Day Eleven: After Class

Today's topic in class was the Victorian Era/Style.

Amanda presented the style of the Victorian Era to the class and we learned some pretty interesting facts. Queen Victoria preferred the name Victoria since she was given the name Alexandria Victoria. The Victorian Era consisted of artwork filling pages and taking up all the space. These posters/labels/pages included images and text. The images consisted of beauty, sentiment, religious/moral beliefs, children, flowers, young women, and puppies—so innocent-looking. The text was used in a variety of ways, for different type faces, sizes, and colors were used, with some even curving. There were two different styles of the Victorian artwork, where one type was very decorative and floral, and the other was very simple and straight to the point. The more complex designs were out of style quickly because the text became too hard to read, although it was beautiful, creative and unique. The simpler text was more useful, for illiterate people had an easier time learning to read. This easy-to-read style was used in “The Punch”, the British newspaper. Three cultures influenced this era, and the cultures include: Spain, Chinese, and Islam. Some labels/advertisements/designs are created today, which resemble the Victorian style. Some are: Campbell’s Soup, Diesel, Levi, and Budweiser.

I thought the most useful thing I learned today was seeing how a letterpress works. I thought it was so amazing. I was so fascinated with the two videos we were shown because it gave me a better idea of how large, strong and sufficient the machines were. Also, I have a better idea of how much work and effort had to be put into the process of designing and producing specific demanded materials. It would be absolutely amazing to produce artwork with those machines. It would not bother me if it took longer to complete a project; it'd be so worth it to be able to such a wonderful and interesting tool. It looked so exciting working in a shop that produced materials with hand-made prints. That's one of my new dream jobs.

Also, during Amanda's presentation, she passed out an old book from the early 1900s of, from what I can remember, great Victorian artists. The pages were printed with impressed letterforms it was so amazing seeing how each page looked so fragile and ancient. The pages we bound unevenly and I noticed that different, smoother paper was used for the images. I love looking at old books, so seeing that this one was created with an old printing method made the book even more interesting/fascinating/wonderful/beautiful.

During the Arts and Crafts movement, we there people who accepted both the Victorian style/beliefs and the Arts and Crafts style/beliefs at the same time? or did they choose one or the other?
Will the art in the cave completely be destroyed? or is there a way people can preserve them?