today and produces contemporary William Morris designs and even reproductions of his original works to be accessed to all the people around the world, at a price of course. 

 

 

Bibliography:

+ William Morris n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://art-workproject.blogspot.com/2013/03/morris-pugin-ruskin.html > [Accessed 26th October 2013]

+ Wallpaper Art n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://art-workproject.blogspot.com/2013/03/morris-pugin-ruskin.html > [Accessed 26th October 2013]

+  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2013. The Arts and Crafts Movement in America. [online] Available at: > http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acam/hd_acam.htm > [Accessed 26th October 2013]
+ William Morris & Co., 1861 – 2014. [online] Available at: < http://www.william-morris.co.uk/index.aspx > [Accessed January 5 2014]

+ e17 designers, 2010, [online] Available at: < http://e17designersmarkets.blogspot.com/2010/11/inspired-by-william-morris.html > [Accessed January 5 2014]

Movement.

Art Nouveau.

Art Nouveau was a movement in the end of the 19th century. Artists began to deviate from traditional and classical ways and wanted to begin to design something different, something with real style and beauty. Nature was their inspiration. Most started to notice how beautiful it can really be and more interesting to work with. In French, Art Nouveau means new art or new style and it was filled with curves and linear shapes all taken from nature.

Hector Guimard was one of the top architects and known also as high up in the influence of how Art Nouveau actually came around.

One that really shows nature in the design, is his Paris Metro with nature based inspiration to its fullest. As from movement's side of view, even though it is inspired from flying wing insects, the movement itself can be seen in its curves and fluid lines.

 

Graphic Design was no exception. Alphonse Mucha drew women with long flowing hair all inspired from nature and pure movement. Not only he draws the woman in the movement herself but even her hair and clothing accompany this.

For the contemporary part of this movement, till today we still see and create designs influenced by Art Nouveau. I took the examples of logos as I am personally interested in Graphic Design.

This Coca Cola logo was designed in 1885 which is work from Art Nouveau era yet it is still with us till today, reproduced constantly every day. 

Wine bottle design with Art Nouveau leaf tendrils.

Another wine bottle with an inspired Art Nouveau label for Sweet Victory Semillon.

 

Art Nouveau inspired typeface named Paris by Moshik Nadav.

Bibliography:

+ Wikipedia, 2005. EdiculePorteDauphine. [image online] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EdiculePorteDauphine.jpg > [Accessed 26th October 2013]

+ Ask,  n.d. Characteristics of Art Nouveau Style?. [online] Available at: < http://www.ask.com/question/what-is-art-nouveau > [Accessed 26th October 2013]

+  About.com n.d. Art Nouveau Architecture. [online] Available at: < http://architecture.about.com/od/artnouveau/g/artnouveau.htm > [Accessed 26th October 2013]
+ 99designs, 2012. Good call, Bon Iver: Art Nouveau design inspiration. [online] Accessed January 5 2014]