AM I A MODERNIST OR A POST MODERNIST?

I'm both a post-modernist and a modernist. I'm neither, or. I feel like I'm a bit of both. I identify as a modernist because of function. I make posters for things, but I also make things for the sake of it... so post-modernist. But I'm modernist... grid nerd and simplicity. I think that today.. the new modern, it's all crazy, full of aesthetics and rich in cultures. Mixing, remixing, the multitude of materials. It's kind of scarey... what is next. How does an artist become an original in an art world bombarded with so many aesthetics. Whether one is a Post-Modernist or Modernist, functional or for art's sake, technology and hand-made is only going to bring aesthetic confusion up. Maybe their needs to be something new, as in a new media, new technology, or/and.... We are now in a world with so much art at the click of a finger, that one could find anything and make anything, you would think. Non-originals are abundant, and aesthetic too. I think that we are entering the world of Good Karma art, where whatever floats your boat is what is good art.... oh wait, that's kind of now. So what is the future... has art gotten to a dead end, where anything more is too complex for mankind? I'm excited to see what's next and be a part of it. Staying out of the media is probably going to help one side and help another side of art. That's just my guess.

Modern... how to solve job for climate... can argue that mastery of current materials of today are modernist ideals. functional architecture with design. Form and function, taming the machine, MODERNIST.

pomo is the cliche of post modernism

deconstruction... post modernism argument 

AM I A MODERNIST OR A POST MODERNIST?

mix, remixing, using multiple cultures.... I think it should now be International Modernism. 

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-referecing

mixes high and low

historical references

vernacular

60s stuff, fighting against the modern idea

Wolfgang Weingart- pushed modern computer design. made by letterpress, not computer.

teacher in the Basel School of Design. tired of international style, so he experimented. pushes out of international style. experiment with letter spacing, stair stepping rules, diagonal type, reversing type out of bars, introducing variations within a single word. his work is very collage like, with grid. 

variation, rotate the axis, what if... having a basis in theory and logic and then asking how to expand the boundaries. 

Memphis italian design group that hoped to erase the international style. To get rid of Bauhaus stuff. They put everything together, a vomit soup of aesthetics. Function is secondary to style. 

van oliver

Cranbrook school

David Carson

Sagmeister

Swiss Design... grids...

More than grids! I love grids and appreciate grids... it was interesting that you shed light that others without a design background maybe might not appreciate design as much. And I was thinking about it... that perhaps you're right on this. I don't remember appreciating the simple works when I was less design-y, but then again, I was always pretty strict and OCD with lining up things and having everything plain and neat. I just didn't realize that this was partially design. Until later that is. So it's all art... whether fine art or graphic design. I agree with Paul Rand with this. It is hard to distinguish between the both. And to come to think of it... renown graphic designers of the day work like fine artists, even considering themselves fine artists.

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Swiss design(the international typographic style). it's more than just the grids!

Swiss design is... visual unity achieved through asymmetrical organization, objective photography, sans-serif type, flush right, mathematical grids, socially useful (constructivism). 

More important than the appearance, is the attitude!

Design is as a socially useful and important activity!

De Stijl, the Bauhaus, and new typography.

Max Bill and Theo Balmer, students of the Bauhaus. grid rules can become the art. math and geometry. like peter berhens. Semiotics are what things mean in relationship to other things. 

Semiotics are the philosophical theory of signs and symbols – what things mean in relationship to other things.

Syntactics – order

Semantics – meaning or referred to

Pragmatics – how it's used

Adrian Frutiger... typeface designer. He made Univers. 3 yrs to complete. has a numbering system. 55 is always the base. Also made Serifa, Frutiger, Neue Frutiger, etc.

Armin Hoffman... he helps found the Bozle School... the archetype of Swiss design. relationship between contrasting elements. form vs counterform. "If you design the negative space, the rest works." 

Josef Müller-Brockmann...

Communicates less noise. noise pollution. He uses the same grid for radically different posters. A good grid is liberating. 

strong horizontal and vertical

^ I love this poster.

Paul Rand... IBM, Yale, UPS, hand-done aesthetics.

Ivan Chermayeff...

David Carson...

American Bauhaus & International Style

DESIGNERS BEAT DEPRESSION!

          I thought that the WPA, or Work Progress Administration, advertisements were a good idea. Good job FDR and his New Deal. I remember my historyyy and it actually relates to graphic design! But I don't think that the US really gave much thought to the arts. I mean really... was FDR all, "Ohhh let's give these artists a job and then maybe, juuust maybe, our unemployed will get out of the Depression!"

