Day 11

NOTES

SWISS DESIGN
- Swiss Design doesn't look like anything. It's an approach and thinking. It's more then just grids.
- Visual unity is achieved through an asymmetrical unity
- embraced subjective photography, sanserif type, flush left rag right, mathematical grids.
- One of the biggest ideas is that design should / is sociably useful.
- More important then the appearance is the attitude. Very spiritual belief in design. "What if?" How else can I effect the world with my work.
- Swiss design has it's routes in European modernism like De Stijl and Bauhaus.
- Design as a socially useful and important activity
- Grids can be anything not just squares. Just a system of rules you have to play the game by.
// ULM 1 is the city school where they structure a catalog with one typeface just by altering the weight and visual hierarchy.
- Semiotics the philosophical theory of signs and symbols- what things mean i relationship to other things.

SEMIOSTICS
-Semiotics what things mean to relationship to other things.
-There is no inherent or independent meaning. Get over it.

Broken in three different parts!
Syntactics - order (red followed by yellow followed by green)
Semantics - meaning or reffered to (You should probably slow down…)
Pragmatics - how it is used (fire! <- it has no meaning)

-The lens theory.. see the same image and change it's surroundings and changes it's meaning. Just like Semiotics.

 MORE SWISS DESIGN POSTERS
-// Giselle poster made by Armon Hoffman
- Hoffman designed the negative space the rest will work
- //Joseph Muller Brocksmann created the giving hand poster.
-// Noise awareness poster by Joseph Muller Brocksmann. Weniger Larm Poster
-// derFILM poster by Joseph Muller Brocksmann
- // Weinger Laim poster and grid poster and another poster all use the same grid. A good grid can be amazing.

SWISS MODERNISM VS NYC MODERNISM
- Paul Rand, Saul Bass, and Ivan Chermayeff
- 1940' begin to see effects of Modernism in advertising
- European theoretical NY, pragmatic
- "The Big Idea"

 PAUL RAND
- Paul Rand is a very old and grumpy old man. Although he was a god in design.
-// made a cover for a magazine called 'Directions' .. the cover has barbwire, war, holocaust, and christmas, and a present. Great use of semiotics.
-// made book cover called 'Leave Cancelled'
-// Paul Rand created the UPS logo
-// "no way out" by Paul Rand.
- His work was made by cut and paste. Rip and tear it. Very cubist. It's loose it's fun it's quick. Very organic. SAUL BASS - known for his film type
-// 'the man with a golden arm' by Saul Bass
-// 'Anatomy of a Murder' by Saul Bass

IVAN CHERMAYEFF
- 'Nausea Jean-Paul Sartre' is a book cover by Chermayeff
- 'Not just another gift guide' magazine design - a dot by its self has no meaning. The context and relationship with other dots and layout will give it meaning.
- 'Vagina Monologue' magazine article.

 POSTMODERNISM
used to note a break with the earlier modernist principles by placing emphasis on form over function, by reintroducing traditional or classical elements or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes.

- seen in Art, Design, Literature and Architecture.
- Emphasis on feel rather than rationale
- Emphasis on surface, texture and materials
- Self-consciousness or self-referencing
- Mixes high and low
- Historical reference
- Vernacular
-Break within modern ideas
-taming the machine
- Structure and order
-Modernism comes from social upheaval and chaos
- We are modernist because we have to tame machines. We live in a post modern condition.
 - Meta is a postmodern idea
-Post modernism starts coming out in the 60s
- // 'Union and Now' poster by Rosemary Teesee (sp?) and ..
-// 'Didacta Eurodidac' poster by Wolfgang Weingart
-Memphis group starts in 1971
- really about texture, pattern, etc.

PERSONAL THOUGHT
Today we focused a lot in the beginning of class on Swiss Design. Especially how it focuses all on grid system. I really respect the idea of Swiss Design puts a lot on their energy into making design sociably useful. I love learning about Swiss Design. It's really clean, refreshing, minimal, and very grid structured.

Semiotics was very interesting to learn. It's like diving into the conceptual meaning beyond a design. The break down of Semiotics really helped. Syntactics, Semantics, and Pragmatics. I'm really big into conceptual art and double (or even triple) meaning. This is why I'm a designer. This right here. The fact that we as designers have the power to manipulate type, photos, illustrations, etc to convey multiple messages is really what I love about being a designer.

Yay! We touched postmodernism! Postmodernism still really confuses me. This is the last lecture class which makes me sad because I really want to learn more about postmodernism. If I had to pick something it would be the post modern idea that all things are on the table. It doesn't get caught up in the sort of rationalist dogma that often hinders modernism.

QUESTIONS
Do you think in this day in age someone can be truly original with their art? Or do you think everything has already been done?

This is a fairly big question to digest but just thought I'd ask anyways. We're in the postmodern age what do you think / predict will be the next phase in design?

What is your all time favorite art movement?

Day Ten

Notes

Herbert Matter
-Swiss born photographer and designer
- important for us because of his use of imagery, objected imagery and scale shift
- Swiss Tourism did posters of
- 1936 comes to USA people like him because he's like a regular guy
- Made Ad for Kular(sp?) chair ad
- 1956 made more chair posters

Lester Beall 1903 -1969
- Kansas city native and gets a degree in Chicago.
- Works as a designer but mostly self taught
-Moves his studio to New York and becomes very involved in corporate design (like Madmen)
- he really likes visual contrast / elements / arrows / dots/ diagonals lines
- /// 1935 Pioners in peoria
- /// rural electrification administration 'running water' poster
- /// rural electrification administration 'two people with american colors'
- He uses negative space very effectively
- /// WPA exhibition nov 28 - dec 10 1938 poster

WPA
- public awareness posters become super popular
- Also produced calendars
- Their graphic posters were very simple but still had depth

KEY
/// art the person did

Personal Thoughts
Today we watched a movie on 1900 American design and how swiss influenced it significantly. The movie went over Herbert Matter's life. Matter was really interested in photography. Alvin Eisenmann admired Herbert Matter and became a professor in Yale University in graphic design. It was interesting to learn the first graphic design education programs in America. To see Herbert Matter's life is really remarkable all the things he was able to accomplish. Out of all his accomplishments I most enjoyed listening and learning about his concept of design and use of imagery. I also liked seeing the development in the logo design, process work, and branding with the New Haven Railroad.

