Early Days of Graphics Design – Post 2

Lithography and Chromolitography

Lithography was discovered in 1796 by a bloke named Alois Senefelder. This method of printing originally used oil and water as the 2 main liquids to draw with, but other substance types were soon being used as well including wax and fat. When mixed with water these substances become immiscible, meaning that they do not blend in together, and so 2 layers are formed. When the ink is applied, it is attracted only to the greasy image (which is printed on the stone), and repelled by the water.  Artists came to appreciate the shifts of colour tone and also gave them freedom to draw their own lettering.

Chromolitography came a few years later, which was the same concept as litography but with the use of colours. This range of colour prints revolutionized posters and artwork.

We cannot mention the word Lithography without mentioning the father of the poster; Jules Chéret. Chéret was born in Paris, France and at age 13, was taken out of school due to the fact that his parents could not afford to pay for his education anymore and instead, his father put him in a 3 year apprenticeship with a French litographer and teacher Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran.

He managed to sell sketches to various musicians, but this was not enough for Chéret and so flew to London to learn better techniques and expand his artwork. Back in Paris, he became an inspiration to other artists, when he started to make use of coloured posters by using red, yellow and blue coloured stones which allowed for the mixing of these 3 colours to produce thousands of other different colours. Advertising posters of Chéret usually displayed female figures which liberated women from being viewed as prostitutes. The posters also included drawn letters with minimal light and shading and 0 depth.

By the time Chéret died in 1932, he was able to produce more than 1,000 posters and was awarded by the French Government the Legion d’Honneur for his outstanding contribution and artwork in the graphical design sector.

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The influence of Japanese Woodblock Prints

Japan, a non western country, came to have a huge impact on western countries such as France when it came to printing in the mid century, so much so that the French invented the word Japonisme, a Japanese artistic aesthetic style of artwork. These were basically cheap carved woodblocks which were dipped into ink and pressed onto paper. These prints had a unique look, with a large area of flat space, since it was very difficult to create depth and was very time consuming. French artists found Japonisme fascinating and encouraged the use of this artwork. Similarities between French artwork and Japanes include scenes of daily life and the focus on the physical surface of the art as much as the subject.

The Art Nouveau

Meaning New Art in French, was a new art movement between 1890 -1910, inspired to move toward modernism and leave behind the artistic style of the 19th century. This artistic style was inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints and of course nature itself, and this artistic style moved away from the imitation of real subjects, towards the flowing, twisting lines and shapes of nature (whiplash curves). Forms of this art included paintings, jewellery, glassware, furniture and architecture. Nobody really “invented” Art Nouveau… and it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when this first type of artwork occurred. By time it just sort of happened, almost as if it naturally came to be and was a vital piece of artwork style for the arts and crafts movement that emphasised on the skilled craftsmanship of the artist. Some believe Art Nouveau was first seen in Vincent Van Gogh’s and Paul Gauguin’s artwork, while others argue that it was Toulouse Lautrec, the famous painter that designed the Moulin Rouge poster or even perhaps the English architect and designer Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo who designed the book cover Wren’s City Churches in 1883.

Alphonse Mucha was probably the most iconic Art Nouveau artist. He was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist. Mucha  made his famous debut when there was an unexpected demand for a new poster to advertise a play starring Sarah Bernhardt which was the most famous actress of Paris at the time and Mucha decided to get involved. The poster was an instant hit, and Mucha continued producing many different projects. designs and illustrations after that.

Smoking Advert by Mucha

Sarah Bernhardt Poster

References:

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2016). lithography | printing. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/lithography [Accessed 15 Oct. 2016].

Study.com. (2016). Influence of Japanese Woodblock Printing on Impressionists – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. [online] Available at: http://study.com/academy/lesson/influence-of-japanese-woodblock-printing-on-impressionists.html [Accessed 15 Oct. 2016].

prezi.com. (2016). Art Nouveau Period 1890-1910. [online] Available at: https://prezi.com/pipa23tr5tut/art-nouveau-period-1890-1910/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2016].