          Nah. It went more like, "Let's use these artists for our benefit, to advertise these projects for the unemployed of the Depression." But what goes around comes around!!! So everyone benefits even if it wasn't exactly foreseen by the administration. Ha! You silly administrators overlooking the well being of the arts!(as usual!) I'm in doubt that the artists were taken into much consideration even if the WPA advertisements were to put people back to work. I think it just sorta happened. That's what it looks like anyhow. As with calendars! I don't think the government set out the need for calendars to be made. Definitely one of the creative artists looking for work decided it'll be the next cool, useful thing to do...
         Which makes me wonder, since times of the Depression were rough, was inspiration a bit low? Or was this actually the height of creative spark? When artists decide what is the new and what is the old? I guess I could answer that myself now that I think about it... since the Victorian aesthetic changed into a modern aesthetic well during the Depression.
         So the Depression actually enhanced artistic change. Art became more useful, such as ads or promotion, which means that not only were these early designs memorable, but they were also useful! And Depression needs useful! It didn't really hit me until now. That without the artists, who would've saved the unemployed?? FDR couldn't have done it without our creative minds! HEY, there's a point for all of this: ARTISTS ARE PART OF EVERY MOVEMENT. AND WE SHOULD BE DAMN PROUD :)

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1919-1933 Bauhaus

Weimar... start. 1st public exhibition:1923

Dessau... golden years

Berlin... end.

Paul Klee

Moholy Nagy

Johannes Itten

Herbert Bayer

Kandinsky

Mies Van der Rohe

Walter Groupus

Oscar Schlemmer

Joseph Albers

Utopian desire to create a new spiritual society.

Unity of Artists and Craftsmen to build the future.

Ideas from all of the Advanced art and design movements were explored and applied to functional design.

typophoto

photogram

photoplastic

no capitals... two alphabets, it makes no sense. 

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Models of teaching... strict vs open.

Jan Tschichold. hand lettered AD. son of designer & painter... learns calligraphy as child. Work is like Lissitzky, but with type instead of rectangles. Writes book about typography... The New Typography. The aim of every typographic work is to... form follows function: practical. Modernism. sans serif, limited color, underlying grid.

Herbert Matter. All roads lead to Switzerland poster. The modern poster. Extreme perspective and scale shifts. Precise and efficient. Brings his style to America

Addison Dewigins. abstract compositions, limited palette.

Lester Beall. Modern aesthetic.... lots of arrows, bars, and rules. More of his work... used in ads during the Depression:

WPA ADS

container corporation of America... cardboard boxes. Herbert Matter.

Ladislav sutnar, 1934. 

International Style... modern design. universal truths, pure, clean, efficient works.

Bauhaus

So I was close! I knew the Bauhaus was a school and a thought... in the movie they said it was literally the "building house", which makes sense... both because the school in an architectural place and a school that is building/teaching. Speaking of teaching, I want to learn German now... I could understand some of it surprisingly. Back to the Bauhaus, I really felt for the students being moved around. Did the students follow the school or once the school left? Or were they stuck to go to another school or quit art school completely. I'd image there would be other schools around, but most likely the way the school thought was different. I couldn't imagine myself following a school that moved around a lot. Were the students just left in the dust? "Good-bye students. We have to move now. The Nazis are coming. Sorry?" No wonder the students rioted. I would have.


Bauhaus 1919-1933

open for only 14yrs. 1250 students. not many students...

basis of design education

Walter Gropius. 1st director of the Bauhaus, 1919-1928. return to arts and crafts... go back to the old ways. Published the... used a cathedral to represent PAINTING, SCULPTURE, and ARCHITECTURE. A social unity. All should be equally valued as one. Used cathedral like John Ruskin. utopian ideals are important. 

COUNCIL OF MASTERS

Gropius is headmaster

Gerhard Marks...sculpture/pottery shop

Lyonel Feringer... painting

Johannes Itten... head of design. foundation program. leaves Bauhaus in 1923, during the first Bauhaus exhibition. Shift to design thinking, straying away from arts and craft.

core foundation program, analysis of old masters work. create abstract things out of trash/rubbish. hard contrast with soft. contrast, contrast, contrast!

cubisim, De Stijl. SHIFT OF THOUGHT IN THE BAUHAUS. ART & TECHNOLOGY: A NEW UNITY.

