Revised for 4/28

Clement Mok is an international designer who began his career with the Apple brand and succeded in breaking from a famous company to be a self-employed famous designer. Mok is widely known for his interactive and  business designs. According to the AIGA, he has "staked out as visionary practitioner, entrepreneur and educator". (AIGA, Clement Mok)

Sources:

http://willsherwood.com/?p=621

http://www.clementmok.com/career/bio.asp?offset=20

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-clementmok

http://www.biography.com/articles/Clement-Mok-9542212

Clement Mok thesis

Clement Mok is an international designer who grew from Apple design and into the business world.

http://www.clementmok.com/career/bio.asp?offset=20

Before Class, Chapter 20

"Good Design is good business" became the motto of the graphic design community during the 1950s. With the end of War II, efforts were put into the economy in buying and selling and big corporations were started up. By 1950, the visual identity system went way beyond a basic trademark.  They unified all communications from some organization to a consistent design system.

The first to start this was the Behren's AEG logo and the Olivetti's Corporation. In 1936, Giovanni Pintori was hired at the Olivetti Corporation and created an identity based on the general promotional appearance instead of an actual trademark. Pintori's abstract images suggested the purpose of the product that was being advertised.

CBS: Columbia Broadcasting System of New York. CBS succeded due to two things: the president, Frank Stanton, understood the potential of corporate affairs with art and design; and William Golden was the art director. It was William Golden who created the CBS eye logo which was aired on November 16, 1951. Around the early 1950s, the corporate world started hiring their own advertising staff, not from the outside. This allowed them to keep a unified system from broadcast, to posters and more. Golden was also the one that said the verb" design" was the something made to be communicated to someone and said the designer's main job was to accurately communicate the message.

Georg Olden was hired in 1945 as an on-air visual designer for television. He was the first to see the limitations of black and white and was able to design graphics from the center out, using simple symbolic imagery. He was the first African American graphic designer and was able to do so before the civil rights movement in the US.

When Golden died at 48, Lou Dorfsman became the new creative director in 1964 and vice-president in 1968. He designed the new CBS headquarters building in 1966, including all aspects of the building's typography including things like clocks, elevator buttons, exit signs, and inspection certificates. However, when new owners arrived in the 1980s, the design philosophy changed and Dorfsman resigned.

In 1954, Patrick McGinnis  launched his corporate design program. He gave the old slab-serif type a more modern look based on mathematical harmony with his New Haven Railroad trademark design. Marcel Breuer was commissioned to design the trains and used the same color schemes as the new logo and looked like the Russian Constructivist style.

Paul Rand became involved in trademark designs and visual identification systems in the 1950s. He designed the rebus IBM logo and added the stripes to the main logo. In 1965, Rand also did a redesign of the ABC logo.

The Chase bank logo was a prototype ID system. While other companies evaluated their corporate image, the Chase image was an additional character in the inventory of symbolic forms. Popular names like Unimark and Unigrid and the Federal Government also launched their design programs. Uniformed pictographic signs also became a huge thing with international things such as the Olympic games and all the international travel.

The last bit is about the MTV logo, and its many designs. During the early years, the logo would appear as a ten-second network id at the top of each our, and each time it aired it would be different.

Before Class, Chapter 18

The International Typographic Style is also known as the Swiss style and was large around 1950s.It included unity of design through asymmetrical organization. The design uses a mathematical grid. The designers felt the designs and type had a purpose and was not simply there for design. Clarity and order was ideal.

Ernst Keller was the biggest influence in the movement. He liked symbolic imagery, geometric forms, vibrant colors, and expressive edges and letterings. The Swiss style started in the School of Design in Basel. The school was influenced by De Stijl and Bauhaus. Other prominent people are Theo Ballmer, and Max Bill. Bill started the geometric layouts with absolute order and his designs included linear division of harmonious parts, modular grids, arithmetic and geometric progressions, and the equalization of contrasting and complimenting relationships. Bill and Otl Aicher, along with other co-founders, started the Ulm Institute of Design in Ulm, Germany. It continued until 1968 and taught 3 branches of semiotics and the philosophical theory of signs and symbols.The study of Semiotics included semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics.

Max Huber was big because while Bill wanted simplistic, Huber wanted vitality and intricacy. It is said Huber's images pushed the edge of chaos but was also able to maintain order in the midst of the complexity.

Anton Stankowski was big from 1929-1937 in Zurich. After WWII, his work was able to create forms to communicate invisible processes and physical forces. He was able to master constructivist designs.

The Swiss Style consisted of new sans-serif type families, that were more refined than the mathematically drafted ones of the past. Univers was created with 21 sans-serif fonts by Adrian Frutiger in 1954. The Deberny and Peignot foundry in Paris invested over 200,000 hours of engraving, retouching and hand punching to create the 35,000 matrices needed to make all 21 fonts in the full range of sizes. Edouard Hoffman and Max Miedinger upgraded the Akzidenz Grotesk fonts and refined them in the mid 1950s. They were re-released as Neue Haas Grotesk, but was renamed Helvetica.

A well known typogographer is Hermann Zapf. His was first a photo retoucher, then studied calligraphy, and eventually entered a printing firm. Later he became a freelance book and typographic designer and by 22 his first of fifty-five typefaces. Many of Zapf's designs from the 1940s-1950s are major typefaces today. Examples are Palatino, Melior, and Optima.

Emil Ruder was taught at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts and later taught at the Basel School of Design. He realized the implications and potentials of Univers and so he and his students explored the contrasts, textures, and scale possibilities. His 1967 book, Typographic: A Manual of Design, which was a huge influence on the world.  In 1947, Armin Hofmann started teaching graphic design at the Basel School, also after completing at Zurich School. With Ruder he developed an educational model in 1908.

Swiss movement began the unified international movement when the "New Graphic Design" journal was published in 1959. This journal gave the philosophy and accomplishments of the Swiss movement to the international audience. After WWII, increased trade allowed multinational corporations to operate in more than a hundred different countries. Eventually the need for communicative clarity, multilingual formats and pictographs  was needed for people around the word to comprehend information.