Motion design! This is the first time where we touch on film and how it involves with advertisement. His film making was very experimental. Advertising and making it into art. As a photographer I really enjoyed this movie. Matter really has a gift to speak the visual language.


Questions
Matter inspired many other artist. But who did Matter look up for inspiration for his art?

Day Nine

NOTES

BAUHAUS 1919 - 1933
14 years
33 faculty
1250 students

1919 - 1925
In city Weimar

1925 - 1932
In city Dessau
Is where they really evolve. Dessau is a factory town and they're designing for the industry.

1932 - 1933
In city Berlin

In 1923 they do their first public exhibition. Not such a good thing because a year late they get a letter of resignation.

Utopian desire to create a new spiritual society

Unity of Artists and Craftsmen to build for the future.

Ideas from all the Advanced Art and Design Movements were explored and applied to functional design.

Core people of Bauhaus
Paul Klee, Moholy Nagy, Johnannas Itten, Herbert Bayer, Kandinsky, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Oscar Schiemmer, Joseph Alberts

Walter Gropius 1919- 1928
Director of the Bauhaus

- Bauhaus Manifesto is basically the rules and guidelines
- Gerhard Marks does sculpture / pottery shot
- Lyonel Feringer does painting
- Johannes Itten does preliminary courses
- Johannes was very important because basically sculpts the basics of our courses today.
- Itten lives until 1967
- Very interested in the physical nature of materials
- They would do drawings of textures
- What is the materiality?
- Still being taught in European schools
- Americans are more pragmatic
- He taught the fundamental designs and principles of art
- Basics that everybody has to understand
- Color, material, to draw

Lazio Moholy Nagy
- Hungarian constructivist
- He's interested in materials
- art should have function and purpose
- Art should have a service for society
- He's experimenting with photography, montage, photograins, combining imagery, and typography
- Itten is replaced by Moholy Nagy
- Moholy Nagy looking for a way to unify photography and typography.
- He creates typophoto which is a combination of photography and typography
- He was interested in total communication
- Emphasis has to be on absolute clarity, legibility, and should never be impaired by an aesthetic.
- He does not like deconstructive theory
- He is trying to create a new graphic language and saw it as a new kind of literature.
- photoclastics basically photo collages. Back then it was harder. now it's a lot easier.

Herbert Behrens created a Bauhaus poster
- he was a student and became a professor of bauhaus
- his poster was very good because it wrapped up everything the Bauhaus stood for.
- Also gives us the universal alphabet. Behrens idea that we don't really have an alphabet. we have two alphabets. We have uppercase and lowercase.
- He rethinks the communication properties of the alphabet.
- This guy as a student is rethinking the alphabet
- sanserif type, asymmetry, practical use of design, negative space, minimalism is the nutshell of modern art

-In 1928 Gropius, Moholy leave the Bauhaus.
-Mies van der Rohe is from a school that's blood and soil. very down to business

JAN TSCHICHOLD
- Tschicochold created 1922 "Leipziger Messe" poster which is hand text
- studied calligraphy
- The ideas of the Bauhaus is not getting it's way towards America
- 1923 (Tichicochold 21 years old) goes to the Bauhaus exhibition. There he is exposed to all the ideas they're exploring. <- it rocks his world - In 1925 he's actually writing and publishing a paper that is explaining the new typography to printers, type setters, and designer - This paper had heavy rules, heavy type, sanserif type, etc - He wrote the "New Typography" He's saying that everything is crap and everything needs to be sanserif and asymmetrical. - Aim of every typographic work to be the delivery of a message in the shortest most efficient manner. Form follows function. Modernist. The Bauhaus. - He is harassed by the Nazi because of his typography and haul him off to jail. - He has to leave the country and thus turns over learning new typography - lives the rest of his life in Switzerland. He returns to and embraces classical typography


PERSONAL THOUGHTS
Lots of Bauhaus today! I love the Bauhaus movement. Learning about all the different core people of the Bauhaus was interesting. I think the most interesting one for me would be Moholy Nagy. The fact that he was a constructivist, experimented with different combinations, and really stressed absolute clarity, legibility, and should never be impaired by an aesthetic. "Education is a living thing. Just like art. Art is not static - Algebra is static" What an inspiring quote. This is why we go to art school. You went on a tangent on how art schools are more innovative and willing to experiment. I cannot express how much I agree with this. I'm a transfer student and last year attended Michigan State University. It's a big 10 college. Very enormous lots of greek life. I took a few studio courses and it was way to traditional. The problem I had with University art courses is that it doesn't challenge students to experiment. So learning about the Bauhaus was really inspiring that we as students should be experimenting everyday with our school projects.



QUESTIONS
Where there other artist like Moholy Nagy who experimented with photography combinations? Who were they?

Day Eight

NOTES

EL LISSITZKY

- a painter. he starts off originally painting pioneer suprematism.

