Feb 27 History of GD Image 4

This advertisement found online from a company in Memphis Tennessee is trying to sell its’ customers Ugly Mug Coffee. This is a humorous print that was advertised through a campaign to promote this coffee style. As you notice, the text is very bold and almost frustrating to try and read. The point of this advertisement was to draw a connection between strong coffee and morning experiences of caffeine addicts. The ad is trying to identify reality of waking up, meeting so called morning people, drinking coffee, alarm clocks and sunshine.


The text here, very bold and containing san serifs, was a good choice. If you had a test that was bold containing serifs, it would seem almost impossible to read. Yes, this advertisement is difficult to read, but is possible. The change in font size, color and boldness helps the reader read through the advertisement without losing their place. The placement of the text around the image is pretty tight and I feel they could have given the image a little bit more padding so you don’t have the imagery running over the text. I think this advertisement is successful in the way that it grabs your eye by the way the text is placed upon the page. As we have read about in class throughout the Industrial Revolution, designers were placing bold thick text on pages to really emphasize something. I feel this advertisement does this through the use of thin and thick text. To understand this advertisement you really have to spend time reading each work and paying attention to punctuation since they use a lot of fragments in this piece. The imagery at the bottom of the page with the stars doesn’t really add a lot to the design and could probably do without as well.

Feb 27 History of GD response

During class, we were honored to have Amanda present on the Victorian Era. Through learning more about the Victorian Era, it is now easier to distinguish between this style of design and others. Some characteristics about this culture include filled pages with ornaments and other decorations, realistic paintings were created, and imagery was expressed through children, puppies, and flowers. Some other things discussed in class include how printing presses worked. It was very interesting to see how printing presses work and after watching the video on how it was made, it was easier to understand how it was done. To see the hard work that goes into creating just one poster really shows the value of creating one design. Watching the process of creating designs and posters really helped in the understanding of the machine press.

One other thing that I found interesting was a comment made that William Morris stayed with the mechanical press instead of moving in to the steam powered press. Morris did not conform in the Industrial Revolution by using steam powered presses unlike the rest of the world. It makes me wonder why he didn't conform and why he stuck with a press that takes more work, time and energy to run.

One question that I have that concerns Victorian style designs is why did people like the filigree typefaces that were impossible to use? You would think that that style, being hard to read, would not last as a 'fashionable style' .

Feb 26 History of GD Chapter 10

The arts and crafts movement, led by William Morris, was a revival to the quality of design where rich and handcrafted. Morris discovered Victorian products and began designing furniture, stained glass and other tapestries that supported his style as a two dimensional pattern designer. His view on designing throughout the Industrial Revolution was that mass production was the key to success while craftsmanship and tastelessness was lacking. He worked to create beauty through arts and crafts and re-establish aesthetics throughout designing. Morris, along with other designers such as Mackmurdo and Image, created a group called Century Guild that established their rightful place next to their works so they were noticed. Throughout the Hobby Horse, a periodical that began publication in 1884, artists believed that everyone deserved equal claim to be called an artist as much as the painter Raphael does. Morris worked on typeface (such as Golden) and created well made books with beautiful unity that was showing up from before the Victorian era. After the death of Morris, many other artists such as Ashbee, Sanderson, Hubbard, and Pissaro, sought to restore apprenticeship and typography without imagery. They figured that typography should communicate to the imagination without the use of words. Dutch typography was also improved producing symmetrical layouts, balance, and harmony.

One person that I really enjoyed reading about was William Morris. He advanced arts and design by creating carpets and wallpapers that had pattern designs on them. To me, this kind of interior design was a breakthrough that I could see wealthy people would want to have. He was very concerned with mass production and how it had a negative effect on the quality of design. Looking back through the Industrial Revolution, I don’t quite understand where he gets his view points. I look at the art work created through the Industrial Revolution and see complete beauty and a new breakthrough with photography and chromolithography.

One thing that I wonder about and find very interesting when reading this chapter is trying to understand the Dutch Renaissance. They viewed mass production as a “necessary evil, cautiously tolerated, principally for economic reasons”. They did not consider the Industrial Revolution a blessing at all. It is hard to understand what they were going through that made them think that this was not an improvement in the economy and culture. Why did they feel the Industrial Revolution was evil? What effect did it have on their culture and was it negative?