The Swiss movement was big for post war American design. It ran between 1940s - 1970s Rudolph DeHarak started in LA but moved to New York where he started his own design studio. He recognized the early qualities in Swiss during the late 1950s and adapted the grid structures and asymmetrical balance.  The Swiss style was quickly empraced by american corporate and institutional graphics during the 1960s and continued through the 1980s. An example from the book is MIT, which kept their level of quality and imagination through time. They based their graphic-design program on the grid and sans-serif typography.

Before Class, American Kitsch

American Kitsch was for the "lower" class, it would look beaten or dirty and supposedly not art but often the idea is "the diamond in the rough". The beauty in something ordinary. Kitsch comes from the German term "Kitschen" which translates to "throwing together a work of art" (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/american_kitsch/29885)

It was in about the 1940s through about the 1960s; this era used a lot of handwritten type of fonts. Often people in American kitsch art had exaggerated expressions and dramatic poses. Exaggeration and overstatements were used in advertisements. Caricatures were common, as were provocative poses. Different product designs were bright and colorful, eye catching and type was stylized with the design.
(http://gds.parkland.edu/gds/!lectures/history/1940/kitsch.html)

Prominent Kitsch artsits are Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. It stretched as early as the 1930s. (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/kl/kitsch.html)

After class, art deco

Art Deco was a movement in the early 20th century, after WWI but before WWII. It has many names but its name mainly derives from the Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Indutriels Modernes. It's very into Egyptian, Oriental, Aztec and Assyrian motifs. Went through art Deco, saw some extra examples with a modern twist such as a Dark Knight poster in art Deco style. We talked a little about possible cover ideas but only slightly. I turned in an idea for a thesis since my draft was completely wrong. It's a possibility for a paper but it's hard.

The most interesting thing I learned from the day is that Broadway is the best font to represent the era.

Why did carlu use serifs for his poster type?

Art Deco

Art deco was supposed to be the buildings of the future with very dynamic, sleek, colorful geometric patterns. It started in the 1920s-1930s and a lot of these images are associated with Jazz music.
"The Dawn of Deco: History of Art Deco Architecture". About.com: Architecture. http://architecture.about.com/od/artdeco/ss/artdeco.htm March 30, 2010.

Art Deco is a often known for its furniture, jewellry and architecture more than its pictures, it seems. People wanted something modern and functional to fit the time and Art Deco became that. They used non-traditional materials like marble, steel and expensive wood. Furniture was made out of expensive woods for the rich people but there was also metal furniture for the middle class people.
"Art Deco - The Modern Style". All Info About Art and Antiques.
http://artantiques.allinfo-about.com/weekly/features/artdeco.html March 30, 2010

Instead of Art Deco, the term Modernistic or 1925 style was used. Famous Art Deco artists consist of, but are not limited to, Tamara de Lempicka, Adolphe Mouron (Cassandre),
"Art Deco". Museum Quality.
http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/artdeco.htm March 20, 2010

After Class, 15

We went over Suprematism, Constructivism by Laura, and De Stijl by Joslyn. We reviewed some questions from past blogs. Russian Suprematism was started soon after the overthrow of the Russian Czar. Constructivism was similar but more structured. De Stijl was from the Netherlands and Theo Van Doesburg was the head of the movement.

Question: These are very interesting movements but why is it rare to see these techniques anymore except in an art museum?

Before Class, Chapter 15

Supremastism and constructivism started in Russia after WWI around 1920. Russia had just executed their Czar Nicholas II and his family and civil war and the Red Army was taking over. Kasimir Malevich started suprematism. He'd worked with cubism and futurism and he created an elemental geometry of abstraction that was new and nonobjective. He sought the supreme expression of feeling, with no practical values or ideas or promised land. He believed the core of the art experience is through the color and form. The movement was moved forward with the revolution, and art as a whole was given a new social role.

An early attempt for the constrivists was with Aleksei Gan with his 1922 broschure, however the real idea was examplified by El Lissitzky.  He was a painter, architect, graphic designer and photographer who profoundly influenced the course of grpahic design. He was a major influence on PROUNS (projects for the extablishment affirmation of new art), which introduced three dimensional illusions that receded behind the picture plane and projected from the picture plane. In 1921 he went to Berlin and the Netherlands and found De Stijl, Bauhaus and Dadists and other constructivists.

De Stijl was started in the Netherlands in 1917. Theo Van Doesburg was the founder and joined by other artists. They worked with abstract geometrics and sought equilibrium and harmony in art. Many of these works had reduced visual  vocabulary, primary and neutral colors, straight horizontal and vertical lines, flat planes, and a lot of rectangles and squares. They believed beauty and purity in art.  Van Doesburg used De Stijl techniques in architecture, sculpture and typography. Van Doesburg saw Dada as De Stijl's opposite. While Dada would tear down the old order, De Stijl rebuilt it but in a new form.

After Class, chapter 14

I was the presenter that day. We went over the cubism, futurism, dada, expressionism, and photo exposure manipulation as a review. We also had a mini-quiz on the chapter. It was a good thing I had my notes for the presentation. I tried not to talk too fast and made sure the slides were on a little bit for people to write things down.

Question: In 14-4 of the book on page 270, why does the girl look so scary with her mysterious hat of flowers?

After class, chapter 13

Jen was the presenter today, but we didn't print the chops and cylinders like we were told, it was forgotten. Instead there were chocolate kisses. We went over Futurism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Expressionism and photography with exposure experimentation. Surrealism is my favorite because of the fantastical illusions but Dada seems the most interesting in terms of contrast and excitement. Cubism and Futurism are my least favorites because they're the ones i've seen the most of.

The most interesting thing I saw was about the urinal that was put in as a Dadaist sculpture and won.

Question: Why does most expressionist images I've seen have a sad or nostalgic feeling to them?

Before Class, Chapter 13

Between 1900-1920, a lot of social, political, cultural and economic change was occuring. Cubism is one of the most common modern art movements that came up with Pablo Picasso being a renowned cubist. He used ancient Iberian and African tribal art for inspiration to the human forms he drew. In cubism, figures are drawn through geometrics and the classical human bodies are broken up. Sometimes the subjects are seen in more than one view while in the same picture. By 1913, Cubism evolved into "synthetic cubism" which meant the figures weren't really meant to be figures just signs. Juan Gris was a famous artist of this technique. His influence helped the development of geometric art. It's said his art was the half-way point between art based on perception and art realized by the relationship of geometric planes. Cubism changed the course of painting and graphic design. It became a catalyst for experiments that pushed art toward geometric abstraction.