- He influences constructivism and De Stijl and bauhaus. 

- He explores the intersection between painting and architecture 

- Lissitzky invented PROUNS which are experiments

- Stands for Projects for establishments of a new art. 

- 'Beat the whites with the red wedge' is a famous propaganda poster by Lissitzky 

- He writes a book called "The isms in Art" 

- Develops a page system which is a mathematical grid system. Also written in English, French, and German.

- Asymmetrical balance, active use of white space, san serif type, and grids.

- Grids is a system of rules

- If you are able to embrace the geometry of design your problems will be solved

ALEXANDER RODCHENKO

- "The Battleship Potemkim" movie is a great example of cinema

- The important thing about cinema around this time influences design, poster, etc

- 1910 to 1914 attended art school

- Moves into constructivism 

- Constructivism leads to modern poster design.

- This style is primitive and raw

- In 1928 it evolved and looks almost contemporary 

- Product, packaging, ads, is seen as something people need. This is constructivism. 

- Constructivism is creativity needs a social need.

DE STIJL

- From Netherlands

- Utopian world approach of aesthetics

- Based on functionalism

- has rectilinear planes

- using primary colors and black and white

- Thought to express mathematical expressions 

- mathematical system for universal harmony

- Theo van Doesburg is the leader

- De Stijl can apply to everything

- Squares, rectangles, black and white. Rather stark designs

- 1922 formats of magazines changes and embraces asymmetrical system

- Type is asymmetrically set and forces eye to move around the page

- Dadaism is about chaos 

- Theo van Doesburg embraces dadaism

-  This is where we are in design

- Doesburg believes to establish a new art you need to destroy everything else.

- 1922 most famous De Stijl artist is Piet Mondrian who created famous art 

BAUHAUS

- Bauhaus was a school just like Ringling

- Life in Germany kind of suck because they lost WWII 

- School built around the utopian idea to create a new spiritual society

- Looking for a unity of artist and craftsman to form a new future

- Only existed for 14 years but we still talk about it

- Germany is in ruin and Bauhaus brought fresh life and revitalized world

- 1990 - 1925 Weimer

- 1923 First public exhibition 

- 1924 Letter of recognition 

- 1925  1931 Dessau

- 1928 replaced by Meyer

- 1930 Meyer replaced by Van Der Rohe

- 1932 - 1933 Berlin

video we watched

I'm studying DESIGN not ART

Dadaism 

art school always make things cool

nac for putting depressing things at the end 

PERSONAL THOUGHT

It's great to be back from spring break and truly missed your lecture. "You're not suppose to follow us. You're suppose to confront us." A very bold idea to stand up for what you believe in. I agree that we should stand by our art concept. But aren't professors there to help you? I've been studying art for less then two years. I feel like someone who's devoted over 20 years of art versus my measly 2 years of study. You stated that you would rather have it be that Ringling ran on no grades. When I went hunting and researching art schools I specifically chose Ringling because it had a grade system. I have friends who go to art schools with no grade system and it feels like no structure. I feel having that letter grade makes have more power and confidence. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's a familiar system for 13 years. To some degree I agree with no grades but I really need that structure. 

El Lissitzky was an interesting artist. I really like his use and exploration in asymmetrical balance, active use of white space, san serif type, and grids. It's fun to know that geometry has a significant influence in art and design. I really like constructivism art. Ads, product design, packaging, etc are all things that people need. Over the past year I've taken a hug interest in learning ads, packaging, etc. I like how art is integrated into every day life. It's a shame that most people don't even see that as art. 

I'm studying DESIGN not ART! What defines design and what defines art? What is the difference? Going into our discussion with Bauhaus I already had a good understanding of Bauhaus and their style. Out of all the movements Art Nouveau and Bauhaus is my all time favorite as it houses some of my favorite art pieces. What I really love about them is the geometric approach to everything. I always learn something new when talking about Bauhaus. I did not know about how short Bauhaus existence was. 14 years is so short but left such a huge impact. 

QUESTIONS

What is the distinct difference between Bauhaus and De Stijl? 

What is your opinion on art versus design?

Day Seven

VIENNA SUCCESSION 

-Felt oppressed by the old people

-Youth movements that come after that is the next step. Here you have some young people who want to have fun add some sex and rock and roll.

- Old people liked traditional art like painting

- As we're moving forward we're moving towards abstraction

- Anything other then the real is a form of abstraction 

- Abstraction is a continuum away from the literal; not classic representation. If things become too abstract and lose the content it loses it's audience. 

- Succession had elements of French Art Nouveau 

- The Succession's magazine pages were interesting. They designed the ads in their magazine to be aesthetically pleasing. 

- 1903 Roller poster 

- The language design of the 60s poster comes from inspiration from art nouveau

- "Psychedelic" 60 poster is an unreadable typeface. People are challenging the readability. If you want to read then you can read it. It was geared towards young people in the 60s versus old people.

