Week 4: Chapter 9-Chapter 10

Week 4: Chapter 9-Chapter 10

Chapter 9: Graphic Design and The Industrial Revolution

During the Industrial Revolution, technologies developed which lowered production costs increasing production and allowing mass communication to develop.  Factories opened, cities grew and the need for graphic design increased as the products the factories were producing needed advertisements to attract buyers.    

One theme that keeps catching my eye in this book is the availability of books to the middle class.  Before books were so commonly available, they were only accessible to the upper class.  After all the advancements in technology and printing, books became available to the common middle class citizen.  It’s hard to imagine a world without books or access to the wealth of knowledge they offer us.  In this chapter, they talk about how during the industrial revolution “power shifted away from the aristocracy and toward capitalist manufacturers, merchants, and even the working class.”

Another subject that keeps coming up in this book is the development of different font types.  Ever since I learned how to use a computer when I was 7 years old, I have loved to play around with different fonts.  I saw the names all the time; sans serif, clarendon etc, but never knew why they were called what they were called.  Reading this book has given me a glimpse into many fonts; how they were developed visually and why they have the names they do.

Printing really advanced, starting in 1810 with Friedrich Koenig’s development of a steam powered printing press that printed 400 sheets per hour.  He then build a double-cylandar press which printed 1100 impressions an hour.  Then, in 1815 William Cowper build a press that could print 2400 impressions per hour, or 1200 sheets with both sides printed on per hour.  In 1827 he developed a four-cylander steam engine printer that could print 4000 sheets with both sides printed on per hour.  So, in 1810 400 single sided sheets per hour could be printed per hour, and just 17 years later 4000 sheets with both sides printed on could be achieved per hour.  By the middle of the 19^th century, presses could print 25,000 copies per hour.  

Ottmar Mergenthaler changed printing forever.  Before his invention of the Linotype machine, all printing of books, magazines and newspapers was done by every letter being set by hand.  The Linotype machine “could do the work of seven or eight hand composers”, and put hand type-setters out of business.  On the flip side of that,  his invention created thousands of new jobs as graphic material production took off.  Newspapers had more pages in them and were sold for a lower price.  Books publishing expanded from educational texts and literary classics to fiction, biographies, technical books and histories.  Periodicals and illustrated weeklies were produced and distributed rapidly.

The invention of photography: Joseph Niepce was the first person to produce a photographic image.   He invented heliogravure (sun engraving) and used it to take the first picture of nature.  

It was William Henry Fox Talbot who invented true photography.  He experimented with what was the early version of developing photos, and called these images photogenic drawings.  Talbots motivation for developing photography came from his desire to duplicate images of nature perfectly, realizing that his illustrations were not always adequate.  In 1844 he published “The Pencil of Nature” which included 24 hand mounted photographs of nature.  In my opinion, Talbot made the most significant contributions to early photography.  

In 1888, George Eastman invented the Kodak camera, and gave ordinary citizens the ablility to record history through photographs.  Today, we can take photos with our cell phones anywhere and any time, thanks to the hard work and inventions from this time period.  Along with photography, color printing and photo engraving was invented.  This time period (1820-1890) was known as the Victorian Era.  

Chapter 10: The Arts and Crafts Movement and Its Heritage

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a “reaction against the social, moral, and artistic confusion of the Industrial Revolution.  John Ruskin was a writer and an artist during this movement.  He believed the Industrial Revolution had isolated artists, and he believed that “beautiful things were valuable and useful precisely because they were beautiful”.  William Morris, called the leader of the English Arts and Crafts movement, subscribed to Ruskin’s beliefs.  He wrote poetry, fiction, and philosophical writings.  He briefly joined an architectural firm, then left to pursue painting.  In 1861 he joined with six friends to establish the art-decorating firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company.  He was an amazing two-dimensional pattern designer who made designs for wallpapers, textiles, carpets, and tapestries.  He tried to “implement Ruskin’s ideas: the tastelessness of mass-produced goods and the lack of honest craftsmanship might be addressed by a reunion of art with craft”.  He believed these ideas could improve people’s quality of life. 

Arthur H. Mackmurdo was inspired by Morris’ ideas and designs.  He established the Century Guild, whose goal was “to render all branches of the art the sphere, no longer of the tradesman, but of the artist”.  They printed the first magazine devoted to the visual arts called “Century Guild Hobby Horse”.   He was a forerunner in the private press movement, which was a movement emphasizing the design and beauty that books could contain.  This movement wanted to restore the high quality of books that existed before the Industrial Revolution. 

William Morris went on to typeface design and printing, and his first typeface was named Golden.  He set up a press and called it Kelmscott Press.  After he passed away, production continued, and “eighteen thousand volumes of fifty-three titles were produced.”  The Kelmscott Press wanted to preserve the beauty of hand made books, and did so by hand-printing, using handmade paper, and handcut wood blocks.  “The book became an art form”.  Morris’ hard work and meticulous execution changed the craftsmanship of books from mass production back to hand made art.

Sources: Meggs History of Graphic Design