Futurism was started by Flippo Marinetti when his "Manifesto of Futrism" was released on February 20, 1909 in Le Figaro.His piece shocked the public with its enthusiastic talk of war, the machine age, speed, and modern life and started a revolutionary movement. In 1913, Giovanni Papini published Lacerba and Marinetti's typographic revolution piece in Italy and brought typography into the movement. Free, dynamic, and piercing words were given the velocity of stars, clouds, airplaines, etc. Noise and Speed was expressed in the futurist poetry. The idea behind all this was that writing and/or typography could become a concrete and expressive visual form that had been a sporadic preoccupation of poets. Some popular names in this style are Lewis Carroll, Stephane Mallarme, and Guillaume Apollinaire. Futurist painters were influenced by the Cubist painters, but they tried to express more emotion and energy in their work. A famous architecture in this style was Antonio Sant'Elia who constructed based on technology and science and designed based on the unique demands of modern life. Futurism was a major influence in other art movements for its violent, revolutionary techniques.

Dada was considered the most ani-art movement. It was a reaction to the bloodshed of WWI and had a strong negative and destructive element. It's said the artists and writers were concerned with shock, protest and nonsense. The movement was sponteanous and started by Tristan Tzara who edited the periodical "DADA" in 1917. Dada is supposedly given its name from randomly opening a German-French dictionary and picking the word dada which means a child's hobbyhorse. Marcel Duchamp join in the movement and became the most prominent visual artist. Cubism and Futurism were his inspirations which expressed freedom and extreme emotion. Dada was supposed to be a mockery of art, but a few pieces became profound graphic design pieces. In Germany, Kurt Schwitters created a branch of Dada called "Merz" from the term "kommerz (commerce)". Merz was mostly collages in the beginning but Schwitters included poetry, along with constructivist elements. Spontaneous chance allowed Dadists to strip typography design from the usual elements and continued the cubists concept of letterforms.

Surrealism is like a drug trip. Things that appear real have a fictional feel about them. Artsits said it was "more real than the real world behind the real" which feels like surreal statement in of itself. The world of intuition, dreams and the unconcious real was explored by Freud and shown in the art. Surrealism wasn't a cry against war, nor an anti-art. It was a way of thinking, knowing, feeling, and doing life. It could free people from the social and moral conventions. Surrealism gave an example of liberation of the human spirit, pioneered new techniques and showed fantasy and intuition expressed in visual terms.

Expressionism was a depiction of subjective emotions and personal responses, organized in Germany after WWI. Shapes and colors were exaggerated or distroted and symbolic content was important. Lines and colors were intensified. Germans expressionists created 2 groups, Die Brucke (the bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (the blue rider). Die Brucke wad figurative paitnings and woodblock prints that were a statement of alienation, anxiety and despair. Ber Blaue was about having an object that had perceptual properties that could convey feelings but didn't have a subject matter in them. Both groups consciously looked for new ways to expres in art. Eventually the movement moved into theatre, film, and literature. Expressionism influenced graphic illustration, poster art and had an emphasis on social and political activism. Popular themes were children, unschooled artists, non-european cultures and tribal arts.

Photography was also influenced from the new movements. Francis Bruguiere explored multiple exposures, opening the way for potential light recorded on film to use for poetic expression. His photos played with light and shadow. Alvin Coburn did a lot of kaleidoscope paters which he called vortographs. Man Ray was another photographer who started with Dadaism and surrealism, but moved into photography and used the darkroom manipulation. he was hte first to explore the potential for solarization.

After Class Chapter 12-2

We reviewed Thursday's presentation by Amanda Heintz, and went over Prank Pick and the Undergroundin London today. We saw Amanda's resume, cover letter and thank you notes. It was a very short class, only a half hour. We ended with handing in 4 pages of our graphic notes.

The most interesting thing I learned was that Pick was the main influence in the Germans moving away from blackletter type after many decades of using it.

After Class, chapter 12-1

We started out with a mini quiz on what we already read from the the Genesis of the 20th Century and reviewed the past several eras. We learned about Frank Lloyd Wright and the beginning of the 20th Century art. We learned about Glasgow school and the Austrian Sezessionstill movement.

I think the most interesting thing I learned was that Frank Lloyd Wright designed wallpaper. I understood he did more than just architecture but I never thought wallpaper would be his thing.

Before class, Chapter 12

Frank Lloyd Wright is a huge name for architecture. He believed space was the essence of design and took his the Japanese architecture and design for his buildings. He believed they were a model for harmonious proportion and visual poetry. He also created furniture, graphics, fabrics, wallpapers, and stained-glass windows. Headmaster Newbery, Charles Mackintosh, J. McNair and Frances Macdonald became known as "The Four" and but also known as the Glasgow School. They developed a unique style of originality and symbolic complexity. Designs of the Four are identified by symbolic imagery and stylized form.

On April 3, 1987 the Vienna Secession occured. At first it was about the refusal to allow foreign artists to participate in Kunstlerhaus exhibitions but eventually the clash of traditions vs. new ideas became the main issue. Benchmark posters for the secession showed the evolution of the French-inspired floral style to the new Glasgow School inspirted work. At first Vienna was the center for creative innovation. Gustav Klimt was a huge figure during this time, and referred to Greek mythology with Athena vs. the Minotaur. Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring) was published between 1898-1903  and was a new style. It was a smaller, square formant and had hard vigorous lines with hand lettering and printed in color on a colored background.

The German architect and designer Peter Bhrens became major. He sought typographic reform and used a grid system for his layouts. He tried to start the sans-serif typography. In 1904 a huge change in his work occured after Mathieu Lauweriks joined the Dusseldorf faculty, which he was a part of. He had very geometric patters with circles in squares and such.

In 1890 the world's first underground electric railway system opened in London. Frank Pick was a huge figure by this time.

