Graphic Design And Printing example essay topic

Introduction The seventeenth century was a slow, but prosperous period for graphic design. Many new ways of printing and many new writers helped advance the progress of the graphic arts. Books were published in many different countries and many new ideas on printing were invented. One of the greatest tools ever invented was the printing press and the mechanics used to advance the mechanics in graphic design. The information given in this paper will try to give a brief history on the advances in graphic design and the people that influenced it greatly in the seventeenth century. After the remarkable progress in graphic design that took place during the brief decades of the incunabula and the exquisite typography and book design of the Renaissance, the seventeenth century was a relatively quiet time for graphic design innovation.

An abundant stock of ornaments, punches, matrixes, and wood blocks from the 1500's was widely available, so there was little incentive for printers to commission new graphic materials. Graphic Design and printing were characterized by a business-as-usual attitude. An awakening of literary genius occurred during the seventeenth century, however. Immortal works by gifted authors, including the British playwright and poet William Shakespeare and the Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra were widely published.

Unfortunately, similar innovation was lacking in the graphic arts. There were no important new layout approaches or typefaces to provide a distinctive format for outstanding new literature. The oldest surviving newspaper dates from early in the century. This was the A visa Relation Oder Zeitung, printed in the German town of Augsburg on a regular basis in 1629. Others appeared in many German cities and other European countries.

England, for example, had its first two page "running news" publications, called Coranto's, in 1621. (1) Printing came to the North American colonies when a British locksmith named Stephen Daye contracted with a wealthy dissenting clergyman, Reverend Jesse Glover, to sail with him to the New World and establish a printing press. Glover died during the sea voyage in the autumn of 1638 and was buried at sea. Upon arrival in Cambridge, Massatusetts Glover's widow assisted Daye in setting up the printing office. The first printing was done in early 1639, and the first book to be designed and printed in the English American colonies was The Whole Book of Psalms of 1640. As the title page, with its dominant word whole and border of cast metal printers' was diligent but understandably lacking in refinement.

Stephen's son Matthew, who was second in charge and had apprenticed in a Cambridge, England printing shop before sailing to America, probably did the typesetting and took responsibility for the design of the broadsides, books, and other matter produced at this press. (2) In spite of strong censorship and a stamp tax on both newspapers and advertising, printing grew steadily in the colonies. By 1775, there were about 50 printers in the thirteen colonies, and they fueled the revolutionary fever that was brewing. Just as printing had hurled Europe toward the Protestant Reformation during its early decades, it now pushed the American colonies toward revolution.

Copperplate engraving continued to grow in popularity as technical refinements greatly increased its range of tone, textures, and detail. Independent engraving studios were established, as shown in the combined etching and engraving by Abraham Bosse, illustrating the plate printers in his printing shop. In addition to commissions for copperplate engraving to be bound into books as illustrations, these studios produced engravings for hanging on the wall. This enabled persons who were unable to afford oil paintings to have images in their homes. The engraving studios produced broadsheets, advertising cards, and other printed ephemera. The wonderful imagination that was sometimes displayed is seen in the set of engravings called The Trades, originally created by N. de Iar messin in 1690.

The tools or products of each trade were tuned into lavish costumes on the figures. The nature of engraving-scratching fine lines into metal-encouraged the development of script letter forms of extreme fineness and delivery, used with meticulously detailed illustrations. (3) During the seventeenth century, the Netherlands prospered as a mercantile and seafaring nation. Books became an important export commodity as a result of the accomplishments of yet another dynasty of printers, founded by Louis Elzevir. Their handy and practical little volumes had solid, legible Dutch types surrounded by economically narrow margins, and featured engraved title pages. Competent editing, economical prices, and convenient size enabled the Elzevir's to expand the book buying market.

Dutch, English, French, German, and Latin books were printed and exported throughout Europe. Their format design was amazingly consistent, leading one prominent printing historian to declare that if you have seen one, you have seen them all! The great Dutch designer and punch cutter Christof fel van Dyck designed many of their types. Designed to resist the wear and tear of printings, his types had stubby serifs with heavy bracketing (the connecting curves that unify the serif with the main stroke of the letter) and fairly stout hairline elements. Van Dyck's matrixes and types were used continuously until 1810, when the fashion for the extreme and types were used continuously until 1810 when the fashion for the extreme thick's and thins of moder style types lead the Haarlem foundry, which owned them, and then melted them down to reuse the metal.