László Moholy-Nagy: Hungarian constructivist. worked with resin, photomontague, and....

typo-photo. he sees photography is going to take over painting. new visual language for a new age. photogram.... where the shadow is, it turns white. photo-plastic...photomontage: collage of photos.

Bauhaus made in industrial area. move in 1926. to Dessau, Germany. student designs in catalogues. made in the Dessau industrial city.

the universal alphabet... doing away with serifs and capitals. flushing to the right. hierarchy and contrast. explored strong horizontals and verticals in their compositions. Dominate horizontals and verticals. 

Viec Monroe "Less is More."

The Bauhaus

All I know about the Bauhaus is that it's a style and school. That's all... let's learn!

Avant Garde in Russia

Piet Mondrian's tree studies over time experimenting with the latest art movement got me inspired to do the same... it's a good idea and it shows the artists' change of style. It's as if the artist is going through time.
Avant garde in Russia

El Lissitzky... constructionism: art has meaning for state, authority, etc. Practical application. 

photomontage... the modern way of making art. 

montage in cinema... film The Battleship Potemkin. 

Eisentein's Potemkin

Alexander Rodchenko: to go constructivist for design! Creating something for the people, you have moral good.

bars used as graphic elements, with collage, overprinting. generous space.

De Stijl... movement developed in the Netherlands. Utopian approach to aesthetics. utopian society with FUNCTIONAL art. communication design. rectalinial planes, void of surface textures/decorations. no trees, cows, illustration. pure hue color. mathematical structure. universal harmony to use in art. 

Piet Mondrian

Founder of De Stijl: Theo van Deoesburg. Asymmetrical design... universal structures, asymmetrical balance. Data Poems. 

Isims & Depressing Movie

Depressing movie...*ORGAN* suprematism... Malevich. Revolution. Advent Guard art. Individuality in art not allowed. Socialist Realism was the only art accepted by communists. All the Cubism and suprematism stuff was hidden away... don't remember anymore...Hitler says that art needs to be understood by the Proletariat(common man and worker). In the times of the proletariat, maybe the art was understood, but honestly, I doubt it was fully understood until later.

Bauhaus 1919-1933

isims

illustrations, romantic. Allies powers.

reductive, sophisticated. Axis powers.

Hohlwein's work recognizable with stamp mark that looks like a Z. 1914. reductive form. figure downplay with figure's hat and background Red Cross. emotional appeal to donate to the Red Cross. 1936, winged figure souring through sky over the olympic flag. Stencil reductive form. 

Hitler propaganda says the allies posters were superior... ironic because axis was more superior.

Germany Und du? And you? Masculine poster

Hohlwein's work is tainted because he worked to Axis side.

1918, Edward McKnight Kauffer. ideas of cubism applied to communication design(like the cube-like birds and women & rain with umbrella) generous use of negative space. cubism.

Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso.... cubism. analytical cubism = beginning. synthetic cubism= later, the collages.

1925 Adolphe Mouron Cassandre....language of abstraction. telegraph poles, structure. The telegraph

pictorial posters. north star, paris to amsterdam poster. white star and train track. Pullman car poster. graphically interesting. 

ship is a rectangle, little tugboat. 

Dubonnet poster. The type words work with the art so well. It has greater meaning.

Train bar poster. Picture of train wheel, cubism bar items on top.

Russian Avent guard. 

Cubo-Futurism, suprematism, constructivism. 

Bala's dog. little dog, movement. 

Kazimir Malevich. Motion, cubism. Cubo-Futurism. Black Square and Suprematism Composition dude. suprematism.

cut paste, hand-done stuff.

Suprematism. Color & Emotion. primary elements. rejects pictorial. no narrative, just feeling. black square idea, red square. 1915.

Constructivism. Function is meaningful art according to constructivism. Vladimir Tatin. Rodchenko. El Lissitzky. Art should serve the new communist society.

abstract painting.... Kandinsky.

El Lissitzky. proum, an acronym. building. intersections, spacial, illusions. Beat the whites with the red wedge. Bolshevik is the red wedge. Conservatives is the white. 

The Isms of art... attempts to decode all of the isms. German, French, and English separated with big thick black bars. Grid system layout. Modern aesthetic. sans-serif typography. 

Film, Peter Behrens... etc.

