1-26-15

History and Analysis of Design

Week 2: Assignment 1 Discussion

Assignment 1: Journal Assignment

Deadline and Deliverable

By Tuesday, January 27, 2015, read the two questions given in this assignment and submit your responses in a single post to the Discussion Area. Do not post your answers as an attachment.

Steps to Success
Review the content of the lectures and reading assignment.
Write a response to each question using direct quotes from the lectures, textbook readings, or other sources to validate your answers.
Cite your sources using MLA style. (For information on how to properly use direct quotes and cite sources according to MLA style, go tohttps://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Additional help on using MLA style and writing essays is available in the Student Portal underAcademics → Tutoring Center.)
Participate in class as described in the Review and Critique section.

Review and Critique

By Sunday, February 1, 2015, post substantive responses to at least two of your classmates by commenting on their answers. Consider what you may add to your classmates' responses to provide supporting information or counterinformation. Detail the information you found in your own search that was similar to or different from that of your classmates.

Questions
What parallels can you draw between the information explosion of the fifteenth century and the information explosion that is happening today on the web? How have they affected the lives, livelihoods, and societies that they touch? Find sources beyond the lectures to support your ideas. Look for valid resources on the Internet. Use direct quotes from the lectures and the sources you find to validate your answer. Use MLA style to correctly cite your sources.
What four major typefaces developed during this period (early printing) are still used today? Make sure that you understand the difference between a typeface and a type style.

My Work: 

Question 1- What parallels can you draw between the information explosion of the fifteenth century and the information explosion that is happening today on the web? How have they affected the lives, livelihoods, and societies that they touch? Find sources beyond the lectures to support your ideas. Look for valid resources on the Internet. Use direct quotes from the lectures and the sources you find to validate your answer. Use MLAstyle to correctly cite your sources.

For this question, I wanted to focus on Gutenberg's invention of the printing press around 1445 and how his invention has strongly impacted our technology filled lives today.

Before Gutenberg's world changing invention, every existing book and it's illustrations and words had to be copied by hand, usually on parchment and animal skin. This process would usually take the copier one year or more to complete, which made the books very expensive to reproduce. This all changed with the invention of the printing press. "Because Gutenberg's press could produce books quickly and with relatively little effort, bookmaking became much less expensive, allowing more people to buy reading material." (Renaissance--Printing and Thinking)

As the years passed, book production became vast and plentiful, which became bothersome. "Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books?" (Erasmus, the great humanist of the early 16th century)

"Around 1500, humanist scholars began to bemoan new problems: Printers in search of profit, they complained, rushed to print manuscripts without attention to the quality of the text, and the sheer mass of new books was distracting readers from the focus on the ancient authors most worthy of attention." (Blair)

I believe that Gutenberg's invention of the printing press was one of the most important inventions in human history but not without consequence. Many people, including myself believe that we are now in an information overload, like that of the early years of printing. "Worry about information overload has become one of the drumbeats of our time. The world’s books are being digitized, online magazines and newspapers and academic papers are steadily augmented by an endless stream of blog posts and Twitter feeds; and the gadgets to keep us participating in the digital deluge are more numerous and sophisticated. The total amount of information created on the world’s electronic devices is expected to surpass the zettabyte mark this year (a barely conceivable 1 with 21 zeroes after it)." (Blair)

Many people, like myself also believe that within the next ten years, printed newspapers, books and other materials will become obsolete because everything will be digitized, thus making the printing press a thing of the past.

Question 2- What four major typefaces developed during this period (early printing) are still used today? Make sure that you understand the difference between a typeface and a type style.

For this question, I found several typefaces that are indeed listed in my font book. I wanted to focus on "Old Style" typefaces in regards to my answers to this question. "Old Style (occasionally referred to as Humanist) typefaces are based on hand lettering of scribes and they first appeared in the late 15th century, before modern typefaces." (Farley)

The first I found was Garamond, which was created by publisher Claude Garamond in the mid 1500's. I use this typeface quite often and am surprised to learn about it's origin.

The second I found is the very popular Roman typeface, which was created in the mid fifteenth century by NicolasJenson Roman type is now the "standard" for book typography.

The third typeface I found was the Monotype Bembo typeface, which is a serif typeface style and was created around the late fifteenth century.

The fourth typeface I found is Caslon, which was created around 1722 by William Caslon. This typeface in particular was not listed in my font book but is available for download.

Works Cited:

"Renaissance -- Printing and Thinking." Renaissance -- Printing and Thinking. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

Blair, Ann. "Information Overload, the Early Years." Boston.com. The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

"5 Families of Typography: History and Examples of Each Style Family." Bright Hub. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

Farley, Jennifer. "The Old Style Typeface." SitePoint The Old Style Typeface. 9 Oct. 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

"History of Typography: Old Style — I Love Typography." I Love Typography RSS. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.