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?