* { So that film in class today talked about how the West progressed through new technological advancements and there was a lot of politics involved. Lots of US history class stuff was talked about like good o president Teddy aka Theodore Roosevelt. And then there was Taft. There was talk about the coal mines and suppression of foreigners. Film was touched upon briefly as well as other inventions. Medicine slightly improved and people started to band together for better pay and work environment. Also touched upon was how in the west, rodeo was a form of entertainment while in the north, betting or the fair rides like at Coney Island were popular forms of entertainment. Basically people got wealthier and had more money to spend on other commodities. Progress boomed and it seems just as an exciting time to live in as today (maybe even more exciting the way things went so fast). The discoveries made then influence us today just as art from the past influences art in the future. Everything in a sense was once modern. What is more modern than modern is postmodern and what is more modern than postmodern is post-postmodern. What's next? New Modern or Post Modern^3? I guess this film got me thinking about the future. It went so fast then, discoveries all over the place, that we should be doing the same now. Because we're in the moment, we might not see it exactly as so. We're not in a drought of new discoveries or ideas. At least, I don't believe so. In any case, what isn't defined now shall be defined and influenced from the prior discoveries, new art, inventions, law, and what-not. No problemo. We'll just keep on going like the energizer bunny~ }

* Notes {

-AIGA Founded in 1914

Quality craftsmanship. Glasgow school- rectalineal

harmony of proportion and weight. geometrical and lyrical. like stained glass

Joseph Hoffman- flat pattern work. developed aesthetic. 

flat panels. abstraction. negative space becomes form.

the first usage of sans serif running text- Peter Behrens. credited for creating the first comprehensive identity program: typeface and layout system. non-load bearing walls. has a close connection to Mies Vanderrohe and Walter Gropeous

Art Deco.. closed forms, rectalineal, flat.

uses folio elements (elements on page w/text) in deco form

1919 Bahaus opens.

Square and circle grids. proportion basis. 

Honeycomb metaphor for the AEG logo. He developed typeface and consistent layout... branding. first guy to create the first comprehensive identity program.

Influenced by Morris. consistent layout and structure... applied to everything he did. good grid system that is flexible and used for many things he did. 

designed a turbine hall (to generate electricity). form follows function... modernist idea. 

plaketstil - poster style.  "plaket"-poster. "stil"- style. Mr. Bernhard. (recognizable rectangular logo with his name on his works)

AXIS POWERS PROPAGANDA POSTERS

Graphic, abstract, and sophisticated. Must have understanding of context. 

u-boat, submarine enlisting poster. communication simplified. decode aesthetic. 

Julius Klinger poster killing serpent... bond drive (WWI investment drive). abstract and complex meaning.

RAF Royal Airforce. Falcon- German symbol, bird of prey grasping the RAF(target symbol)

THE ALLIES PROPAGANDA POSTERS

information, illustration, lots of content. have victory gardens, buy bonds, donate to the red cross, symbol of patriotism.
}

Art Nouveau

I've always been awed by the Art Nouveau style and actually just finished up a project on contemporary artist David Lance Goines'. His stuff is so art nouveau, but looks more refined than the earlier works that I've seen today. I noticed that the colors of art nouveau are all so similar. The warm colors seemed to dominate all the works and everything was saturated. The simplicity and elegance of line is so fluid.


New Land typeface. pinnacle of German typography. 

The alphabet. Arts and Crafts, returning to the medieval. 

Arts and Crafts goes into Art Nouveau.

Jules Cheret, his work typically has a woman at the center surrounded by activity and the typography. 

Moulin Rouge - La Goulue 1800

E. Grasset: his color book style of art nouveau. the look of woodcut printing but it is lithographic printed.

Arther Machmurdo: quality of line, contrasting.

Hobby Horse: art magazine. the beginning of the art manifestoes. shows British arts and crafts to a broader audience. 

The Studio: 1893. art magazine. shows the works of Aubrey Beardsley. he did full page illustrations. Beardsley put little nymphs in his work.

Aubrey Beardsley did dark stuff. shocking art. interesting use of figure and ground. 

Asian influence in Art Nouveau.

Alphonse Mucha: art nouveau illustrator. Long prints so he could print two side by side in one lithography. Stylized form. flowers, folk art, delicate letters. tile, repeating pattern. tendrils of hair, whiplash hair. boarder elements. exotic design, peacock feathers and exotic lines. 

pattern books

Manuel Orazi-- recognizable art nouveau. 

