Print Culture and Distribution 2

Theory -->

Recently there has been a return back to old methods of hand made production such as letterpress as it’s more personal and rewarding than the instant gratification achieved through digital design. Consequently this return to slower methods of production is not about nostalgia but about changing society to focus on quality not quantity.

Slow food movement -->

Returning to local sourced methods of production and small scale production relationships has become a global trend/following in order to rebelling against what fast food stands for within our  cultural to return to quality. 

Slow Design -->

Focus on how practise relates to other people within the world and their individual environment.

This can be seen in the work of Anthon Burrill who placed his prints into circuits of market/advertising in order to comment on publicity and society. It can also be seen in the Print revival project which marks a return to old fashioned print mediums taking on digital media on its own terms.

Nicolas Bourriaud believes there is a tendency in contemporary arts to move away from creating things to focus on a message/issue to make social relations happen, create networks and collaboration. Barbara Kruger used her work with mass media ‘I shop therefore I am’ to contradict mass media based on the Latin phrase cogito ergo sum meaning I think therefore I am. Slow design is important as its re-humanising society that has been dehumanised due to digital age.

Post Print Culture -->

Technological reproduction of art removes aura/ air of importance surrounding art to create new hand made methods of production to create aura again. Post print culture shows a move beyond print culture to potentially digital due to the capacity for computer to create still image accurately, 

Print Culture and Distribution 1

The 'late age of print' comes from the media theorist Marshall McLuhan in around 1450. 

1760-1840 the industrial revolution happened. Because of the industrial revolution production sped up and became more mechanised which caused a shift in labour and cities began to grow. This meant that there was a need for more products at a faster rate as the industry was expanding quickly. This made a more divided class system which caused the working class to form and come together. The majority of products produced during this time now came from mechanised machines and were produced in mass. The working class created new forms of popular entertainment of which the upper class looked down on. 

In 1820 John Martin was one of the first artists who put his work in a commercial exhibition and charge a larger number of people an entrance fee to see his work rather than work for one paying client. Mass image culture further aided the working class as it made art available to the masses and was not just for the upper classes to own. 

Culture vs popular culture  -->

Levisism says that culture has always been in minority keeping. F.R. Leavis believes that there needs to be an educated few to maintain culture, as only a few can truly understand culture. He thinks that popular culture creates an addiction that does not refresh attitude to life where 'art' makes you question the world.

Aura -->

'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction' was explored by Walter Benjamin and he questions how art responds to the popular culture of design. Fine art is thought to keep the creativity, authority, mystery and authenticity that technological reproduction of art can't provide, this is knows as the 'aura'. Artists try to tell you how to feel about their art. 

Contemporary print culture -->

Philip James de Loutherbourg introduces a new form of art which was based on perspective as it is framed, however there are moving objects in the gap.

In 1829 the panorama was made famous by Thomas Hornor. The panorama became more popular than pieces of art as they allowed for an immersive experience. 

The use of photography meant that there was no need for portrait painting as photography was a much cheaper, quicker and accurate than hiring a painter. 

Print Cpaitalism -->

In 1842 the idea that images are made for the purpose of profit and the system evolved from the industrial revolution, with its own rules and creates its  own markets centred around images made for purpose of profit.

Chronologies: Type- Production & Distribution 2

Typography is a language which has developed from oral communication to visual communication in the form of type. Over time designers have no set approach to the publication of typography as many rules and ideas have been created, but the most interesting and noticeable work is that when the rules and expectations of design are broken. 

"typography is a communication method that utilises a gathering or related subjects and methodologies that includes sociology, linguistics, psychology, aesthetics" - Shelly Gruendler

Typography is a language that has developed from oral communication to visual communication in the form of type. Brief timeline -->

In 1919 Bauhaus allowed for a new connection between new technology to happen which made different disciplines coming together to create new and exciting ideas, trends on of which form follow function which is still popular today. This meant that what an object was supposed to do drove the design outcome. Thus resulting in a minimal approach to design. 

In 1957 Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann created Helvetica which quickly became the typeface of the Swiss Style movement. This was due to the simplicity and neutral nature of the type. Helvetica was a hugely influential typeface. 25 years after Helvetica was released Microsoft released Arial which was only a slight variation of Helvetica. 

in 1977 Jamie Reid introduced the visual culture of punk which went against the grid systems and rules of typography. 

In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee founded the world wide web and gave it away for free which created a way of communicating without paper allowing for the democratisation of distribution and design. 

In 1995 Bill Gates wanted to make money from the world wide web so he introduced internet explorer which laid the foundations for template based layout. It restricted design due to the fact of only having 8 fonts and only a certain amount of templates.

In 1992 Daid Carson had a modernist approach to redefining typography. He undermined the grid and saw how that reflected upon subcultures within the music scenes of America. His iddeas were based on heritage that dates back to Bauhaus -  resulting in aesthetic evolution.

Technology is positively impacting on the design world and how designers distribute thei ideas, however it also has negative impacts. It has negatively impacted the way in which we have long conversations which are often needed. The web dooesn't allow for these so  shorter and more consise versions of the long conversations are uploaded. Thus affecting how people view and engage with the text that we are communicating by. 

Chronologies: Type- Production & Distribution 1

Type is a very powerful form of visual language and can be influenced by many different factors like cultural and social developments. One principle of visual literacy states that for a language to exist there must be an agreement that one thing will stand for another. Type is what language looks like. 