Feb 25 History of GD response

Today in class we were able to discuss chapter 9 and go in depth with the inventions and discoveries. Discussing what the Industrial Revolution is, we were able to see how it derived and what really sparked the movement. Posters and fliers were invented using new unique type faces that had interesting characteristics, and the placement of the text made for an interesting read. These designers were getting involved in imagery and the findings of photography. It was very interesting to read how the invention of photography came about deriving from the pewter sheets. This new discovery changed peoples views and continues to change them till this day. One thing that I found interesting was Matthew Brady's picture of the front lines. After this picture was released, people finally began realizing the effects war had on people and how serious a matter it really was. Photography affected the people of the day in a positive way. It was a whole other field of study to enter that involved new machinery and a different style of design.

One interesting thing discussed in class today was the invention of photography. I take for granted my nice Nikon D80 Camera that does everything for me. To think that people went through so much to create a box, create film, and to use so many different chemicals to create just one photo seems like a lot of work. One other thing that I have noticed over the past few chapters as I read is a theme. It always seems that when there is a skilled artist that achieves a lot in his lifetime, he either ends up broke or dies. There really doesn't seem to be very many happy endings in their career. This is just an observation though.

One comment I would like to make is I would like to know more about the invention of photography and the struggles that they went through to set everything up for just a picture. What did they use to keep the box perfectly still while shooting and what problems did they come across when doing so?

Feb 25 History of GD chapter 9

During the Industrial Revolution, between 1760 through 1840, energy was the main cause for the change from an agricultural society to the industrial society. During this time, machines, demand, and rapid growth were the basis of change. Typography was constantly changing while casting letters became faster and new type styles were constantly being discovered such as Tuscan style letters, as well as new serifs. During the casting process, many developers were having a hard time printing with the heavy metal types. Wells created a wooden type and began the stages of the wood type printing that saved money and energy in creating posters and other designs. Printing was altered and new machinery was utilized. The objective changed from the quality of the print to how fast and how many could be printed in a short amount of time. Newer presses, created by historical figures such as John Walter II and Friedrich Koenig made it possible to make prints at night and have them dispersed by morning.
The discovery of photography forever changed the way images were presented on displays and other posters. Photography was founded and altered by many people throughout the process of perfecting it. Using light rays, lithographs, some oils and light-sensitive paper, Joseph Niepce was able to create the first image using photography. Louis Daguerre followed Niepce and continued his process of photography by using mercury and silver compounds to increate the exposure onto the plate. William Henry Fox Talbot came along finding a process to have photography and photographic printing plates merge. Using different chemicals, Talbot was able to create positive and negative images as well as discover the new process of calotype.
When it came to printing these photos onto paper, Horgan was involved in the process of breaking the image into a series of minute dots that varied in tone from pure white to solid black. As photography continued growing, it played a major role in capturing major events like the Civil War. Eadweard Muybridge even went as far as to placing a wager over a horse that he used photography to capture the results through. During the Victorian era, lithography was invented by Senefelder who discovered a cheap way to print drawings on stone and metal reliefs. He discovered a way to create a relief printing without etching any stone away using chemicals, crayons and water. Christmas cards, Valentine’s Day cards, birthday and New Year’s Day cards, invented by Prang were internationally influenced. Not long after that, labels and packaging were created using chromolithography. Children’s books with pictures were developed near the end of the nineteenth century to entertain children. As the era came to an end, it was easy to look back and see that it was dominated through illustrations.

One thing that I find very interesting throughout this whole reading is the method that Eadweard Muybridge used when dealing with a wager on whether or not a trotting horse lifts all four feet off the ground. The discovery consisted of 24 cameras placed along a line that had a rubber band and threads attached to them so when the horse trotted through the threads, they would break causing a ‘shot’ to be taken. The method is very interesting and simply amazing that they would go through this whole process. I look at the photos of the horse and it makes me think about a reel of film. Unfortunately that was not discovered until years later.

One thing that I would like to know more about is how the printing press worked. The reading sometimes makes it hard to understand the process of how an image or type gets printed onto the sheet. How does a steam powered cylinder press work?