GE logo made during art nouveau.

Harpers Magazine used the European art nouveau, bringing art nouveau influences into America.

Lois Rhead and Will Bradley are two art nouveau inspired artists in America.

The Inland Printer magazine. flat pattern with flat figures.

photomechanical

Will Bradley merged art nouveau style and medieval style.

Jugenstil- German for youth style

Peter Behrens. Designed the kiss with young people. looks like two girls so it was very controversial.

Margaret and Francis McDonald 

Hurlbert McNare

Charles Rene Macintosh 

^ four art students at the Glasgow school of art. Geometric, curvilineal elements. VERY LONG rectilineal structure. reductive style (becoming abstract)

The Vienna Secession (The Austrian Art Nouveau)

)

Gustav Klimt - the kiss

Josef Hoffmann

Ver sacrum: Sacred Spring. Journal.

Art Nouveau influenced 60s work - the type aesthetic 

Kolman Moser

Victorian Era and Manifestos

The Victorian Era reminds me of the Rococo designs of the 1730s because of the fancy work. However, in Rococo, it was intricate and delicate, while in the Victorian Era, it was CRAZY, not delicate. Everything was mushed together, too much was in Victorian Era posters, promotion cards, and scrap cards. It blows my mind that so much crap was "collaged" together without much thought. Styles didn't match. In posters, aesthetic was literally a confusion because of all the over the top stuff. Posters were just overly suffocated/stuffed. Blackletter and other types with fancy designs that do not go with each other makes the Victorian Era prints recognizable in time.

1837 chromolithography

The first iron printing press made in 1800 by Earl Stanhope. Greater force with less human power because of gear system. An advancement compared to the Guttenburg press.

Steam powered double cylinder press. Double = more impressions. 

Lutites= people against new technologies.

Penny papers... newspapers made with steam press. broader audience because of low price. Newspapers start to sell ADs to make money.

John Hooper: The first AD man. They go to newspapers and get your AD into the paper. The first AD agency. 

Ottmar Mergenthaller in 1886 finished the linotype machine. A line of type machine. Iron cast. Lead bar was called a mouse. Interesting how the current computer terminology relates to the linotype machine. 

Victorian Era Graphics are marked by their aesthetic confusion. OVER THE TOP. SUFFOCATED PRINTS. Marked by strong moral and religious beliefs. So much stuff made that most of it was crap. The design and the quality was not cared. So much stuff. Blackletter and other types with fancy designs that do not go with eachother. So much going on.

Lithography: stone printing. drawing directly on the stone. blends of color possible, and text in bent directions. chromolithography, with color.

Ephemera: printed things not meant to be collected (like movie tickets and street posters)

Scrapcards: printed on chromolithic. Promotion cards with little colored pictures. Promotion of entertainment. early 1900s. 1880s. Idealized images of youth in children. pattern work and texture. Exotic animals. Flowers. Illusion of depth: Tromploy. Father Christmas. TYPICAL WORK OF LUIS PRANG.

Packaging. Start of big companies with "brand" and logo. Printing on tin. Chromolithography allows printing on tin. ADs get sneaky.

Letterpress, 1866. use illusion of depth with size type changes. good for small type, structure, and organization.

Mixed, 1856. use of wood type, paste in a chromoprint. use the best means of production techniques.

Woodcut, 1856. light wood= bigger letters to print bigger posters.

Walter Crane's Absurd ABC, 1874. Children's book. Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway were another two children's illustrators. 

Harper's company. Newspapers, magazines, and Bibles made. 

Thomas Nast: father of political cartoon. made Uncle Sam, Republican elephant and Democrats donkey. 

Bicycle came out and was the popular thing. In posters.

Heinz. pickle. gallery-like building for Heinz with artwork and workers. Female workforce. 

Manifestos. Beautiful things are valuable just because they're valuable. 

William Morris was a wealthy philosopher during the manifestos. He rethinks about society, to return to the old high quality of craftsmanship. Flawed philosophy because it costs more money to make things of better quality than the quick industrial workmanship.

AH246 Week 2: Evolution of Letters, Typography, & The Industrial Revolution

Today we talked about evolution of letters in type and the Industrial Revolution. The most intriguing part was the typography, the way letterforms changed slightly through the times from Old Style to Transitional to Modern, etc. Not only did the typographers take from history, but also do graphic designers, while using the current technologies to make things work. For example, lead is good for small type and wood is good for the bigger sized type and was used during the crazy poster time with just so many different typefaces.

