Our assignment for the week was to do some light reading in our textbook, as well as look at every image inside and reflect on our first impressions and observations.
The textbook we are using for the course is Megg's History of Graphic Design, written by Philip Meggs and Alston Purvis. I chose to purchase the printed book, as I think I appreciate images and information a bit better in textile form than digital when I am learning. It's a heavy book, with thousands of images inside, so looking at all of them really took some time. The book reminded me somewhat of another textbook I used last year for my History of Photography course - it was also a large, image heavy book, but I thought that that text was far more challenging to read due to the author's writing style. I'm actually pretty excited about reading Megg's History of Graphic Design, as I think I will really learn from the information the authors are presenting, and I like how the book is organized.
Flipping from front to back, I think it's easy to see the progression of the images starting from the invention of writing on tablets and scrolls, to printing, the invention and use of photography in design and contemporary designs, including well know works of art and even comapny logos. I can certainly see the influences modernization and the Industrial Revolution had on advancements in design - both in the technology available to create the designs themselves (and print them), as well as the influence these movements had on culture and the audiences they were created for.
For example, I noticed that there were international influences in many of the examples of European designs throughout the book. I am attributing this to a couple of factors - travel was made easier and more affordable by modernization and international communication improved through the advancement of technology, which then allowed for the sharing of ideas and techniques across the world. For example, I really liked the images of the batik process book binding done by Chris LeBeau. This book was published in Amsterdam, but the batik process was a process that originated from the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia). I find the design very visually appealing and can understand why it was adapted and brought to Europe. I'm looking forward to learning more about how technology and modernization brought together different cultures and influenced design throughout history.
I think our instructor, Kent Manske, was certainly right in his introduction to the class - this is an exciting time to be alive and learning about graphic design, and I am looking forward to what I will discover in this class. I think that what I learn about the history of graphic design will be influential on how I percieve designs in this digital era.
Images sourced from Google, originally published here:
http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/summer_05/articles/groo_11.html
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