Feb 22 History of GD Picture 3

This image, found on a billboard on an unknown highway, is an advertisement for a foundation repair specialist. The advertisement is grabbing your attention through humor to gain your business. This image was found online and as you can see, it does not necessarily send the right message across to its’ viewers. Not only does the message make your head turn, but if you think about what it means, it does not make sense. The image is an interesting image. Here you have an ad for a business who wants to fix any cracks in your foundation, but the image shows cracked concrete with a happy face. Does that give you a mixed impression?

The logo, found at the bottom in the middle of the advertisement, is an interesting logo. The type face makes it a little hard to read, especially if you are driving past it at 65mph and you have a limited amount of time to look at it. As you can see, the typeface chosen does not really work. The letters are too close together and doing a “stencil-like” text doesn’t work too well. I do not think the message that it is trying to send out works at all with the imagery and text they used here.

This piece is interesting because we can see how type face and choice of wording does not really make sense. It is almost like someone thought of this funny saying and everyone thought it would be catchy so no one stopped to think about what kind of message is being passed here. They really need to go back and look at it to understand what it is saying and work on their typeface. A stencil type face that is too close together is hard to read when you have only a few seconds to stare at it. Better luck next time.

Feb 19 History of GD response

During class today, we reviewed the importance of Tory and other important inventors such as Jenson, Caslon, Bodoni, Baskerville, and didot. After style fonts like Romain du Roi and Rococo were discovered, typography did not spread quickly throughout England. Some of the reasons that it did not spread include the civil war, censorship, religious reasoning, and most importantly government control. The government could control how much knowledge was spread throughout England. It is interesting to see how much the government could control in that time period. We also discussed the differences between old style, traditional, and modern typography. When distinguishing between these styles, its important to remember that old style resembles hand written type and includes Caslon font. Traditional type characteristics include a difference between thin and thick lines while modern type includes very thin and thick lines, sharp 90 degree angles, and unbracketed serifs.

One thing learned today is how to distinguish between these different types (old style, traditional, and modern). It is hard to sometimes place a type font within these characteristics. Distinguishing between traditional and modern type fonts are difficult since they have some of the same characteristics.

One question I pose after the discussion in class today is after Blake began incorporating imagery in text, how did the culture respond to that? Did the style grow quickly or did people think it was weird at first?

Feb 17 History of GD chapter 8

French king Louis XIV wanted to create and establish a type face that could be used for royal printing. The process that went along with the creation of this new type face, Tomain du Rio, included creating grids and a shift from the "old style" roman type. New ideas like this spread throughout France creating new fonts such as rococo. Fournier le Jeune worked with this font to create a complete design system as well as a few published books that revealed information to improving measurement systems. William Caslon stepped into the picture and created the Caslon Old Style font (used in America’s Declaration of Independence). After Caslon, Baskerville appeared to create a font that represented the transitional style between the Old Style and modern type design. He also created paper that was smooth and glossy which is a new way of seeing paper. Finally Bodoni came along redesigning the Roman letterforms and constructing alphabets of interchangeable parts.

One thing that I find very interesting is the invention of different paper. Baskerville created this glossy smooth paper from hot-pressed wove paper. This pattern that was introduced to the world, caused controversy due to the fact that Baskerville would not give out his secret as to how he created the paper. Jealousy caused some critics to give bad reviews of his paper. It is very interesting to see that a new creation had somewhat of a negative effect all because he would not reveal his secret. The culture was concerned with different style inks, illuminated manuscripts and other accessories on a page that no one thought of changing up the quality of the paper.

One question I pose is that on page 118, it says that French law prevented type-founders from printing. Why were they unable to print? Also on page 121 it says that Charles II demanded the number of printers be reduced to twenty “by death or otherwise”. Why does it matter how many printers were available at that time period?

Feb 16 History of GD response

In class today, we reviewed many questions we had over the reading, as well as discuss the Renaissance and the people that aided in it. During this discussion, we looked at Martin Luther and Durer, as well as three important men who contributed to the Renaissance: Tory, Manutius and Ratdolt. Each of these men were considered their own “renaissance man”. Ratdolt, the first to complete a title page, figured out the solar and lunar eclipses. He created illustrations of these eclipses and other geometric studies to help aid in the understanding. Manutius, assisting in the creation of Italics, generated the pocket book and became famous for creating his own logo. Owning his own printing press be directed and created the book “Poliphilus’ Dream”. Tory, learning 12 different fields of study introduced the apostrophe, ascents, and cedillas to lettering systems. He designed thirteen different alphabets and wrote a book on correcting letter forms and geometric shapes that Durer made errors on.

