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As you're beginning unit two you will be reading about Johannes Gutenberg and the
development of
the printing press
at least in Europe
around 1450.
One reason I wanted to make this little video is bring up
the
whole idea
of technology and how
it influences design.
When this occurs
it's really the first industrialization
of design.
Up until that point you had monks
basically creating
illuminated manuscripts
for bibles. When the Gutenberg
process developed
we begin to see
that industrialization of design.
Couple things to consider-
think about how technology influences aesthetics.
When Gutenberg was
coming up with us he had to come up with the first font.
Well what did he choose? He decided to make something
that looked like it was the script
that the German monks had been using to make bibles, so he could sell more bibles.
Later when
type designers were going to Italy and
the Italian Renaissance was starting to use printing,
German looking type
wasn't desirable so they want to make something
look more Roman
and that's where we have something like Times New Roman today.
The name clues you in.
It's actually something where
Italians want something to look
like Roman
characters of two thousand years ago-
or at that time fourteen
hundred years ago.
So they
developed... Jensen
was one of the type designers to do this, they developed type
that had minuscules (the monks had developed while doing the bible)
and combine the miniscules
with Roman lettering
from 1400 years previous
to come up with the first
type styles.
We see that with Garamond and
later in transitional typefaces
and modern
typefaces too.
I find it intriguing when
starting to read about this stuff
to think about how technology influences design.
Baskervilles, who
made type
a little bit later...
One reason
why the Baskerville typeface
is called a transitional typeface is because you have
better contrast between thicks and thins
and the type letters.
That was partly due to technology. They could come up with a stronger alloy.
They could have a thinner parting serif.
It was helpful.
The alloy made that easier.
Also, Baskervilles developed his own papers.
He came up with a high gloss
coated stock
that was able to receive the ink better
so he could print with more finesse,
more resolution. So
the technology influenced the
aesthetic, then the aesthetic
turns around and influenced technology because people want even sharper contrast. You know, they want
to look even better so know by the time Bodoni comes along with a modern serif
typeface
you have these extreme thicks and thins
partly for aesthetics and partly to say 'hey we can do this.'
So consider as you look at websites and
things that are produced today,
I often
refer to the web as today's print revolution,
think about how the technology of the site
is influencing
the aesthetic. Is that good or bad? Sometimes it's pretty crummy
how some technology is
junking up design.
But in other cases
it can be
really beautiful. So anyway I just wanted to
bring this up as a topic. When reading about Gutenberg it's often
easy to get bored and think 'this was 600
years ago.'
But the issue is still the same today.
When you're
using new technology how is that influencing
your design.
On the other hand, as your working in design what new technological innovations
do you want to have? Great example:
we have cellphones today obviously the iphone
you're having to design
for those phones.
Website design,
even six seven years ago you were concerned so much about that
but now, you better be. If you're if you doing the website for a company you have to think about
how that's
going to look on a phone
as well as on a desktop.
So anyway its an interesting topic and I just wanted to
have you think about that while you're reading the unit
and beginning to think about
how technology in general influences
design.