The historical definitions of typography are no longer accurate in society today. This is due to the fact that they are based on old typography which then was based on movable type due to the methods of printing that was used when they manually printed everything. Todays definition of typography is:
'the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form' or 'the art or procedure of arranging type through the style and appearance of printed matter'. 

The first physical representation of language was thought to be found in 7000BC, it was shown as a range of symbols that represented different objects. Each symbol was used to describe existing things, not experiences or emotions. We do not know the spoken language before this time however to create the alphabet we know today we had to manipulate those symbols over time. 

So that trade and other things in our world could take place, typography had to transform so that the different cultures and people could communicate with each other. This needed something that was understood by different cultures so it couldn't be one language it had to be the simplest form of visual communication - symbols.

In 1870 William Foster introduced the Education Act which made it compulsory for people to learn to read. It was a skill that needed to be taught and learnt by all as it is a vital part of communication. 

As more and more people were learning how to read hand lettering of newspapers and books became less common. This was due to the fact that the audience for these things were becoming bigger and hand lettering took a lot more time than the printing of text. 

in 1919 type was further developed by the industrialisation of type through the Bauhaus as it merged type with craft thus informing mass manufacturing of type. Which then allowed modern type to develop causing designers today to not just look at one aspect of typography but all aspects to understand and develop type further.

Research Sources Study Task 1

CoP Theme: Technology

Search terms/key words: 

Analogue techniques, 

postmodernism, 

hand-made, 

passing trend,

haptic, 

digital age, 

type, 

graphics,

three-dimensional, 

craft.

    

LCA Library	1: Hand + made: the performative impulse in art and craft.   /  Oliver, Valerie Cassel ,  Adamson, Glenn  &  Wiggers, Namita Gupta  (2010) 2:   Handwritten: expressive lettering in the digital age.  /  Ilic, Merko  &  Heller, Steven  (2004) 3:  Geometrix: new trends in graphic design.  /  Sandu Publishing Co.  (2012)
Google Books (preview)	1:  Fingerprint No. 2: The Evolution of Handmade Elements in Graphic Design 2:   Meggs' History of Graphic Design 3:  The New Handmade Graphics: Beyond Digital Design
Google Scholar	1:  Graphic design: A new history 2:  Digital style history: the development of graphic design on the internet.
Websites	1: http://www.eyemagazine.com/review/article/handmade-graphics-refuse-to-go-quietly 2: http://www.imagesource.com/blog/craft-trend-happened-three-moments/ 3: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/05/03/fewer-designers-interested-in-how-something-is-made-jonathan-ive-apple-manus-x-machina/
JStor	1:  Designing Graphic Design History 2:  The Evolution of American Typography (1990) 3:  Graphic Design: Fine Art or Social Science?

Chosen Quote

Technology quote 1

Erik Spiekermann - Interview in Creative Characters Dec 2014

   'What I find very interesting is the movement of people who are savvy in digital design but are genuinely interested in analog techniques. It is now more than a passing trend; there must be a deeper motive why we are newly interested in the hand-made and the haptic, material and three-dimensional aspects of type and design.'

Words within the quote that could be useful

Passing trend –->  A thing  that used to be popular for a while, but has faded away and is not as popular, was only popular for a small amount of time

Savvy --> well informed individual

Analog techniques --> technique with a physical property - done by hand for example

Trend --> a general direction in which something is going towards

Haptic - relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception

I decided to choose this quote because I think the handmade process has changed hugely from when it was first introduced which is something that interests me greatly.

20,000 Year Non-Linear History of the Image

Throughout this lecture we were exploring the power of the image through time. We started off by looking at the cave paintings in Lascaux Caves, France. These were the first recorded medium of visual communication and imagery. They were believed to be there to not just record everyday activities but to try and communicate with a higher power. This showed the power of visual imagery as people in the modern world are try to work out what the drawing actually mean and who they were trying to communicate with.

Even now some contemporary artists like Jackson Pollock and Cy  display similar use of mark making as the Cave painting.

Jackson Pollock

cave painting

   

cy twombly

These three pieces of art in my eyes have very similar markings which shows to me that artists today are also attempting to communicate with power. Artists such as Pollock and Twombly are creating these pieces with a visual message behind it and expressing their thoughts and feeling to communicate with the audience and get their attention. 

Visual Literacy

Visual Literacy

As designer we are told to communicate through type and image. To communicate these ideas effectively they need to portray the message to a variety of audiences. The process of visual communication is the sending and receiving of messages using image and type. 

Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. The interpretation needs to be effective when communication a message to an audience. 

Visual communication - receiving and sending messages using type and images, based on shared understanding of signs, symbols, gestures and objects. Affected by audience, context, media of distribution.

Visual Literacy - Creating meaning out of visual images and type. Interpreting present/past images and range of cultures, producing images to communicate message. The idea that pictures can be read.

Visual syntax - Refers to the visual composition of elements in an image referring to: framing, scale, colour, font, stroke, weight, shape, composition, layout

Visual semantics - Semantics of an image refers to the way an image fits into a cultural process of communication including: cultural references, social ideals, religious beliefs, political ideas, social interaction, individual experience

Semiotics - The study of signs and symbols without the use of type

Visual synecdoche - When part of an image is used to represent the whole or a much larger object.

Visual Metonym - Symbolic image used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning.

Visual Metaphor - Used to transfer the meaning of one image to another or to represent another - New York, the big apple