One important thing studied in class today had to do with the specific people each group had to look up and find information on. When taking a closer look at a specific person, you begin to see how much they actually accomplished as well as the importance of their accomplishments. Tory accomplished so much throughout his life and completed things such as designing different alphabets, teaching at the University of Paris, and writing three books on perfecting speech and alphabets. He made so many advances in France during the Renaissance and his accomplishments will be remembered.

One question that I pose is how long did it take for the Renaissance, beginning in Italy, spread across the whole world? Did it create a domino effect?

Feb 16 History of GD Chapter 6-7

Chapter 6

Uncunabula, meaning cradle or beginnings, caused Gutenberg’s invention of typography to adopt the name during the seventeenth century. As printing spread rapidly, it reduced the cost of books as the shortage of books increased greatly. One person who aided to the reformation, Martin Luther, posted his ninety-five theses on the Catholic Church and was able to get his information spread rapidly due to printers. Besides Luther, another important person during this time period was Albrecht Durer. Creating the Apocalypse, he created graphics with volume, depth, texture, and shadows.

One person in specific that I find important is Durer. He added many changed to the way text was created and positioned on a page. The illustrations done in The Apocalypse portrayed highlighting and shadowing with extensive detail. This illustration gives you a whole different interpretation than the first “Apocalypse” created. He aided greatly in this new style of manuscripts and created books that explained typography and the construction of geometric drawing.

Chapter 7

The renaissance, or revival, marked the period of transition between the medieval to the modern world. Many great designers stepped forward during this time period to create new styles and fonts as well as extensive floral designs. Designers during this time period include Jenson, Aldus Manutius, Griffo, as well as Tory and Garamond. Tory likely fit the description of the term “renaissance man” due to the fact that he had a wide range of fields that he mastered. He created Roman capital letters as well as his most influential work titled Champ Fleury. Consisting of three books, this work corrects ways from speech and pronunciation, to geometric construction. Turning back to Claude Garamond, one of the first punch cutters, his fonts were created with high quality and ease in reading. But as time went on, the age of French typography began to spread to neighboring countries.

One person that I found fascinating is Geoffroy Tory. Being named “renaissance man” he was skilled in over twelve different fields: professor, scholar, translator, poet, author, publisher, printer, bookseller, calligrapher, designer, illustrator and engraver. Mastering these different fields took time, knowledge, and energy. It is amazing to me that he accomplished so much in his lifetime. The wide variety of skill that Tory had influences me to do the same by not limiting myself to one skill.

As manuscripts became more and more popular, it is important to remember why they were derived in the first place. Religion played an important role by bringing people to knowing God by creating these beautiful illuminated manuscripts to do so. We begin to see throughout readings that manuscripts were created for many different reasons: announcements, philosophy, poetry, fictional stories. How did the change in the purpose of the manuscript affect churches and other religious affiliations during this time period?

Feb 14 History of GD Picture 2

As you can see, this advertisement is very “catchy”. Featured by PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, this ad was featured in India promoting vegetarianism. The culture in India consists of many vegetarians and they want to continue promoting it. This image, found on the internet, uses images and layout to send a message that catches the eye. As you can see, they reverse the rolls and allow you to see what it would be like to be a chicken always getting eaten.

The quality of the work here is very clean and clear. The pictures are great quality and they layout seems simple, yet powerful. The cut out of the chicken is clean and the quality is excellent. I think when it comes to this advertisement, less is more. The designers did a good job at portraying what it would feel like to have your leg be eaten and they do a great job at making you see both sides of the situation.

As serious as this problem over in India may be, this advertisement is attractive through the humor we take out of it. We often wonder if ads like these are serious or if someone was doing it for comedy. The text on this layout is not too big and the placement is just right. The message is portrayed through the images more than the words. This is an example of how you balance out imagery and text.

