Wednesday, September 27, 2017

your turn #3

 The Crystal Palace, 1854, (the symbol of Victorian design)

class: take a look at this link for typeface development from 15th to 19th century.

Let me summarize a bit: We had to move fast, so there is plenty to comment about typeface development: from Gutenberg to Jenson to Manutius, Griffo, Caslon, Baskerville, Didot (influenced by Baskerville), Bodoni, and Morris, etc. it's a very interesting story of design influenced by climate, language and culture, and by "culture" I mean religion, politics, ideas, etc. In the end you could see it as a struggle between north and south, Humanism, vs. Conservatism, Protestantism vs. Catholicism, etc.     

There are graphic design highlights: 1. newspapers, 2. magazines, 3. the advent of "community of interests" (gardening, mechanics, children's books, music printing, postcards), 4. 19th century posters: fairs, circus, night life in general, etc.  

In terms of technological development we had: the advent of photography and how it changes how culture sees itself: landscape photography, portraiture, natural science, war reportage, anthropology (Talbot's Pencil of Nature), etc.  

In terms of movement we briefly talked about Romanticism, Victorian design (by the way forgot to talk about this), Arts and Crafts (Ruskin, Morris, Crane), The Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood movement and (I owe you Decadence, Oscar Wilde and Art Nouveau).

I need the class to make comments (they constitute 20% of the final grade). Also, try to make your comments more relevant to what we're discussing.