After Class Chapter 11

Art Nouveau was presented as starting very french but spreading through the rest of the European Countries very quickly. A great way to think of Art Nouveau is the Moulin Rouge poster since Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec designed the first Moulin Rouge poster and made an appearance in the movie. The Germans had Jugendstill while the Art Nouveau travelled all over, including America.

The most interesting thing I learned that one can be famous like Alphonse Mucha for just the Sarah Bernhardt picture from mere luck

Before Class, Chapter 11

Ukiyo-e came from Japan and was a huge influence on the Art Nouveau style. The term Ukiyo-e means "pictures of the floating world" and defines Japan's Tokugawa period. Ukiyo-e combined emaki and decorative arts and used a lot of woodblock prints. Hishikawa Moronobu was considered the first master of the ukiyo-e prints. Other great artists include Okumura Masanobu, Suzuki Harunobu and Kitagawa Utamaro but the most renowned artist is Katsushika Hokusai who made 35,000 works in 70 years. Hokusai started his career making "yellow backs", cheap yellowish looking novelettes, and soon started illustrating for major novelists. Since he was 20, he illustrated over 270 books, including several of his art such as Hokusai Gashiki and Hokusai Soga.

Ando Hiroshige was the last master of the japanese woodcut of the time. He inspired the European impressionists with his spatial composition and transient moments of the landscape. In the late 19th century western mania called for a Japonisme movement. It wanted everything Japanese to stream itno Europe including books on the Japanese art and ornaments.

Art Nouveau was an international style during 1890-1910. This style included all aspects of design from architecture, furniture, fashion and graphics. Art Nouveau is a term from a gallery in Paris meaning "new art". Nikolaus Pevsner's Pioneers of Modern Design was one of the first to really show off the art nouveau style. Art Nouveau was a transitional style from the historic styles that dominated design. The symbolic subject matters became birth, life, grown, death and decay. These complex ideas allowed contradiction in interpretations. Some say it's an expression of the decade while others say it's a reaction against retroagression and materialism of the era. Graphic designers and illustraters tried to make art a part of every day life and was able to make a much higher quality of visual communication.

Jules Cheret and Eugene Grasset played huge roles in the transition between Victorian to Art nouveau styles. Jules Cheret used the Arts and Crafts movement to start a new respect for the applied arts. Cheret is supposedly the father of the modern poster. Around 1870s, Cheret moved from the victorian style and started simplifying his designs and increased the major figures and letters. In 1890, Cheret was named to the Legion of Honor by the French government for making a new branch of art which the needs of commerce and industry needed. After he retired to Nice, the Jules Cheret Museum opened to preserve his work. The first to rival Cheret was Grasset. He studied medieval art and loved exotic oriental art. A noteworth achievement was the Histoire des quatre fils Aymon (Tales of the Four Sons of Aymon) in 1883 which was designed and illustrated by Grasset. The design is important for its total integration of illustraions, format, and typography. He ultimately made wallpaper, fabric designs, stained glass windows, typefaces and printer's ornaments.

English Art Nouveau was mostly concerned with greaphic design and illustration vs. architecture and products. Aubrey Beardsley was called the "enfant terrible" of art nouveau. He was famous for only 5 years since he got famous at 20 and died at 26 of tuberculosis. A lot of his work copied William Morris's work which pissed Morris off a lot and thought of legal action. Everyone else though was encouraging of Beardsley and was even named editor of The Yellow Book, which was a London magazine-- not a book.  Beardsley later rival was Charles Ricketts, who was first a wood block engraver, who then became a designer for several pritning firms.

Other great designers include Georges Auriol, Tenri de Toulouse Lautrec and Theophile- Alexandre Steinlen, all of whom met Jules Cheret in person from a nighclub for artists and writers. Lautrec was the creator of the famous Moulin Rouge poster. Alphonse Mucha was originally from Czech but went to Paris at 27 with a great drawing tallent. He is famous for the Sarah Bernhardt poster and only got the job through luck for being at work on Christmas Eve.

During these this artistic era British and French influences came to America. Louis Rhead studied in England and Paris, moved to America, went back to Europe, studied Grasset's style and came back to America. Wiliam Bradley was a self-taught artist and was inspired by a lot of magazines, library books and artists like William Morris. Ethel Reed was the first American woman to achieve national recoginition as a graphic designer and illustrator. She started as a well known book ilustrator and poster designer at 18.

Belgium started their transtion around the 1880s, with the Cercle des XX (Group of Twenty) put on a show which included paitnings byGauguin and Van Gogh.Van de Velde was an architect, painter, designer and educator was able to combine Japanese Print, French Art Nouveau, English Arts and Crafts and Glasgow School. Even though he was prominent in the art nouveau style he wanted to continue to push forward the arts and crafts philosophy.

When Art Nouveau came to Germany it was called Jugendstill, youth style after a new magazine called Jugend (Youth) published in 1896. In its first year, Jugend gained 200,000 readers per weak and was covered in art nouveau ornaments and illustration. Otto Eckmann and Peter Behrens became widely known for large multicolor woodblock prints inspired by the French art nouveau and the Japanese prints. The Klingspor Foundry was the first German typefoundry to allow new fonts from artsits and in 1900 released Eckmann's Eckmannschrift.

After Class, Chapter 10

The Arts and Crafts age was presented by Heather and interesting enough, a lot of information, touched a bit on a character outside the book, Owen, but overall interesting. We also went through the last group, our group, of the timelines and we won due to all the pics in the right order and knowing stuff from the pics. It was great, I got a cookie (Oreo)

Question of the day: What would the people of the Arts and Crafts movement say about our modern day arts and crafts?

Before Class, Chapter 10

William Pickering (1796-1854) played a huge role in distinguishing between Graphic Design and Printing Production. He started as an apprentice, then a book seller, then a publisher. He made woodblock ornaments, initials, and illustrations and controlled format design, type selection, illustrations and more.Pickering watched over his printers carefully and established a good relationship with Charles Whittingham of Chiswick Press, who produced Pickering's books of prose and poetry. With Whittingham, Pickering revived Caslon type. Pickering's edition of Oliver Bryne's "The Element of Euclid" is a landmark book design. The images are printed with bright primary colors with woodblocks and the book's approach the learning was more permanent. The supposed leader of the English Arts and Crafts movement was William Morris. It was called the Arts and Crafts movement due to the nature of materials and methods of production and individual expression by both designer and worker. The philosophy of this movement was inspired by John Ruskin (1819-1900).