Feb 13 History of GD response

During class today, we discussed the different illuminated manuscripts and their characteristics. One major one that we discussed was Celtic illuminated manuscripts. When creating a manuscript, there are many different roles that need to be fulfilled to get the job done. These rolls included the scrittori, copisti, illuminator, and the colophon. The original purpose of creating an illuminated manuscript was for religious purposes: attracting people to God. They would decorate these scriptures and to attract people to religion and to honor God. A few other things discussed in class were why printing was important and the effect it had on culture. Manuscripts were in high demand at the time. In order to fulfill the cultures needs, manuscripts needed to be printed faster and with less errors. Some of the effects that printing had on the culture include technological advances, increased education, and the average person became smarter due to more opportunities.

One thing that I find very interesting is the long process it took to create a manuscript. You need someone to get the paper or parchment, make it, design the lettering, and illustrate some of the lettering. This seemed like a very long process that took a lot of people to finish. I can see why these manuscripts were valuable and expensive.

One question that I pose has to do with the picture of the four horseman in the Spanish manuscript. After discussing it a little bit in class, I am very curious to see what the heart on one of the horseman mean as well as the little symbols that are scattered all over this manuscript.

February 12 History of GD Chapter 5

Typography, one of the most important advances in civilization, slowly moved into the process of bookmaking and printing. The value of owning a book was of great value as new technological advances were made in printing. Watermarks as well as playing cards were among the top inventions of the time period. Block printing of saints and other lettering became popular around the 1460s. These books, containing anywhere from thirty o fifty leaves, were designed with vibrant colors and images that were usually printed on one side. It wasn’t until 1444 that movable type became available. Through the process of creating movable type, considerations were made as to the typeface used. These type faces created out of metal had as many as fifty thousand single pieces used at one time. Unfortunately, the inventor of movable type, Guttenberg, came a long way throughout his inventions only to end at a dead end. After losing all of his work to a friend, he was unable to finish his project of completing the bible using movable type. Shortly after movable type, copperplate engraving became popular in creating playing cards with imagery.

One person that I found interesting throughout this reading was Guttenberg. After coming such a long way through inventing movable type and creating so many pieces of work, it was all taken away from him on the eve he was to finish the bible. The way the story is told, it seems like his friend Fust took all the credit for work that was not his.

One question that I pose is what were all fifty thousand individual pieces used to create books that Guttenberg was printing? Were they different typefaces and letters or were many of them images? There are more individual pieces for printmaking than words in the Chinese language.

Feb 11 History of GD Response

During the discussion in class today, we discussed Asian culture and the evolution of many great ideas and objects. China was responsible for the invention of gun powder, as well as toilet paper and a new form of printing. When printing was done, it happened in one of two ways: through engraved seals or ink rubbings. We also discussed a few questions posted about the Greek signature seals. After understanding them a little better, the point of using these seals seemed more clear.

One thing that I find interesting are the signature seals. Everyone owned their own personal seal and used it for identification and it was very personal. To think that back in that time period identification was important and advances like these were made simply blows my mind. Studying just one aspect of history, mainly being type and design, almost causes you to forget about the life and culture at the time period.

One question that I pose after the discussion in class involves the the Chinese written language. If there were 44,000 different words, how did any one understand what these words meant if they never learned them? How did this system survive while only the knowledgeable people knew how to read it? You would think that a new system would be formed to make understanding language easier in the Chinese culture.

Chapter 3-4 History of GD Feb 11

Chapter 3:
Throughout the Asian culture, objects and ideas were being formed. Looking at the Chinese writing system, it is a visual language. The Chinese, having a completely different spoken language and written language, never broke syllables up. There were four major phases that China took throughout the evolution of calligraphy. These include chiaku-wen (bone-and-shell), chin-wen (bronze scripting), Hsiao chuan (small-seal), and chen-shu (regular style). After writing on bamboo and wooded strips throughout history, paper was invented in 105 A.D. with the help of Ts’ai Lun. Shortly after this invention, printing was also discovered in which examples of this include relief printing, chops, as well as inked rubbings. The first books created resembled scrolls until stitched books were developed.

As the Chinese language developed, the written and spoken language had no correlation with each other. It is hard to understand how a culture never broke down their language into syllables using cuneiform. To learn the total vocabulary of the Chinese involved knowing 44,000 characters. Only the professionals could memorize these characters over a long period of time. The language of China seemed very hard to learn and very different from the rest of the world.