- In early 1900s they really pushed bounds of typography

- All of this is leading towards a modern poster style

PETER BEHRENS

- Created a piece called "The Kiss" which was controversial 

- he will soon become a designer for AEG, German power company

- He is believed to be the first to experiment with running san serif type

- Really advicant of san serif type

- He created the first cohesive identity package

- Pioneers non low bearing walls 

- 1904 He becomes influenced by Professor 

- inspired by symmetrical geometric squares and circle

- 1906 he invented the nylonium 

- Thirds are the most mathematical system 

- He locks on this idea with circles and squares

- Created 1908 Pavilion poster

- 1907 Behrens gets hired by AEG

- He develops an idea that an identity system in which logos, typeface, layouts, should be consistent in all realms

- This system is like the family bible

- He takes it a step further.. applies this method to electric company

- Designed iconic AEG 1910 poster

- He designed a turbine hall

- 1914 AIGA beings founded right on WWI 

LUCIAN BERNHARD

- Early part of the 20th century there is a very important evolution in poster

- Lucian Bernhard is a starving painter 

- Imagery is reductive 

- Lucian Bernhard did not like the Bauhaus

- He did not think that art is not a theory

- The pendulum conundrum of swaying back and forth from we are designers we design for people versus we are also art

PROPAGANDA POSTER

- U Boote Heraus! poster is the first propaganda design

- It has a lot of abstract design. The U is bleeding into the captain's jacket

- The waves can be hills and has a witty design 

- The typeface is interacting with the graphic

- A clear and sophisticated way of thinking

- Kriegsanteine is a poster of an 8 with a serpent and arrows

- This is another war propaganda poster

- It is not a literal poster which causes the viewer to think to get it

- Allies vs Axis Powers

- Axis Power had amazing design

- They had strong symbolism. It is very abstract

- You have to get it. you have to think to get it. 

-Allies poster were weak

- They were more based on illustrations

- The posters were like spoon feeding the idea to an audience

- WWI is the first mechanized war. It was exciting because it was new. However it tore up society and people saw the hardship. Likewise, design also got torn up

- During times of national tension you do not want to be the guy who doesn't play along

- Brilliant propaganda to corner people 

MORE POSTER DESIGNS

- Ludwig Hohlwein had alliances with the Axis Power

- 1914 poster plays with dimensions and figure ground reversal

- influenced by Asian prints

- Did a poster in 1986 German olympics

- German designs were bad ass

- Ironically, Hitler did not like this approach to design

- In "Mein Kampf" he complains that the propaganda posters are wrong minded. He believes that posters should speak to the least sophisticated minds. 

- Hohlwein is good with emotional impact using contrast

- "Und Du?" is a poster Hohlwein did which has this ambiguous face of a solider. You understand this menacing presence and strong figure. Taking a step further you can see the flag, and eyes. It also looks like a giant penis.

- Poster for the Daily Herald you see influences of early abstraction.

- The poster features abstract birds and heavy use of negative space

- You can see modern art budding out

- Cubism has it's hay day in the 1900s

- A. M. Cassander created the L'INTRANS poster

- This poster used grid like pattern

- It's not shows in the poster but it's an internal grid

- Proportion system at play

- Cassander is a master of poster designs especially with travel

- Sophisticated abstraction

- Cassander created Dubonnet poster

- The great thing about the Dubonnet poster is that Cassander played with the name of the words into the graphic 

ART IN RUSSIA

- Dotism is the reaction to "why is art makes sense?"

- Gestalt also came out when Dotism created

- Gestalt thought about what was the geometric solution to problems

- Suprematism is happening the same time Cubism comes out

- is influenced my futurism 

- is about art for art's sake

- It's just about emotion. Just pure feeling

- If you are against suprematism then the pendulum swings to the realm of art needs function

- rejects utilitarian function and pictorial representation

- Dynofuturism is futurism and dotism

- Avante Garde means out in front artist 

- Three big players in Russia: Rodchanko, Lissizky, Tatin (SP???)

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

Wow, class today was just wow. For some reason I feel like my brain got a lot more information then usual. We started class discussing about the Vienna Succession and how elements of art nouveau grew. Iconic psychedelic 60 typography and design actually got inspired from art nouveau. I would have never guessed that! I really loved the discussion on 60's typography. The thought of a specific typeface typography had such a deep meaning for the 60's generation. It was like a secret code for people who cared to read the text could read it. I think it's a very cool idea that the 60's was able to pull off such a feat. 

From the 60's we discussed about famous AEG designer, Peter Behrens. He is absolute inspiring. I love how he solved everything with mathematical solutions. WWI really pushed the world's technology forward. Not only that but also art and design. It's extremely interesting that how much war can push our society. Behrens develops an idea that an identity system in which logos, typeface, layouts, should be consistent in all realms. It's really interesting to see the world of design have more structure in it. 

One of the most interesting tidbits I learned was Adolf Hitler's strong dislike to Axis Power's propaganda poster designs. They were so ridiculously amazing! I love seeing the comparison between Allies and Axis posters. It's like seeing the past of design and the future of design. Earlier this sem in 2D class we learned about figure ground reversal. It's fun to see it pop in historical poster designs. Poster designs are so interesting! They are so fun to look at. 

Kasimir Malevich was a suprematism artist. He rejected pictorial representation and favored abstraction that elicit emotion. He created the art piece "black square" I loved your discussion on the emotion, placement, and meaning. From propaganda posters we start going into more modern and abstract art. 

QUESTIONS

The pendulum metaphor  you mentioned in today's lecture was interesting. The idea that artist are in a constant struggle between art being art and art being functional. What is your opinion and where do you side in the pendulum?

Day Six

NOTES

JOHN RUSKIN

-John Ruskin was born in 1819 and was the philosophical leader. 

-He is one of the leaders who is going to call for social reform. 

-"How can you contiously so the structure of society so they can maintain an order." 

-This is the beginning of socialism. 

-How can we structure society to take care of the most people. 

-He was a writer and a philosopher. John Ruskin lays that underpin. He had the base idea that things are valuable simply because they was beautiful. 

-The cathedral was the example of the perfect unity of design. 

WILLIAM MORRIS

- William Morris is one of the guys that is extremely important figure. 

- In response to rococo design things became clean. 

-Things are beautiful. We should have beautiful things in our world. 