The Art Story. (2016). Art Nouveau Movement, Artists and Major Works. [online] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-nouveau.htm [Accessed 15 Oct. 2016].

Apartment Therapy. (2016). Quick History: Art Nouveau. [online] Available at: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/quick-history-art-nouveau-142976 [Accessed 15 Oct. 2016].

Analyses of a Magazine

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• The magazine title “MOJO” is consistent and uses same text format like they did through all previous issues. It is best to always have a consistent logo, 1 which by time starts to get more familiar with the readers.
• Bright pink colour used to highlight and give importance to some text more than the white text.
• A few quick teasers to attract the audience of some of the articles that are found inside. The less text used the better and for example you can see the text “We wanted to be Kiss!” this arouses curiosity and makes you start asking questions like “So what happened?”
• Large image of a celebrity looking surprised as front cover image.
• Small image on top left corner of magazine

 

 

• Full bleed image with a double page spiral
• The text font is Bold and kind of gives you the 70’s feel.
• Mixed colour shades and with a radial pattern that also gives you the 70’s feel (reminds me of vinyls)
• Notice how the article continues on the next page and you immediately know that the full bleed image from before is linked to the article on this page, just by looking at the first letter of the article which uses same text font.
• Text is split into 2 columns with small – medium images to give breathing room and make it more enjoyable to read.
• The first paragraph is not split into 2 columns and has a slightly larger text font to get the readers attention.

• Use of black border with a brown padding for the 2 pages which automatically links them together.
• 1/3 of the article in the first page is an image referring to what the article is about and the text is divided into 3 columns.
• On the second page the text is divided into 4 columns
• A piece of content with a different background colour is also included, but notice that same black and brown colour is used, suggesting that it is linked but in a different way, maybe its to show that it is just a piece of extra content, but makes it interesting to read.

 

• Advertisements page which contains lots of different typography. Also used on the 2nd page. The advertisement on the first page is neatly presented with the 6 DVDs with their captions using consistent format.
• Background colour green with a bright star logo to make the page more appealing.
• The number 100 having a larger text font and different colour text to give importance and fill people with awe, when seeing that THAT is the number of pounds they are going to save.
• On the second page, a collage of images, some bigger than others, set out by the most important, with text underneath explaining the image and who the artist is.
• The footer of every page is also consistent throughout the magazine with only the colour of the text changing sometimes or the background colour.

Screen vs Print Design

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Screen and Print Design may have a lot in common, but can be a completely different experience from each other. For instance let us take the example of a book. Som

e people may prefer to use the interactive way to read a book by using kindle (e-reading), it is very easy to buy books using kindle and portability is a sure plus. Weight is not a problem and you can have as many books as you want stored on kindle. Others however, prefer to physically hold the book and get the printed feel of it. Me personally, I love the ‘real’ books (The printed version so to speak). It is kind of hard to put into words, but the feel of paper feels good in my hands and I just love
it when I buy a new book and the smell of new paper hits my nostrils. This is what is meant by the term ‘different experience’.

And so although the interactive way of viewing information and material on screen is becoming popular and in some aspects even replacing the printing method, it is quite hard to imagine a world where only screen design exists. The printed method is still very much popular. Magazines and newspapers for instance are still high in demand. Everyday, new magazines and newspapers come out and are bought.

There are a many other forms of printed design material. These include brochures, pamphlets, greeting cards, business cards, product packaging and logos.

As for screen design, examples include websites, animations and the touch screen car menu, showing several different options one may choose from such as turning on GPS or playing music.

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The audience

Who, what and why? The 3 main questions you have to ask yourself before starting your design. The first question. Who is the audience you are targeting? Are they of a small age? Are  they teenagers? Elder people? Business people? These are important questions you need to ask yourself before starting the design. For example if you are to design a product which is targeted specifically at teenagers and this product has a logo with a name on it as a print design, you are going to make use of a different typography than if you were to design a product suitable for preschoolers.