Since the Chinese language was so different from the rest of the world, how did China translate with other cultures? How would one go about learning Chinese for translation purposes since the written and spoken languages are different?


Chapter 4:
Illuminated manuscripts began its journey around 1450 A.D. beginning in Europe. Manuscript production, being costly and time consuming, involved many different people to fulfill the jobs needed to create a manuscript. The earliest surviving illustrated manuscript comes from the classical style of developing manuscripts. New letter styles and uncials were developed at this time. After the classical style of manuscripts came, Celtic book design became popular. Different ornaments and frames were used to fill the whole page as well as decorative bindings were used. It was not until Charlemagne in 768 A.D. rose up to bring back the quality of the manuscripts and writing. At that time, illustrations were poorly drawn and text was almost impossible to read. Charlemagne standardized pages layouts and writing styles to create a uniform look. The Caroline minuscule was created and is the predecessor of our current lowercase alphabet. Spanish manuscripts displayed intense colors and intricate geometric designs. When it came to Gothic manuscripts, textura was the dominant Gothic lettering. It had unique strokes and serifs that contained no rounded edges. But, when Islamic manuscripts began to emerge, figurative illustrations were forbidden due to religious beliefs. Some of the most important people in this time period include the Limbourg brothers, who with their education and skill, they created an illustrated calendar as well as handmade books.

One thing that I find interesting when reading this chapter is fact that Celtic manuscripts contain spelling errors and misreading. You would think that if a beautiful manuscript was put together, everything would be perfect down to the last letter. The imagery on these Celtic manuscripts are elegant and the text is unique as well. So would it be the scribes fault for the spelling errors? I feel that the scribes who were hired to write in these manuscript layouts would be skilled enough to know how to spell words.

One question that I pose is how did the black plague affect what the scribes and designers wrote about. Chosen imagery comes from the bible, poetry and other sources. You do not see many manuscripts about the black plague or even manuscripts with poetry in them about it. How did this plague affect them at the time?

Feb 9 History of GD response

In the class discussion today, we looked at why writing was significant as well as the benefits of an alphabet. The importance and benefits of writing was that they were able to write out laws, taxes, and keep records from history. Also, it was used in trade and better communication, as well as turned into books which helped people advance as a culture over time. The benefits of an alphabet are that it is easier to teach to a group of people and it will be easier to translate from language to language.

One thing that I take away from class is the fact that writing and language was power at this time period. The more people that could understand an alphabet and written language means less power over those who can not. I can understand why they wanted important people to be the ones who had these special talents and not everyone. Villages wanted to maintain order over their culture.

One question that I pose is how did the voting stamps work? Why did they have to use stamps to vote and what do the letters on the stamps mean?

Feb 8 History of GD Chapter 2

While the alphabet inventors are unknown, they sought to believe the source to be the Canaanites, Hebrews, and Phoenicians. This early alphabet was referred to as the North Semitic writing. Looking throughout history, it is assumed that the development of the alphabet was an act of geography and the mixture of visual symbols throughout villages. As time went on, different cultures and villages created their own alphabet. For example, Ras Shamra did not contain any vowels, while Aramaic used dots and dashes added to characters to indicate vowels. It was not until the Greek civilization that the alphabet was turned into beauty. Throughout the Greek culture, vowels were made, and changes like boustrophedon came into play. They eventually adopted the reading style of moving left-to-right. This alphabet played a role in democracy. When the Romans eventually captured Greece literature and art, they developed their own alphabet using serifs. Their cities were decorated with beautiful characters and other styles of writing that were shown in monuments and statues.

One thing that I find interesting when looking throughout Rome is how the characters on statues and monuments are created with perfection. There are very subtle differences within a repeated character on these statues. The perfection that these artists use is amazing when you consider the tools they had in that time period. They took a lot of pride in their beauty and worked on always improving it throughout the city.

One question that I pose is how do we know that alphabets and writing did not evolve at an earlier date in history? They stated in the reading that only 30,000 scrolls survive. How do we know that the earliest forms of writing did not occur on a medium that did not survive throughout the years?