William Morris is also a key person, and in 1853 he went to Exeter College, in Oxford, where he met Edward Burne-Jones. Arthur H. Mackmurdo was inspired by Morris and after a trip to Italy, started the Century Guild in 1882. The Century Guild included Selwyn Image, illustrator, and Herbert R. Horne, writer, both of whom were also designers. The goal of the guild was to "render all branches of art the spehere, no longer of the tradesman, but of the artist." The group evolved a new design aesthetic by incoporating REnaissance and Japanese design ideas into their work. Their designs provided one of the links between the Arts and Crafts movement and the floral stylization of art nouveau.Thanks to the guild the Century Guild Hobby Horse began publication in 1884 as the first finely printed magazine devoted to just the visual arts. (Reminds me of today's modern "Layers" magazine) The Hobby Horse was made under Sir Emery Walker who was a master printer and typographer at Chiswick Press.

After Class Chapter 9

So even though I was absent on Friday I was still able to keep up. We reviewed chapter 9 and saw the different early cameras, they were pretty cool. I took studious notes on the Victorian Era student presentation example. Afterwards we got into groups to to order the pictures given. My group had script. We only had one question about the order of something and were able to identify most of the rest. I was glad I've kept up with the reading because I was actually able to identify and help my group with the ordering.

I suppose the most interesting thing I saw was the Brownie Kodak Camera. I put an ad for that as the weekly image (which we apparently didn't need) and then she showed us one in class. I had no idea she would so it was pretty cool to remember the ad and then see it in real life.

My question would be, who won the contest? Our group was great so I think we'd win!

Week 4 Image

So this week's image is small but relevent. The image is an old Kodak ad for the Brownie camera back in the 1900s for a magazine.  Kodak handed out cameras in 1888, and was the first camera to be handled by everyone. Normally cameras would be difficult because you had to work the camera and develop the film and such. The main topic we learned of this week was photography from chapter 9 so I thought an image from Kodak's history would be very relevent since it's one of the most popular photographic companies. I picked this piece in particular because it shows what the camera would look like, in essence and how much (only $1.00). The font is a bold trajan pro type.

Before Class, Chapter 9

It's said that the Industrial Revolution first occurred in England between 1760-1840. The author believes the revolution is much more than the simple dates though, he says the revolution was a major social and economic process of change. In typography, the English alphabet became more than just letters to represent sounds; it became actual solid forms for advertising and such. The letters had to stand out more to catch people's attention and so it did in the Industrial Revolution.It's said William Caslon (from chapter 8) is the grandfather of the industrial revolution since his two heirs, Joseph Jackson and Thomas Cotterell became great type designers.
As type grew bolder the fat typefaces became huge. When Joseph Jackson died his apprentice, Vincent Figgins, tried to take over but failed when William Caslon III outbid him. (That Caslon family keeps coming back >.<). Figgins, however, didn't give up and started his own type business which was very successful. By 1815 he created a full range of modern, antiques and jobbing faces including some 3 dimensional types. He even started the Tsucan style letters.
When Caslon IV made his appearance as a type designer, he started the sans-serif in 1816.

After Class Chapter 8

We learned we will not be taking tests, but instead a full book of graphic notes based on what we talk about in class and was shown several examples. Personally I like it because I think i will retain more.

We reviewed the chapter 7 and went over chapter 8. Talked about the Rococo Era started in France between 1720-1770. Fournier le Jeune created first font family and wrote the Manuel Typographic. There's 72 points per inch.Rococo is an engraved looking thing. We went over script vs. transitional, vs. modern type. The types went from a handwritten look to a modern look because people liked the machine looking print. Carlson was a very legible type that came out and used on the Declaration of Independence by Benjamin Franklin. Baskerville improved books via woven paper and his press which gave the paper a much more glossy look. Baskerville was influenced by Serifs of Romain du Roi, the more narrower and condensed letter forms for a more geometric appearance and light strokes of characters thinner to increase contrast. William Blake's "songs of Innocense" was the first piece of illustration with type combined.

My question:
Why is Rococo era so popular?

Week 3 Image

I saw this and thought it was great! The flat imagery of the art of stained glass with a modern 20th century twist. It's from Halo and I thought it was awesome! We talk about the medieval ages and how in some cases it was a flat image. Stained glass were popular for the illuminated feel of when the sun would shine through, much like illuminated manuscripts. Apparently this artist felt Halo ought to be held in as high regard as a religious image often seen in churches.

After Class Chapter 7

Started today with the usual review of previous chapters until now.
Renaissance was inspired by the greek and romans and means "rebirth" and revival.

We started with Geoffroy Troy. He was one of the first renaissance men as doing nearly everything he could.

Next was Aldus Manutius. Manutius was said to have achieved an elegant harmony of graphics and words that is equal to today. He was a founder of the prototype pocketbook.

We Ratdolt people went last. Afterwards was a logo contest. Our group made individual logos and chose one. I dropped immediately. Geoffroy Troy won the debate.

I got pictoral Modernism for my presentation.

Question of the day:
Why do I design? (going through some things)

Before Class, Chapter 7 / 8

The person we are talking about is Erhard Ratdolt. Ratdolt was a master printer from Augsburg, Germany, who worked in Venice from 1476 - 1486. Thanks to Ratdolt, was the first to make a complete title page to identify a book. He also started using woodcut borders and initials as design elements. Benhard Maier was assumingly the designer for Ratdolt's borders. Three-sided borders used on the title age became Ratdolt's trademark. He was also the first to issue a printer's type specimen sheet. He was an active printer until he died at age 81.

In france, from 1720-1770, the Rococo style was huge. C and S curves were a really big part of it. In 1737 Fournier le Jeunne finally standardized type sizes since each type had its own size and nomenclature. Jeunne's pounce was divided twelve lines, each were divided into six points. It is said Jeunne "stocked the arsenals with a complete desin system". Later Jeunne planned four volumes of a typography manual but only got to see two of them published.