- He is a son of wealthy merchant. Which is why he has the money to buy things. 

- William Morris' pattern work is the most famous.

- Morris becomes involved into book arts

- Book arts becomes a popular trend in this time period

- Morris designs his own typeface: Golden (oldstyle) Troy (blackletter) Chauser(sp?)

-  He designer over 600 illustrations blocks, borders, frames, tittle pages, etc.

- The major thing everyone remembers of Morris is the vine work, tapestry, etc. 

- But beyond that is the work ethic Morris had

ART NOUVEAU

- Each generation always rejects the last generation which creates art nouveau

- Aubrey Beardsley was greatly influenced by William Morris

- Aubrey had naked imps and scandals art. 

- Morris did not like this

- Early Art Nouveau came about as they saw that there was problems

- Young people tend to be less dogmatic 

- What's new how can we make that work?

- Beardsley is influenced by high contrast, japanese design, and dark sexual art.

- Beardsley at the end of his life became a more traditionalist artist 

- Alphonse Mucha is just like you and me. He starts off as a painter and printer. 

- Mucha got hired by dumb luck to design posters. 

- The person loved the design so much that he got hired into a year contract.

- The term Art Nouveau and Mucha Style was interchangeable. His style was that dominant. 

- Mucha really defines what Art Nouveau is

- In 1895 the term is called Le Style Modern. Until a gallery came about called Art Nouveau which just stuck

- Mucha did everything from ads, characters, designs, etc

- Art Nouveau characteristics: Whiplash hair, tile work, playing with depth, very flat abstract background, playing with spacial relationships, lots of movement but still flat, etc. Background is inspired by Japense art. 

-GE logo has a pattern that is influenced by Japanese design and art nouveau

- Will Bradley starts doing some innovative things. He starts using abstract simple form.

-Bradley was influenced by Japanese wood crafts

- Advertising at this time is also becoming sophisticated

- In Belgium art nouveau is called art nouveau

- Jugendstil is Art Nouveau

- Art Nouveau is about youth

- Glassgo school of art is cool. It's built between four different people. 

- Margret, Francis Mcdonald, Herbert Mcnair, Charles Renaymacintosh (sp???)

- Key points: geometric, curvilinear elements (curvy, flowy), but rectilinear structure, decorative floral motifs, symbolism, and stylized with expression.

- "You're in the door painting and stuff happens" 

- They're doing the same type of work you are

- The four become synonymous 

- Talwin Morris gave practical expressions for the idea of the four

- Talwin was famous for the red letter shaped spear series. 

- Talwin was obsessed with book spines

- Art nouveau is known as sessionstiol (means style)

- Gustaf Clint, Koloman Moser,

- 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

Today in class we introduced the famous era of design: Art Nouveau. I absolutely love art nouveau. It's on of my favorite art styles in history. I knew a little of Aubrey Beardsley. I mainly known him for his provocative pieces. It was interesting to see so many Japanese influences in art nouveau. I knew Japanese was part of the influence but didn't think Japanese art and blocks influenced so many important art nouveau artist. I feel art nouveau is such a strange jump in art from what we learned last class period. Hair is a big characteristic. The way hair is stylized and has curvilinear elements. It's very sexual and has a lot of movement. Sex was possibly brought up every 10 mins. It was hilarious. I loved the energy of art nouveau and how there was so much sex, abstract, and youth embedded in it. I also loved your quote in class "You're in the dorm painting and stuff happens.." 

I feel in today's lecture I can really sense art, typography, and design is really evolving fast. ( like extremely fast) There's more color, more life, more energy, symbolism, sex, expression. I find this absolutely amazing. There's a lot more creative elements mixed into design / typography. 

QUESTIONS 

Art Nouveau was influenced heavily by Japanese. A lot of style is influenced by Japanese. But what influences popular Japanese art? (Like in the time of art nouveau)

Add more later!

Day Five

NOTES

REVIEWING 

- Cueiform develops as glyphs. Less pictorial and more like graphs

- Ars Memorandi used gothic lettering

- Gutenberg used gothic letter styling

- Gutenberg is just a regular guy

- Know Punch and Matrix

- Ligatures are two letters forms a cast as a single character ex: FI

- Incunabula means "cradle" and "birth" also first 50 years of printing

- Fleurons are the cast decorative elements. Very popular in Rococo period.

- Calendarium is a book on calendar

- Rococo is French and very decorative

- Copper Plate engraving became popular around this time

- Bodoni came about which is Modern (neoclassical) 

- The Bodoni typeface is similar to the cotton gin because of interchangeable parts

- Bodoni was really strong on simple units that can be interchangeable

- Wood type is able to happen because of power and the router.

- There was a need for Wood Type for selling / advertising. 

- Old Style, Transitional, Modern, Egyptian extremely important

- Leading is base line to base line

- Ottmar perfected the linotype machine

- People were not thrilled about the linotype because it replaced them

- Joseph Niepce is the first photographer of nature

- Louis Jacques Dagurette took a photo of Paris. 

- Early ads are visually conservative

- Ephemera is transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved.

- Scrap Cards are called that because they are disposable. This is an example of a Ephemera. 

- L. Prang did a majority of the Scrap Card art work

NEW STUFF

- 1883 is the time period when expeditions are happening.

- Very proud time. Showed off inventions, new things. 

- Popular to use allegory. 

- Chromolithography 

- Leisure time and theatre promotion happened during this time

- With chromolithography people were able to create product packaging

- This is the time period in which product design became popular. Things in our supermarket branding (like mascots) started in the 1800s

- Food culture starts to emerge

- As production methods are improved people are able to produce more oats. 