The second question. What is the aim of the project? What is trying to be accomplished? The design of the product is of great importance and so knowing what the goals are for the final product is important too. Using a screen design example, if for instance you are designing a website to sell a product or a service, the design has to be simple and easy to navigate through, preferably with a menu for ease of navigation and comfort for the user. Users will easily lose interest in looking at your website if they find it difficult to use and for this reason, web designers should take every measure to ensure this does not happen and keep the user’s attention by making them delve deeper and explore your site. This can be accomplished by animation, sound and interactivity on your site.

The third question. Making use of a print design example, we ask the question why should I use one texture, shape, size and layout of one design over the other. For instance, if you were to design a printed business card to a firm which deals with architecture, it would be a great and suitable idea to make use of a felt paper texture. This would give the correct feel you get associated with architecture.

References

Kliever, J. (April 8, 2015). Graphic Design for Print vs The Web: 15 Vital Differences You Need To Know About – Design School. [online] Design School. Available at: https://designschool.canva.com/blog/print-vs-web/ [Accessed 13 Oct. 2016].

Miller, E. (February 4, 2016). How is Designing for the Web Different than Print?. [online] About.com Money. Available at: http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/printvsweb/a/print_vs_web.htm [Accessed 13 Oct. 2016].

 

 

Early Days of Graphics Design

Before we get to different examples of Graphical Designs that were mostly used in the early days (3,400 BCE), we must first understand what the meaning and term “Graphic Design” is. In simple English, Graphic Design is a means of visual communication that in order to convey a message to the audience, makes use of different images, typography and illustrations which still sends the information and is understood by the audience nonetheless.

Petroglyphic Figures – The early forms of writings

The word petroglyph comes from the Greek word petra (stone) and glyphein (to carve) and so petroglyphs were basically images carved into stone by people dating back to 40,000 years ago!

Petroglyph from Arches National Park, Utah, USA

It is important to note that these are carved images and scratched into stone and is not to be confused with Pictographs which are paintings on stones rather than indenting them, using pigments (such as charcoal from a burnt out fire or animal blood) to change the colour. Pictographs and also Ideographs (graphic symbols) came after Petrogylphs. Furthermore, Petroglyphs require more time and effort than Pictographs to make as well and petroglyphs are more unlikely to recede from view than pictographs.

Hieroglyphs

These were also 1 of the early forms of writings which dates back to 3,300 BCE. This type of writing form was used in ancient Egypt, by using the glyphs which consisted of logograms (a character or sign representing a word or phrase), phonograms(a character or sign representing a sound) and determinatives (another type of ideogram which gives meaning to a character. Hieroglyphs were used for approximately 3,500 years! It is important to note that Hieroglyphs were only used by the Egyptians.

Cuneiform Tablets

It is a type of an ancient script which was used to record information and events, used for trading, astronomy and also literature. Some of these date back to 3,400 BCE, even older than Hieroglyphs. It’s good to note that Cuneiform itself is not a language, but rather makes use of up to 1,000 characters. Unlike Hieroglyphs, Cuneiform tablets started being used by the Sumerians and continued being used to help write other languages such as Elamite and Hittite. Cuneiform was eventually replaced by the Phoenician Alphabet, but it doesn’t mean that it is not used anymore nowadays. We may as well still be using it nowadays for spelling, since cuneiform was adapted and altered into many other languages.

Cylinder seals were also linked to the cuneiform tablets and were also a source of recording information. It was a way of sealing your signature. They were made by engraving gems or hardstone.

Cylinder Seal banquet Louvre found in Mari

Papyrus

Papyrus came after and was the first type of paper to be produced, which was made from the pith of the papyrus plant and so over were the days of writing on clay and stones. Papyrus made life for the Egyptians much easier, for now they could carry their writings with ease, and it also made writing much simpler than having to use stone or clay. This method of writing dates back to 3000 BCE and kept on being used for thousands of years. This was during the time when the alphabet started taking form, from pictorial to symbols. The papyrus also served for other purposes, such as weaving baskets, shoemaking, food, medicine and also perfume. Papyrus is still used nowadays though not as frequent.