In 1720, William Carlson took up typography and was an almost immediate sucess. Even though his types weren't fancy, they were legible and had a sturdy texture. They were said to be "comfortable and friendly to the eye". His operation continued with his heirs until the 1960s. John Baskerville continued also worked in similar typography as Carlson. Baskerville earned a fortune in manufacturing japanned ware. Baskerville eventually returned to type though and was able to make type that bridged a gap between old and modern type design. Baskerville was always trying to improve his press machines, and eventually he achieved a paper so glossy and smooth that no one had ever seen before. Baskerville published 56 books and his type became important influences on the continent.

Bodoni and Didot familes are big printing people who lasted through the years. (their section was boring).

William Blake started printing illuminated as etched relief printings.

The most interesting things from these things was that France was huge for printing. A lot of things came from Germany but I always thought France did their things via hand because it was so script-ish. It was nice to hear that France had such a huge part in this.

After Class Chapter 5

After two periods of no after class blogs we start one again today. Today we started the class by going through people's weekly images. There were some good ones, the nike logo one was my favorite cause it was a spoof, i think. It was cool that my image was one of the ones shown.

Today was a review of chapter 5, printing in Europe. Relief printing and Xylography are the same and I learned the ancient mermaid watermark from the French is the new modern Starbucks logo. We went through the Gutenberg drama around 1450. He borrowed money from Fust, Fust sued Gutenberg and Schoeffer took off and married Fust's daughter. The punches that Gutenberg used are what make the letters. We discussed the different jobs of the type process and found computers do nearly all the processes these days. Textura was used until about the 1970s in Germany. Gutenberg.org was introduced. I checked it out, doesn't seem that interesting.

In chapter 6, there was the German Illustrated Book. Ludites were peoples against the press, because the scribes and calligraphers were afraid they'd lose their jobs. We went through what we thought was interesting from the chapter. I thought the fact that a lot of typography comes from Germany was interesting.

Finally we went over the upcoming debate and the first test, and presentations and paper. I think I want to do the International Typographic style.

My question for the class period is this: Why do you think Fust decided to loan out that much money to Gutenberg and suddenly decide to turn and sue him for it all back when he did? It seemed a little soon to me, was he really just not getting results soon enough for was he getting desperate for money?

Before Class Chapter 5

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1-2 paragraphs. Do not copy straight from the book, or you will receive a zero for your first grade.
This was a boring reading for me, I'm not huge in European history. Paper making started in China, was spread to Arab lands through forced captured chinese paper-makers. From Arab it went to Damascus, and to Egypt. There it was from Africa to Sicily, to Spain, to Italy and than to France. Around 1415 mass playing cards were produced. The printing cards were the first for illiterates to play that royalties also played. The first prints were mostly of saints, and nearly all from wood. Common subjects for the first block books were religious texts, often talking about death or the apocolypse, corresponding to the recent Black Plague that had been killing of people. Most of the block books made were with about 30 to 35 leafs, with some being hand colored and some with stencils to apply color to flat areas. This was how playing cards were made.

Since paper was made so available, more books were demanded and therefore relief printing from woodbloocks.

In september 1428 Gutenberg was exiled from Mainz, Germany and moved to Strasbourg where he became a successful gem cutter and metal worker. In 1438 he formed a contract with Andreas Dritzenhen and Andrewas Hellmann. He taught them mirror making and other things. When Dritzehen died in 1438 brother Georg and Claus sued Gutenberg for the partnership or a refun In 1439 the court ruled for Gutenberg since the contract said only 100 florins would be paid to the partner's heirs. In 1440 Gutenberg moved back to Mainz where he worked for ten years to make the first typographic book called the 42-line Bibe.

Typographic printing is different from woodblock printing since the wood is too fragile.

Unfortunately the process is very expensive and he has to borrow 800 guilders from Johan Fust, a wealthy merchant in Mainz. In 1452 he borrowed another 800 guilders from Fust to make a whole bible. In 1455 Fust suddenly sued Guttenberg for 2026 guilders for the loans plus the interest. In Nov. 1455 the courts ruled for Fust, and while Fust showed up and took a vow before God, Gutenberg sent two friends to ask for more time. Fust took gutenberg's pritning equipment as colateral and all the world in progress. Fust made a deal with Peter Schoeffer (Gutenberg's assistant) who later married Schoeffer's daughter. In 1466 Fust died while Schoeffer and his associate Conrad Henkis continued the succesful printing business. For a few years printint was established in Mainz but due to the blood wars that ensued many eventually fled and setting up shop as far away as France and Italy.

Around the same time as Gutenberg, someone called the Master of the Playing Cards created the earliest copperplate engravings.


2. Name the fact you found most interesting from the reading.
The watermark started around 1282 by the Italians. I often think of watermarks being a much more recent invention due to its complexity in opacity but it's cool how long ago it was able to be produced.

Week 1 Image

Describe what it is
This is a list of the different pictographs one can make on the computer which can often be turned into ideograms. the one that's highlighted is the ♥ which is done by pressing alt + 3 on the number pad. The heart is an ideogram used for valentines day for love, heart, a cute decoration or anything related. This was found on the Yahoo Answers pages.

I was attracted to this because I like making more than a basic <3 heart and learning new ways to express my ideas on the computer is always fun. This relates to our readings because we were once limited to how we could relate on the computer. The computer languages have evolved similarly to the basics of written communication. While they already had a written way to express what meant what, and the human speech was already developed, the basics of the computer language was through binary. The display of 0's and 1's would indicate different things for the computer to understand. Eventually the programing language could be shorthanded, making it easier to display text and images. Alt + 3 is a shorthand so that the ♥ is displayed.

This is, not exact but, similar to the long pictographic images that get short handed to just a few scratches that have become the modern alphabet.
Describe its function

After Class Chapter 4, presentations

1. We reviewed the past chapters, and moved on to illuminated manuscripts. They implemented jewels and gold and silver into the books and the monks were often killed for it. We talked about the job as a scriptor monk must suck since you're on a deserted island with other monks with no sex and are getting killed for the gold and silver you're working with. Also one book could take a whole decade. We talked about the Dark Ages a.k.a. the medieval times, to be full of death and despair. Low employment rate, high death, high illiteracy rate. From all this, people wanted something good in their lives and art reflected the hope of the good to come. We went through each section, giving presentations. There was classic, celtic, caroline, spanish, romanesque and gothic, Judaic and Islamic, and finally late medieval.

