2-5-15_2

History and Analysis of Design

Week 3: Assignment 1 Discussion

Assignment 1: Journal Assignment

Deadline and Deliverable

By Tuesday, February 3, 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

1. Review the content of the lectures and reading assignment.
2. Write a response to each question using direct quotes from the lectures, textbook readings, or other sources to validate your answers.
3. 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 under Academics → Tutoring Center.)
4. Participate in class as described in the Review and Critique section.

My Work: 

The industrial revolution was the beginning of many mechanized systems that were new and amazing in the times which launched mass commercial reproduction into everyone’s lives. The invention of a steam power made things like a cast iron printer possible in 1800s. “The next improvement (in 1827) was the creation of a four-cylinder steam-powered press that could print 4,000 pages on both sides per hour. This press was developed by Cowper and his partner, Ambrose Applegath”. (Impact of the industrial revolution) The process was also improved again by a papermaking machine invention in 1801 by John Gamble that allowed for long uninterrupted sheets of paper to be produced continuously, and the Linotype machine created by Ottmer Mergenthaler which made it possible for the long sheets of paper to be printed at the same time and was demonstrated for the first time in 1886 in the offices of the New York Tribune (The Impact of the Industrial Revolution)

Larger typefaces being produced were used on billboards and posters for advertising and were getting increasingly larger. “Font foundries continued to produce larger type, using traditional methods. With some typefaces twelve lines deep, the metal type for each letter could weigh up to one pound. Metal type was brittle and, often, the printing surface would be concave.” (The Impact of the Industrial Revolution) Wood typesetting came back into practice, this time using a lateral router designed by Darius Wells in 1827.

Experimenting with emulsions in 1822, Joseph Niepce created sun engravings which was the beginning of what we know today as photography. This process had several iterations before the most famous of the first commercial companies became available, Kodak in 1887.

Multi-color images emerged with lithography in 1837, chromolithography in 1940 and reached its height between 1860 and 1900. Boston became somewhat of a hub for lithography producing vividly colored posers, magazine and book covers by William Sharp, as well as holiday greeting cards by Louis Prang. This medium widespread quickly across the nation and was used for many commercial needs such as labels on canned goods in grocery markets.

Material was being pushed out en mass and with speed, trying to meet the demand of not just the upper but now also middle class who could afford the furniture and literature available at lower prices. “Industrialization lowered publishing and production standards dramatically in the 19th century… The use of high speed presses and machine made paper, and the rapid releases of large editions of for a mass market, meant that the care and craft of hand press production disappeared under commercial pressures.” (Graphic Design History A Critical Guide) This relentless demand resulted in a downturn in quality and that spurred the birth of the arts and crafts movement. In 1884 John Ruskin and William Morris sought to bring about the return to expressions of individualism. The Artworks Guild was formed and expanded into the Combined Arts Society in 1888 which saw to it that high quality hand made goods such as furniture and books were once again available to serve society.

The introduction of Japanese art influenced the art nouveau movement which spanned 1890-1910. Flowing lines a focus on nature and animals and exceptionally high quality are telltale signs of art nouveau which was also eventually applied to furniture such as in Louis Comport Tiffany’s lamps. However art nouveau made its way to the people in a widely available form as well, posters, and were found everywhere from private collections to advertising across major cities.

The major difference between the two movements is the arts and crafts movement focused much more on the work being specifically crafted by hand and art nouveau focused more on the ornate and flowing lines even if some tweaking needed to be made by machine at one stage or another. What the art and craft movement and art nouveau have in common is the desire to produce high quality craftsmanship, focus on nature and both gave growing importance to the role of designers. “This movement followed the ideas that were first presented in The Century Guild Hobby Horse asserting that the designer-illustrator who worked in printing was equal in status to other classical artists like painters and sculptors.” (The impact of the Industrial Revolution).



Works Cited:

Drucker, Johanna, and Emily McVarish. Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide. 2nd ed. Boston [u.a.: Pearson, 2013. Print.

"The Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Art Institute Classroom, web. 20 Dec. 2014. Lecture.