- Everything we see in the supermarket comes back to this pivotal moment in time.

- Also the time when we start getting manipulated by the media

- "The Ladies Home Journal" and the "Practical Housekeeper" were magazines for women

- In these articles / paper they tell you which products to buy, subtlety 

- They start manipulating ads in different ways

- They created ads with well dress women, fancy items, etc.

- With Victorians there was a change on the thought of children. Toy books came about that are meant to entertain children.

- Calbecott(sp?)  made absurd things like dishes running away

- No one used white space at the time

- Harper's Weekly is where visual journalism started to happen

-Thomas Nast was an illustrator who brought down Bos Tweed (sp?) He would do editorial illustrations. 

- You didn't have to read. You could understand what was going on through pictures.

- Tweed offers Nast $500,000 to go study Europe and go away

- Nast refused and stayed 

- Bicycles were new and cool. They were used in ads

- The giant pickle. John Henry Heinz started selling Horse Radish. Started a line of prepackaged food. 

- He created the first electric sign in NY on 5th and 23rd street

- Heinz discovered that employees are your marketing. So he hired lots of young girls.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

At the beginning of class we took quick quiz on the last two class periods. After the quiz we reviewed the entire class and what we discussed the past month. The new information we learned was around late 1800s. I really liked this section because things start getting interesting. Typography and graphics are becoming more eye-catching and show more humor. Looking at the infamous iconic Quaker Oatmeal mascot was fun seeing the changes it made over time. I also didn't know that the Quaker Oats guy was one of the first mascot to do branding. To be honest, I didn't know he was that old. It's strange to me that the thought of children magazines and etc popped up around the 1800s. I always thought that kids should be in parent's thoughts.

I really enjoy food packaging. It's so fun and so fun to study. I really enjoyed the lecture on John Henry Heinz. I found it comical that one of his marketing strategies was to hire young girls. It's so weird to think that New York is one of the most electrifying cities with colorful glowing ads everywhere. And the first to start that was the Mr. Heinz's electric sign. 

QUESTIONS & RESEARCH

Was the Quaker Oats guy the first mascot to do branding?

Is the test going to be hard?

Day Four

NOTES

PRINTING PRESS

- San Serifs developed from taking an egyptian face and taking out the feets.

- 1900s is when San Serif is used for writing text.

- 1796 Lithography invented.

- Up till this point printing has not changed a lot.

- Still using same basic system that Gutenberg made.

- The first iron was created in the 1800s.

- Used about 1/10 of a human effort on a wooden press.

- Frederich Koening made the first double cylinder steam press in 1814.

- This could print 400 sheets an hour.

- The double cylinder steam press was able to create 1100 impressions.

- People are freaking out because people are becoming expendable.

- Printing press are replacing human work force.

- 'Luddite' is a term against computers, technology.

- Printing press wasn't warmly embraced as people were concern of feeding their children. 

PENNY PAPERS & ADS

- Paper became cheaper. It went from 3 cents to 1 cents.

- Penny papers are more geared towards the common people.

- They had to appeal to a wider audience. Needed a broader spectrum of subjects. 

- They started to sell ads in their papers. 

- Visually conservative. Very blocky kind of page. 

- Penny Papers were more enlightening and focused on happier things. 

- In 1841, John Cooper became the first ad men.

- John Cooper used to work for a newspaper placing ads. 

- Media buyer is the person who places the ads. 

- You can learn about travel, what people bought, what people were interested in. 

- Not about the craft. It's business. 

- 1886, Otmar Merganthaller perfected the linotype machines.

- Papers were limited by 8 pages.

- He first files a pact for a linotype machine that allows a person to do composites. 

- By 1886 there are 300 machines that have become patented. And 1000s more waiting to be patented. 

- Otmar is a german immigrant. He comes up with this idea with casting type. 

- He thought of a way to cast letters faster.. words at a time. 

- One line of type machine could do the work of 7 or 8 compositors. 

- Up till this point, there was a pretty good business casting type. But that collapsed when the Linotype. 

- The American Type Founders Company came about because of this. This is a business scenario. 

- Linotype is the precursor of what our keyboards are today.

- Gutenberg press, steam press, linotype machines all shaped printing. 

PHOTOGRAPHY

- Joseph Niets (sp?) took the first photograph taken. 

- Henry Fox Talbet (sp?) experimented with photograms. 

- Photograms became an interesting play item for early artist.

- A photogram is taking a piece of light sensitive paper and exposing it to light. 

- In 1889 Kodak released a camera that an average person can use.

- This was huge because anyone can use a camera. 

- There wasn't a great use for publishing. 

- They would send photographers out to shoot scenes and send it to illustrators to carve woodblocks to be used to print. 

- 1880 came about the first half tone plate. In order to print a photograph you need to print out a half tone. 

- With a halftone people were able to print photographs with continuous tones. 

- Halftone allows you to print a photography. 

- 1861 to 1865 was the civil war. Photographs were mostly the aftermath. Because had long exposure. 

- People complained about authenticity of the civil war photos. 

- Photoshop we always do that all the time. 

- You can't do that in journalism that is unethical. 

- Edward Moybridge(sp?) photographs multiple images of a horse. 

- First tentative steps towards motion pictures.

- Edward took pictures of horse to win a bet on a way a horse moves. 

- The Victorian era for graphics was noted for aesthetic confusion. 

- Marked as a period of having very strong religious beliefs. 

- William Henry Fox Talbet in 1884 created the title page of Pencil of Nature. There's gothic lettering, vine work, renaissance motif, etc. All touchstones of Victorian age aesthetic. 