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Storytelling was probably the first most important thing before picture writing and cuneiform. Pictographs were turned to form cuneiform.

phonetics -> greeks -> roman letters

~800AD was when the Celtic art style with decorative elements was made.

Coronation Gospels 800AD

Alcuin of York

Xylography, woodcarving. playing cards.

Velum and paper

Letters of indulgence 

Education was fundamentally altered because of printing. BECAUSE OF REDILY AVAILABLE BOOKS.

Aesop. Frame lost in images.

Fall of Rome 476AD

1465

1467

Sevyheym and Pannartz - Evolution to Roman letters.built off of Caroline minuscules. First example of a tipend(added material and labor to printing)

1640; Steven Daye brought printing to the Colonies in 1639.

IN WHAT WAYS ARE STEVEN DAYE AND GUTENBERG ALIKE?

1695: Engraving of letterforms. Square divided into measurement system for all letters. More precision, less hand-like.

Romain du Roi printing.... no one was allowed to use this King's typeface. 

Rococo design...1730s. Fancy French art, floral and intricate like the Manuel of Typography by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune.

Copperplate engraving become books and influences letterform designers. Metal type.

BODONI. Giambattista Bodoni, 1771: return to the classical forms. Neoclassical style. MODERN TYPEFACES. Bodoni gets rid of brackets and makes display faces of Fatface. Didot is similar typeface. 

Industrial Revolution --- the need to grab attention with boldfaces and fatfaces. Brands start appearing.

Wood comes back... the router copies and makes printing easier.

Manufacture and Industrial means. Machine power. The factor system and division of labor. Rise of middle class. Growing literacy and the rise of a revolution. 

It cools unevenly.

Egyptian. 1815 Vincent Figgins. Egyptian faces don't look egyptian. Uneven weight. Not a lot of contrast. Slab serif.

Wheat-pasting. Composed posters, not designed, more practical. Lead is good for small type and wood is good for the bigger sized type.

Poster houses decline 

Lithography

The 5 Historical Font Families

Old Style... Garamond

Transitional... Baskerville

Modern.... Bodoni face, no brackets

Egyptian... even weight, *slab serifs, Century

Sans Serif... no serif

//Beyond that... display, black letter, hand, script, dingbats.

Point size is measured from highest to lowest part of letter. Cap height to descender line. x-height changes font size.

Leading is measured 20% above the face size...

12 points = 1 pica

6 pica = 1 inch

72 points = 1 inch

AH246 Week 1: Lascaux to Gutenberg

The beginning of art was ritualistic. Art was not done for art's sake. 

The caves of Lascaux show animals and hunters. 

Cuneiform was the first writing, which is very abstract.

Capitals quadrata are Roman squared capitals

Capitalis rustica are rustic capitals, as in old Roman calligraphy  

Caroline minuscule is script standardization where lower case letters come from.

The Book of Kells is a Celtic book, a new style bringing in decorative elements to first letters of a sentence or paragraph. The start of initial caps. 

Vatican, Virgil, 5th century 

1400s playing cards were made possible by the advances of technology: Woodblock printing. Devotional card: St. Christopher. Xylography is printing with the wood technique of woodblock printing. This advance in technology made learning how to make paper valuable because there would be a lack of sheep skins.

Death books---the art of dying--- was a part of early church propaganda in the 1400s, black plague. Blackletter typography and color images were used in these books of the 1400s.

Factors for woodblock printing:

1) a growing middle class--- the need for someone to buy

2) students in an expanding university--- an emerging literate class

3) increased literacy

= all equates to demand for printing.

Johannes Gutenberg

Gutenberg modified the wine press and used it to make ink and a system casting(letterform made from molding) and alloy.

Blackletter and Textura were used. He didn't make new letterforms. He based letterforms off of what was the letter style of the current day.

1438: Gutenberg comes up with printing press. Andreas Dritzehn was his business partner, lending him the money.

mid-1400s= beginning of printing

Renaissance. cutting type.

Johannes Gutenberg and Joahann Fust (or Faust) share a partnership and print the Gutenberg Bible. 210 copies.

Quality of printing made better by Schoeffer. 

Ligature: two characters made as one unit. fi example

Incunabula: infancy of printing. The first 50yrs of printing.

Fleurons: "printers"' flowers --- cast decorative elements; ornaments such as leaves or flowers.