2. What in the world did that duke need 14 bibles and 15 books of hours for??? 155 books are awesome though!

Presentation: Caroline and Late Medieval

Caroline
1) summarizing the look of the style
Caroline uses both large and smaller (not lower case) letterings. There's puncuation and very simplistic but decorative letters. The words are more inward/centered with a large margin on the outside. The roman capitals aren't necessarily drawn but they do take several strokes.

2) describe the history, influence of the style
This style was started during the rule of King Charlemagne. Manuscripts were apparently too difficult to read and the scribes were too poorly trained, so the king ordered for there to be change. A whole group of scribes was gathered at the court of Aachen and told to make master copies of the important religious texts and then they were all sent across the country. The old manuscripts of the Byzantine empire were brought to to be studied and so the scriptors tried to copy its beauty. They seemed to get "uneven results" a.k.a. they failed.

3) describe key designers within the style
The book doesn't name anyone specific. It talks about King Charlemagne and how he had scribes from all over gather at the court of Aachen for the purpose of rewriting books. I suppose the scribes who went to Aachen are the key designers of the Caroline style.
4) describe the typography of the style
When I look at the typography, the first letters of each paragraph are very stylistic and artistic. the second letters are also styled but not as grandeur as the first letters and are much smaller. The rest of the type is fairly evened and long lines at the end of a row of words have a small decoration at the end. There are also serifs on the roman formed letters.
 

Late Medieval

1) summarizing the look of the style
Apparently the perspective pushed the planes and volumes back in space and linear perspective was achieved. With the Limbourg's design highlights and shadows are coming from one lightsource.

2) describe the history, influence of the style
The Duke de Berry owned 155 book already, including 14 bibles and 15 books of Hours. He hired Paul Limbourg, with his brothers and they made him a fake book of Hours. Apparently it was simply ahead of its time because it was called the Les tres riches heures du duc de Berry. It's a pictorial book and the illustrations dominate the page layouts.

3) describe key designers within the style
Paul, Herman, and Jean Limbourg are the three main designers of the book with Paul being credited as the one responsible for layout and design.

4) describe the typography of the style
The typography is bold and long. The first letter of each paragraph is decorated along with the surrounding margins like any other illuminated script. The difference is how this script was made and its pictures were styled just a little different.

Before Class, Chapter 4 (pages 42-43)

This short section talked about the beginning of manuscripts. The gold leaf luminosity made the book look illuminated with the right light, thus its name. They were started in the Roman Empire until about 1450 when printed books took over. The manuscripts were very costly and time consuming. Black ink was made from soot or lampblack, red ink from gum and water mixed with red chalk, brown was from iron sulfate and oak apples, and even a vibrant blue was mixed from lapis lazuli, which is found in Afghanistan and sent all the way to Ireland. Gold was often applied by hammering it into a fine sheet of gold leaf and applyied with metalworking tooks. The books were bound with leather and had precious jewels on it, or gold or silver. Nearly all books were made in a monstary's scriptorium by a copisti. The colophon is an inscription at the end that contains facts about its production and would help identify the scriptor. It was during this time the monks also invented musical notation.

The most interesting thing I learned was that musical notation was invented in this time by the monks. I would have thought the bards would have begun musical notation.

After Class Chapters 2-3

1. We reviewed chapter 1 and what we did in class on Friday. Laura answered a few questions people asked, assuring us she'd answer more next time. We went over Alphabets (Alpha and Beta from Greeks), went over logograms. We started with the Cretan Phaistos Disk and talked about the Phoneticians and how they spread their alphabet (via boats), thus allowing them to spread the alphabet, giving them the main credit. The Greek alphabet was talked about next and how they gave us the vowels and had very geometric shapes. Everything was very mathematical, including the shapes. They had no spacing or punctuation. They read their words back and forth in a snake like manner. We talked about Latin next, coming from the Romans. They took a lot of their things from Greece, and introduced the serifs. We talked about the the theories of the serifs and how the letterforms were made and had a type of punctuation. We finished the chapter with the Hangul Korean alphabet.

We moved on to the 'Asian Contribution chapter' where people shared what they wrote about in their blogs.  Calligraphy, Oracle Bones and about the evolution of the calligraphic characters. We talked about the invention of paper and the chop. The Chinese were given credit for printing and fireworks and gunpowder and the compass and movable type but movable type was too inconvenient to really catch on.

Afterward we were introduced to the next project on illuminated manuscripts. My group is a group of three with Caroline and Late Medieval. I'm with Robert and Evan.

2. The most interesting thing we talked about today was the evolution of the alphabet in the second chapter.  It was really cool to see the animation on the one Evolution of Alphabets site. Also the debate as to whether the Cretan disk was the first printing or the Chinese was an interesting case to listen about.

3. How did people choose what their symbols would be for their identification stamps/cylinders/blocks

Before Class, Chapter 2-3

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1-2 paragraphs. Do not copy straight from the book, or you will receive a zero for your first grade.


Chapter 2 is about the beginning of alphabets. They started with the Cretan's pictographs which were only behind Mesopotamia and Egypt in their civilization's development, and continued with the Phoneticians who created their alphabet off the Mesopotamia's writing system. Then they talked about the Aramaic alphabet which talked about how the horizontal lines sometimes depicted in the script started merely as lines to write on but eventually became a part of the script. The next section was on the Greek Alphabet which talked about how the history seemed to meld with mythology a little. The ability to use the script led to the Oddesy, the Illiad, the great Library in Alexandria and started what it sounds like a form of cursive script. the unicales are said to be rounded and written more quickly which sounds like our modern cursive english script vs. our printed script. Apparently the Greeks also started the voting tokens. Afterwards, it starts the Latin alphabet section, which started when the Greeks passed their script to the Romans. The Romans extended the Greek alphabet, which made several types of fonts we're familiar with today. A lot of types are named but the one I remember most is the book mentioning how one of them is comparable to our capital letters, only the whole font is all capital letters. In my mind, I see it similar to the type: Trajan Pro. Lastly, the book talks about the Korean Alphabet, and how its make up is based on the position of the tongue in a pictographic form.