- Lithography is printing on stones. The advantages of litho stone you could do gradation, crazy curvy lines, more flexibility. 

- Lithography was invented in the 1700s. 

- In early 1800s they invented chromo lithography. 

- Printing now had people and typography together. 

EPHEMERA

- Scrap cards are cheap and colorful. Anyone can have colored art in their home.

- Tigers, fruits, faces, peacocks, Moorish tile patterns, Santa, clowns, etc. = stuff. Scrap cards had lots of subjects. 

- Victorian's loved illusions of depth and very intricate patterns. 

- L Prang and Company created these scrap cards. 

- Scrap cards is a great example of Victorian era graphics.

- Spirit of nationalism was strong in the Victorian era art. 

- This is also the same time period were there was lots of posters on circuses and entertainment. 

- "Carry Us All" … Carousal. 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

In class today we focused a lot today on the evolution of the printing press and how it eventually took over people's jobs. As printing press became more and more popular they started to use them in newspapers and pages. In the beginning of class we saw a short 20 min video on worker's living arrangements. It was so insane how a whole family could sleep on one bed. It feels so unfair and so cruel to  have those living arrangements. I could not live in those houses. I did not know there were so many different kinds of printing systems. I learned a new term called 'Luddite' which was really interesting. I did not know that it meant people who feared technology. It feels so weird to be against technology. The thought of being counter technology is just very foreign to me. I can't believe papers were so ridiculously cheap. Three cents is already cheap for a paper and to think that one cent is a big difference says a lot about the money, economy, and currency. Penny Papers really rolls off the tongue. 

I really enjoyed the photography section of the lecture. I'm a photographer but I don't know a lot about the history of photography. It was interesting to know about halftones and the first photographs. It's so insane that photography had such a long exposure that it couldn't capture humans unless they were dead still. I did not know there was high controversy with civil war photography that it was staged. I loved your insert on photoshop and how it's also controversial like how it was back then. I found it interesting that photography was integrated into papers. 

Victorian style is very distinctive to me. Probably the most eye-catching historical style to me. The intricate patterns and illusion of depth and detail really screams Victorian style. I want to learn more about Victorian era and style. I think their whole culture is very interesting. 

QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH

I really liked the discussion on photography and how old civil war photos were 'reenacted' and was claimed as not authentic. Especially that things back then ties with things we do today lie use photoshop to touch up photos. What is your opinion on edited material? Do you think photoshop is an evil or a tool?

Lithography sounds really interest (and extremely difficult). Ink is really easy to sink into paper. But how does the ink in lithography sink into stone? 

Day Three

NOTES

FROM LAST TIME
`Rococo design has a lot of detail and is very fancy.

`Copper plate engravers started to do own typeface and had thick and thin typeface

`France has german derby typeface

`Around the same time England is in political turmoil. "upon ascending the thrown Charles the 2nd wanted to reduce the printing press by 20 and kill the rest"

BODONI

`Bodoni shows influences from Rococo design- same basic aesthetic 

`Prior to the revolution there was a fancy style

`Bodoni is inspired by Funier(sp?) 

`Bodoni helps bring in modern typeface

`Around 1790 Bodoni redesigns Roman letters with a  much more geometric system 

`Also very mechanical- got rid of calligraphic properties 

`Bodoni also reinvented the Serif- took brackets off of Serif 

`Transitional face is more angular and brackets are smaller

`Bodoni chops off those brackets all together

`The letter form should be built with limited number of interchangeable units

`Bodoni is a modern typeface

`Very messy, clumsy, egotistical, said he "didn't" work for the common man

1800s

`1800s something happened called 'fat face' which made typefaces really fat

`This typeface is really good for getting people's attention- advertising 

`Industrialization is all about selling

`It was not a good time for the workers in the factory- like kids working in factory

`Industrialization leads to consumerism 

`People need to buy stuff- people are making money in factory and also spending it

`The rise of the middle class! People are getting money. 

`Also breeds envy and contempt

`Very long days very hard work, tenements 

`The plus side is that there's growing literacy and public education

`There's a greater demand for printers

`There's a need to sale so there's a need for large faces

`Wood type came about

`The invented router along with power and machinery

`Because of routers there are lots of possibility of different type

`Egyptian face was called that because it was just really cool at the time

`Two lined egyptians meant the serifs were taken off- so san serif 

`Display faces are meant to be BIG typefaces but normally can't be read if it's small

`Tuscan face - crazy decorations used for cowboy times :D

Words for the day:

Compositor: is something you don't want to read. It's the guy who takes the letter forms and puts them into a line and repeats this process; that is his job. 

Ephemera: is printed material that is NOT meant to be saved or collected (like concert tickets)

`Poster graphs are springing up. They're not designed They're assembled

`Old style, Transitional, Modern, Egyptian, Sans Serif is the FIVE HISTORIC TYPEFACES

`The quality of the strokes is how you can identify it

`DISPLAY: Black Letter, Script, handwritten fonts, dingbats 

`

BASIC INFORMATION

{Point Size

`Cap height

`ascender line

`x-height

`base line

`descender line

`Leading is the space between lines

`Text is generally 20% (point size of face +20%) DO NOT USE AUTO LEADING :D

`12 points - 1pica 

`6pica = 1 inch

`72 points = 1 inch

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

I just recently downloaded the whole Bodoni family on my computer so it was pretty interesting to know the history behind the typeface. The evolution from smooth, flow, sometimes really organic typeface to very mechanical, geometric and angular really caught my attention. I found it interesting to see the serifs slowly disappearing until it completely went away and created the san serif. I learned new terms today like fat faces! Which is really easy to remember because it sounds just like how it looks. It reminds me of a typeface who ate too much french fries. 

