Day Ten: After Class

The topic of this class was chapter nine, Graphic Design and the Industrial Revolution.

As we only got through half of this chapter, many highlights were covered. First of all, the demand of books and other materials lead to the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). Also, the printing press was a useful invention creation--leading to the Industrial Revolution. During this time, society and the economy went through many changes. James Watt introduced the steam engine, which produced an enormous amount of useful energy, causing many factories to be built. New fonts were created; they became decorative, bold, contrasting, and abstract. Fat faces were fonts that looked fat; they were bold and had heavy strokes. The Egyptian font was created by the inspiration of the Egyptian culture, although the characters did not come close to resembling hieroglyphics. These letterforms had slightly bracketed serifs and had contrasting thin and thick strokes. The San-serif font was a lot like the Egyptian font, except serifs were not present. They also looked gothic because they were very dense and black. Wood type was found to be useful since it was not expensive, weight less and was much easier to work with than metal. Posters were in demand once wood-typing was used. There was a growth of newspapers and magazines. On the posters, there were varieties of fonts faces and font sizes used in order to create a specific emphasis. Printing soon became easier as the printing press was introduced and developed over time. Soon enough, the Linotype was invented by Mergenthaler, and letters were printed at a much faster speed. This allowed newspapers to print and arrive to society at a rapid speed. Because of the invention of photography, like events could be recorded and used for documentation. The camera obscura was the first device used to copy life; it had been used since the 4th century B.C. A box with a lense bouced reflections of what was wanted to be captured. The reflected image was then ready to be traced. Joseph Niepce created the first photograph, which was a heliogravure. Daguerre created Daguerreotype prints and worked with Niepce. His images were one of a kind and his process of photography dominated at the time. Talbot was another man who contributed to the developement of photography. He created copies from negatives and published a book filled with original photographs entitled, The Pencil of Nature. He created photogenic drawings by holding objects in light. Many processes were used and improved in order to get clearer photographs. The Kodak, a camera costing $25 in 1888, was available for anyone to document their own lives. Many important people imacted photography and graphic design, like David Octavius Hill and Julia Margaret Cameron. Cameron was interesting, and she is one of my favorite photographers, because she put a lof of thought and dedication into what she photographed. She wanted to capture the soul of the person along with their physical being. Her photos definitely contained meaning. Photography was soon used to record history; the American Civil War was documented by many people, including Mathew Brady. He actually spent time staging the battlefields by moving dead bodies and objects. Many of his war photos look staged, which I think is interesting. I believe that I would have done the same thing in order to convey a specific meaning to others. Muybridge was a man who set up 24 cameras with quick shutter speeds as a horse ran past; motion photos were taken in order to try and prove whether horses actually lift up all four of their feet while galloping. Based off of one of the photos, they do. This was when motion photography was introduced, capturing movement in space and time, bringing forth new ideas.

The most useful thing I learned today was that the Egyptian type was not created to resemble or relate with Egyptian writing. This font was actually created because it was a cool font to use at the time; it was inspired by the culture of the Egyptians.

Why did Mathew Brady call his photography wagon/s the "Whatsit"?