This is a advertisement for Burger King. The function that is serves is to give $2 off a $10 purchase of food at any Burger King restaurant. The point they try to make with this advertisement is that you have to pay roughly $2 to go through a toll on the highway, so why not give that $2 back to you when you go to Burger King.

This advertisement was found online at the Burger King's Greatest Ad's site. Looking at the typography used in this advertisement, I feel like it is a good balance. Since the picture is so bold, the designers did a good job at making sure the text does not overtake the picture. The imagery here represents more than just fries on a sign. You can clearly see that the fries are in the shape of a hand flicking someone off. The quality of the artwork is clear and understandable, as well as simple. The designers do a great job at making you feel like you are experiencing the same thing that they are: high pricing for tolls. If you looked at the picture and saw the bold words "Toll This" you really would not understand what the advertisement is about. It is a bold statement once you read the paragraph below and understand what purpose they have for this advertisement. The typography they used in this advertisement was bold, yet not overpowering.

Feb 7 History of GD Class Response

Our discussion from Friday's class was based on the chapter 1 reading. We discussed that the earliest forms of communication was not intended for artwork. One exercise that we did during class was that we had to think of as many different ways to visually show a "man" and a "woman". We were told to think of bathroom signs to help us show different ways to visually show these. Coming up with ideas were easy, but there were some that represented ideographs instead of pictographs. We continued in class talking about Hammurabi and the different laws that were put up around the village. They were trying to establish order by setting these rules up. One other thing we discussed is the Rosetta Stone. It is amazing that this stone was the only way to translate from the three different languages.

One thing that I found very interesting in class today was the Hammurabi. These rules were placed around a village to help keep order. Some of these rules were extreme. For example, some stated that if you build a house and it caves in on a man, you will be killed. It is interesting to think of who thought up these rules and how they were implemented.

One question that I pose is how exactly ere these Hammurabi rules put into place? How did the village handle these new orders and respond to them? Were they rebellious or did they give in to social order?

Feb 6 - Chapter 1

Unknown where and when Homo sapiens emerged, there is reason to believe they have been around for over 200,000 years. Most likely originating from Africa, the earliest form of communication of humans began with pictographs, which were pictures or sketches representing things depicted. Petroglyphs, which were carved from rock, began showing up all around the world. As people would make these carvings from rock, they eventually would reduce these pictographs and petroglyphs almost to a point that would resemble letters. As human beings continued interacting with each other, they began illustrating these symbols into tablets made of rows and columns that would be read from one side to the other. As communication between humans became more sophisticated, they were able to write in cuneiform. Developing years after cuneiform, cylinder seals were created to mark personal objects or letters. As writing became more and more popular, papyrus was developed to write on. Through a tedious process, this paper was produced to create scrolls and manuscripts. Egyptians used the manuscripts to write prayers, funerary text, and other passages. As manuscripts became more common, scribes would design the manuscript, while artists would draw illustrations next to the writing.

One thing that was interesting involved the development of Mesopotamian proprietary marks and seals. They were used to mark property and ownership among the village. This was a visual breakthrough that allowed people to know who created pottery and who the cattle belonged to. As you continued reading about seals, you noticed that almost everyone had one, no matter your class status. If you look around today, everything is marked and has ownership. We know where everything came from and what company created it.

How long would it take to create a hieroglyphic? Looking at some of these engravings it appears it would take hours or even days to write out a message.

Feb 6th - History of Graphic Design

The topic that was discussed in class dealt with the earliest forms of communication, as well as graphic design. We explored cave drawings that aided in communication before there were words and vocabulary. We looked at paintings that were taken from France and tried to distinguish the meanings behind them.

One of the most meaningful things learned in class today is how hard it is to communicate without words and symbols. In this time period today, even if we do not use words for communication, we are still able to communicate through symbols, action, and even jargon. During class, we explored a form of communication that is not used in this time and age, but use to be the only form on communicating. Using clay to mold as well as to draw on is something that is frustrating and extremely hard to do. The hardest part of communicating with clay is the detail that you try to portray. For example, how do you tell someone you have 2 white cats and 2 black cats through using clay? Adding detail to communicating through clay is very difficult.

Question for class: How would cave men be able to convey emotion or specific feeling through a drawing? Was drawing their only way of communication or were there other forms they could also communicate through at the time?