When industrialization hit, money became the source that powered and pushed the evolution of typeface to advertisement.  I really liked looking at old poster designs. I love looking at poster designs so it was really interesting to see really old posters. It's just so sad that they didn't really put much design in it and just wanted to assemble a poster then really make it into an art. Another new term I learned was tuscan face. I always wanted to know the official name of those really overly decorative, fancy, frilly, almost illegible font. I'm not a big fan of any tuscan face but was kind of nice to see people experimenting and doing crazy stuff with font. 

I loved the basic information about typeface! It helped me a lot with normal things I do in my work. And I'll use your advice to not use auto leading. Leading seems to be tricky sometimes. I see a lot of poster designs manipulating leading but sometimes they over do it. So it's nice to know a good medium to balance leading. Oh yes, I also really liked looking at the letter lead punches at  beginning of class. You really got a feel of how tiny and small they were!

QUESTION TIME

Sometimes I get really confused between the terms typeface and font. What is the difference of each term?

Bodoni is an important figure for the development of typeface. Did he have any other typefaces that influenced him?

If we shouldn't use auto leading then why is it available to us on our computers?

Day Two

Day's Notes

PLAYING CARDS

-Alcuin of York is Charlemagne's main scribe

-1400s playing cards were born

-Xylography is printing with wood 

-Cards used Xylography 

-Playing cards is a huge step for democratization 

-A king can have cards and a peasant can have cards

-Playing cards were one of the first form of entertainment

-Playing cards fundamentally change how brains work.

-Sequencing, memorization,

DEATH 

-We're all wired differently 

-With low block printing poor people can own art

-Mid 1400s death was a popular topic

-Plagues were all over 

-Ars Moriendi was a popular book about the art of DYING

GUTENBERG

-Factors put in place for Gutenberg to invent printing

-1. Growing middle class. Students/university expanding.

-2. Increased literacy 

-3. The monopoly of literacy is being taken away from the church

-Basically there is a demand. Kids in school need books

-Gutenberg creates ligatures and typography 

-Gutenberg was a regular guy.

EARLY PRINTING

-Needs lead to carve out the letter

-the letter has to be hand shaven

-the letter is put in a cast to make a mold

-Once done it gets smoothed by stone

-Printing was invented around 1455

-The first book printed was the Gutenberg bible 

PRINTING ACCELERATING 

- Typographic is the major communications advance between 20th century writing.

-Crusades, Shakespeare, Printing all happening at the same time

-Swevyheym and Pannartz - evolution to Roman letters

-1475 is the first English book

-Calendarium is a book on the calendar on moon and sun

- Renaissance really liked decorative art

ROCOCO 1720s

- King Louie of France wanted to create a royal typeface 

-The typeface was drawn on a grid

-Romainduroi became royal typeface

-Upon it's arrival typeface didn't not improve it stayed the same

-Classic Rococo design is clean, articulate, decrative, frilly, etc

-Pierre Simon Fournier created florins 

-Printing starts becoming common

-Copper plate ingraven becomes popular

-Which is scratching into a plate to create ornate designs

Personal Thoughts

In today's lecture one of my favorite sections of discussion were playing cards. I found it very interesting how they intertwine with early typography. Actually, I thought playing cards had no connection whatsoever with typography and printing development. Playing cards are really interesting to me because it's like an old "videogame". It's one of humanities first form of entertainment and I find it really cool. Who knew playing cards made people in the 1400s smarter!

I really like the concept of how you said that everyone is wired differently. It's really interesting that the thought that every generation is wired differently because of what's popular at the time. As a side note, I found the book of Ars Moriendi comedic. I can't believe it was a popular book about the art of dying.

Watching that video today in class was horribly boring. The process of creating type is so tedious and intricate it reminded me of the life of scribes we watched last class period. Talking about the process to create a font really made me appreciate our technology today.

Questions and Research

When did modern typeface (san serif) pop into history? 

Day One

Notes
-Greek, Cave Drawings, Symbols, lead to everyday typography
-Everything is connected with design
-Everything is a remix
-Artist copy, transform, and combine
-Nothing is truly original
-78 / 100 Movies are based off books, comics, videogames, etc.
-Xerox started the revolution in creating the personal computer
-Apple and Microsoft copied Xerox's user interface
-Evolution takes place
-Scribes have a very strict and perfectionist lifestyle
-If a scribe makes a mistake they have to redo the entire book
-Books at the time were of equivalent wealth as farms
-Books were chained and were not able to check out
-Printing press was invented decades later and replace scribes

Personal Thoughts
Today was interesting I didn't know what to expect. I really enjoyed the lecture on copying, transforming, and combining. I've always felt guilty, fake, and unoriginal when I "copy" and "transform" an idea or concept into my art work. Now I feel that copying is futile to avoid just because there's so much things out there already. I loved seeing the steps of copying and transforming of big name companies. My favorite was Xerox to Apple. I recently rewatched Pirates of Silicon Valley and of course loved it. But was also very interesting to learn that even big name companies like Apple seep ideas from other people.

The life of a scribe sounds just utterly horrible. I could never digest the idea of scrapping the entire book if I made one fatal error. To an extent I am a perfectionist but not to the extreme of a scribe. I did love seeing the scribe's life and how it intertwined with religion. I learned a nifty new fact today about books. I didn't know that they were chained or worth like farms. It's so weird to picture something that I can buy for less then $10 at a book store.

Overall, the main message that sunk into my brain is that all of design is connected. Which is so mind blowing and interesting that everything strings together and takes on inspiration from another piece of art.