Monday, February 2, 2009

History of GIC 2/2/09

Today's seminar focused on the 1800s, into the early 1900s, and was largely about how the Industrial Revolution revolutionized Graphic Design.
There was a focus on printing and getting things out to the mass consciousness, and machinery expedited this process. It was interesting that just as fonts were being simplified, the invention of printing processes allowed for elaborate font faces to resurface, as it was no longer done by hand and writing speed was no longer a factor.
A new attitude emerged, focused on the era's middle class. Their culture and morality came into play. They had no design philosophy and so design changed to fit their sensibilities. Design became a thing of pragmatism. Things started changing more to how they are today, with a focus on commerce.

I think what is really interesting about this was how the period thoroughly cleansed and changed things. There was a completely new outlook that came with it, a change in design. I'm very interested in what is to come now, with the advent of technologies such as the internet and telecom networking, what will become of objects that have been prevalent up until now, such as Books and TV. What will become of design as it is constantly calibrated to suit the minds of the audience, who are ever so changing as we progress as a species?

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