Jan 25th

It is interesting how printing has come so far. The double cylinder press sounds so prehistoric today, but it was a great improvement. The rise of news papers helps graphic designers. The first mad men were born, running around, placing adds in the old newspapers.

The next person to contribute is Ottmar Mergenthaller, the man who perfected his linotype machine in 1866. This made it easier to set type, because you typed a line into the machine, and it would smelt a whole line of time. This is really amazing, because it made everything easier!

The way we type today is based on how the old linotype worked. Victorian graphics were very "fussy." There is a rise of middle class, and people have money, but don know what to do with it. Therefore, they buy a lot of nik naks.

Ephemera refers to written or printed things that arent meant to be collected.

Lithographic printing is a HUUUGE step forward. Printing in color? On metal? However you want? niiiice!

This opens up space to print on tin cans, in order to make badass packaging. There comes the development of american food culture. The Quaker oats dude!

Its interesting that even though lithography came in, there are still wooden typographers trying to make a living. This is the world we live in today. There are always new things coming out, and we have to adapt.

The idea of having a bible that was sold in installments with 2390285923058 wood cuts sounds ridiculous. I could never imagine getting books that way. Getting a book for a class is bad enough.

Wow Thomas Nast is a pro; he made santa clause, Uncle Sam, The Donkey and Elephant. Pro.

William Morris. The father of the arts and craftsmen. He is inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and things happening in reaction to industrialization. He realizes that things manufactured by robots... are shit. He decides people need to start crafting good things again.

January 18th

Interest in Science and Mathematics has grown. Calendars become interesting documents, made possible by wood cuts. They can be used to calculate solar and lunar cycles. The Tip-in is created, and creates a kind of calculator inside the book!

Steven Daye brings printing to the Colonies in 1639, and creates prints of the psalmes in 1940. They are very crudely created, but they are created by him as a career choice, trying to get along.

Steven Daye is like Gutenberg in the fact that he is just trying to make a living for himself.

King Louie decides to get people to draw out a font for the royal printing services. NO BODY is allowed to use this typeface... unless they want to lose a limb. The quality of printing in france as a whole was not risen, seeing as the king was the only person who could use the font. Rococo refers to the fanciful french art that was in the 1700s. It is floral and intricate. Rococo page design is also very intricate. Somewhat floral, and personal. Frounir creates his own prints, but they do not effect the revolution, as he dies too soon.

Copper plate engraving flourishes during the rococo era, because there is no limitation of 2d encasements. Hand engraved books from copper emerge. Printing is not good for the people in power, because people unite together, due to a common reading, and then the power falls.

Bodoni redesigns the Roman design, and makes them more geometric and modern. The creation of Bodoni's extremely contrasty font, influences the creation of Fat Faces, and Display faces.

Agrarian Societies develop into cities. Everyone competes for attention. People dont use huge letters, because it would be so hard to set large metal type. Therefore, wood type is created. With a router, you can create a lot of copies of wood type (not available before the industrial revolution). With posession, which arises with the industrial revolution, comes greed. The middle class is created. There is extra money from working, which can be spent on random nik naks. Then, there arises stealing and contempt. There is also a growth in literacy and education.

Egyptian fonts are known as that because Egypt was big at the time, so people associate the fonts with that era. (slab serif etc.) THEN ARISES THE MIGHT SANS SERIFFFF!!!

Tuscan letters are invented: ornamental serif faces (extremely ugly)

These are all made possible because wood cuts are much easier with the router. These do not make it a better design work exactly... there arises a lot of extremely ugly design.

Poster houses start popping up! easy way for people to start making posters (for money) These posters are not designed well, just made in order to make money. Like Gutenburg and Daye.

Wood type and metal type can be used in the same design. Lead is good for small, and wood is good for large. Posters do not exist anymore... those were the days.

NEED TO KNOW THESE: old style (Garamond) transitional (Baskerville) Modern (Bodoni) Egyptian (Rockwell) Sans Serif (Helvetica)

dont need to know, but still pretty awesome: display, black letter, hand, script, dingbats.

TRADITIONAL SERIFS ARE: rigid, pointy

OLD STYLE SERIFS ARE: round, organic.

MODERN SERIFS ARE: square, thin, awesome.

know: cap height, ascender line, x height, base line, descender line (all the stuff a graphic designer should know) Point size is measured from highest to lowest.

leading is measured base line to baseline. auto leading is 20% above point size.

12 points = 1 pica. 6 picas = 1 inch. 72 points = 1 inch.

MY PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS:

It has been so enlightening, learning where fonts actually came from, instead of just accepting it as fact, that these fonts just came into being, and we now have to know them. The history behind the typefaces is so intriguing, and having to know the different families of fonts is extremely easy now that we know more about the background.

QUESTIONS:

Why is it that people go back and create more fonts that are based on old styles, when they are not in such common use today?

January 11th

Xylography: printing with wood.

Ligature: 2 characters that work together as a single unit: fi

Incunabula: first 50 years of printing.

Fleurons: cast decorative elements. Type embellishments for the press.

To Print you need:

· A growing middle class: to buy the printed material

· Students in and expanding university system: demand as a student, but also a more literate class.

· Increased Literacy.

Lascaux

Cuneiform -> greek -> roman -? Modern

J V W not added until middle ages

Letterforms have changed significantly over time. Starting with Cuneiform, transitioning into Greek, then Roman, now todays modern letterforms. Lower case letters have been added to increase efficiency, seeing as curves are easier to draw than straight lines. Xylography; woodblock prints, fundamentally changes the architecture of the human brain, allowing people to own prints, because wood block prints can be reproduced over and over again.

Gutenberg brought his printing ways to everyone else. Therefore, he is known as the first person to use printing. Printing evolves with images, as they lose their binding borders, and open up some negative space into the pages. "The history of the world" also puts printing into perspective, and unleashes the potential of thumb nail sketching, and printing, in order to create a book. The History of Troy (1475) is the first book printed in English.