Chapter 3 is about the Asian Contributions. It talks about the beginning of oracle bones and how Chinese wrote on the bones of animals first for fortune telling, supposing that the messages read are from the ancient Spirits. This section was slightly more interesting for me, but not by much. It talked about how the Chinese scripts are pictographic, making each character representing a word, instead of a sound like the previously mentioned scripts. The Chinese writing was originally written on bamboo shoots but as paper was invented, it was used for everything. When silk came around, it was also written on but was very expensive, so it wasn't as popular as regular paper for writing. The Chinese "chop" was also talked about, used as a Chinese identification piece. Basically a really old stamp carved of stone. It's said the Chinesewere the first to invent printing because they were able to make movable type and the first to start ink rubbings.

2. Name the fact you found most interesting from the reading.

I think the most interesting thing from the reading was that VWXYZ were all added at the very  end, with no origin to the original Cretan pictographs. The basics of the alphabet were able to be met by the essential characters used by the Sumerians and Phoneticians. However something made the Greeks and Romans believe they needed more characters to express the extra syllables humans could make.

After Class, Chapter 1

1. Summarize in 1-2 paragraphs the class discuss of the day.

In class today we talked about chapter one. Each person went through what they thought would be the most interesting. We reviewed the ancient world's images, going over the difference between pictographs, petroglyphs and ideographs. Petroglyphs are any image carved into clay or stone. We saw the caves of Lascaux and told the site to visit. They are awesome and flash based. We went over the Hammurabi code basics and how it was pillars of these codes in the town square and you had to pay a scribe to read it to you if you couldn't read it. We saw visually how the original pictographs and ideographs became a shorthanded beginning of script. We also learned the difference between the hieroglyphs and the demotic hieroglyphs. The original hieroglyphs were more for priests to read while the demotic version was more able to be read by the populace. We saw an image of the Rosetta Stone on display and saw it was huge!

I met Heather while discussing what we found to be important. She seems nice, she found it interesting that writing was used for keeping stats for people such as inventories on livestock or crops.

2. What is the most useful or meaningful thing you learned today?

The most meaningful thing for me today was looking at the french caves of Lascaux. They were really look to look at and see how big the pictographs were. When I see the images on a slideshow or something, they don't seem very big but as I toured the site a little I got to see just how large the pictures really are in comparison to the caves.

Before Class, Chapter 1

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1-2 paragraphs. Do not copy straight from the book, or you will receive a zero for your first grade.


This reading was about the caveman time through the ancient Egyptians. The first part was talking about the caveman (supposedly orginating in Africa) drawings and how the rough outlines of buffalo and circles were ideographs. It wasn't until they were more refined and meant more things did they become pictographs. Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization, and the basic pictographs became a cuniform. A more refined script that we may think of (lines and squiggles) came when the pictographic cuniform was shorthanded. Eventually over 500 characters became an official cuniform script. Because of the 500+ characters reading and writing was difficult.One started learning around age 10 and was schooled from sun up to sun down with approx. 6 vacation days per month. These scholars were held in high regard and so was the practice of literacy. Scrolls and other works of writing was associated with the gods and used for ceremonies and special occasions. Eventually manuscripts for how to conduct ceremonies came out and only those who were literate could understand. It was the Sumerians who invented the Hittite seal, a small cylinder often hung around someone's neck or wrist used as a person's trademark.

The second part was about the ancient Egyptians who invented papyrus using reeds and their adaptation of the sumerian's cuniform. The chapter talked about how Egyptian text was almost lost until the Rosetta stone tablet was found which held sacred Egyptian Text in Egyptian demotic writing, Egyptian hieroglyphics and greek. A frenchman, Jean-Francois Champollion was the translator. The book talks about scrolls being sacred and how funeral scrolls became available because of paid scribes who would sometimes publish only certain parts of the funeral scrolls to make it cheaper and mroe available. It seems to stay a little as it talks about the process of a person's death through the underworld and judgement. It ends by talking about the scarab and its written markings and how it often goes upon where a person's heart would be when they die.

2. Name the fact you found most interesting from the reading.
 
I found most interesting the fact about the Hittite cylinders used for imprinting a signature. Apparently the sumarian kind was so complicated with its printing that you couldn't possibly copy it, which could've been an early form of printing since it was used multiple times. The Egyptians also used this method when they took over but was a slightly more simple symbol, but still complex enough that you didn't copy it. Artisans would use these to show they were the craftsman of whatever they made, be it a house, a pot, tool or a temple.

After Class, Chapter 0

1. Summarize in 1-2 paragraphs the class discuss of the day.


Today was a basic introduction to the class. We learned the book we will use is/was used all over the world for all graphic designers. We also learned Professor Huaracha used this same book in her undergraduate days, possibly a different edition but the same book. We learned that the first cave drawings are essentially the first graphic design images for communication. We saw an image of a cow (or something related) with four dots on its back, which could possibly mean it's food or could have been a depiction of where to hunt such an animal. The dots are apparently a high controversial image among many but that was our idea. We learned some teachers would start history of graphic design with lithography or beginning of printing, but this class will start with cave drawings since even they are forms of communication. We learned this class is a great asset and while not required could arguably be required to help us understand different designers and how different designs came to be. We also learned that sometimes things that are very complicated weren't always so able to be described due to the limited forms of communication available.


We learned this class came a long way from what it used to be and will be very interactive (hopefully) and that Laura's taught this class for approx. 7 years now.


It was also a one sided debate in my group that Ryan Seacrest (sp?) sucks even though he's a famous person who's recently done a scope commercial. I had no idea who he was when they mentioned him, I still don't really know who he is.

2. What is the most useful or meaningful thing you learned today?
The most meaningful thing I learned today was that little unnoticeable things on cave drawings could actually be important symbols for hunting or directions.
3. State at least one question you have related to the current topic. (if you state none here, you’d better have more detail done above to offset the work.) 
Today was a very basic welcome day. I understood the syllabus and such and will be looking back at the syllabus for a basics of how to do the blogs until I have it memorized.