The Middle Ages

By this time, the Romans had adopted the Greek art, literature, religion and alphabet, but based their alphabet on the square, triangle and circle.

Along the way, the codex started replacing the papyrus scrolls. The codex was made from a number of sheets of paper, vellum which was made using calf skin or unborn calves, kids and lambs or parchment which was leather from other different animals. Vellum was generally used for the more expensive books such as bibles. Parchment became more popular because it was more flexible, long-lasting and stronger.

For the decoration of books, they made use of Celtic designs, gold leaves, Lapiz Lazuli, gum, water and sanguine or red chalk. Pictures were also used for religious purposes. A great example of this is the Book of Kells.

The 4 Evangelists in the Book of Kells

Charlemagne (742 – 814) also known as Charles the Great, was a famous Emperor in the Middle Ages whose main purpose was to unite the German people into one kingdom and restore order after the fall of Rome in Europe. Charlemagne became king of the Franks in 771 and to some was considered as the father of Europe. He was known to be a ruthless emperor and forced many pagans and non-believers to convert to Christianity. To carry out this task, Charlemagne engaged his tribe and militia in many battles and slaughtered anyone who opposed him and did not convert to Christianity.

Charlemagne also gave a hard push to the Caroline Miniscule alphabet. The alphabet was uniform with rounded shapes, something which was considered a value to Charlemagne. He also wanted his people to be well educated and not fall back into barbaric ways, and so books in medieval times were in high demand.

The Printing Press

Fast forwarding time into the late 1430s, during the late medieval time, a man named Johann Gutenberg found a way to re-invent the way printing works and make printing a whole lot faster than it was currently being used at the time, by using a machine instead of people to print on paper. At that time, the way printing functioned was by people using wooden blocks with carved letters, symbols or pictures on a separate block and dipping the blocks into ink, while stamping the blocks onto paper to create the print. One could only imagine how expensive and time consuming this form of printing was and owning a single book was a rarity during those times. In fact only very important books were printed and most of them were bibles which were mainly owned by churches or rich families. The first movable type was introduced around 1040 AD in ancient China by a man named Bi Sheng but this did not become very popular
. So what did Gutenberg do to change this?

Well, he was the first man to come up with with a better and
also PRACTICAL technique of a movable type using a printing press which all
owed for an assembly line-style production process, making printing much easier, to the
point where books could be mass produced and affordable.

References

Touregypt.net. (2016). Egyptian Papyrus Historically. [online] Available at: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/papyrus.htm [Accessed 11 Oct. 2016].

Historyworld.net. (2016). HISTORY OF WRITING MATERIALS. [online] Available at: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=ady2 [Accessed 11 Oct. 2016].

Science, L. (2016). Who Invented the Printing Press?. [online] Live Science. Available at: http://www.livescience.com/43639-who-invented-the-printing-press.html [Accessed 11 Oct. 2016].

CMYK vs RGB

Starting off on CMYK…many of us have heard or seen this term being used on either certain software programs such as Adobe Illustrator or maybe used as an advert.

 

CMYK used in Illustrator

Despite being a popular term, many fail to note what the letters CMYK stand for. CMYK is an abbreviation for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black[which is not really a colour in itself, but rather black being the abcense of light]). CMYK is a type of colour model which is much more limited to shades of colour.

RGB on the other hand, which stands for Red, Green, Blue has a much bigger colour spectrum than CMYK, which is the reason why sometimes what you see on a display monitor to that of what you see on a piece of printed paper, can differ a great deal. The RGB is mainly used for computer monitors or television sets. This gives us a conclusion that the RGB spectrum has millions more colours than the CMYK.

If however, you are looking to print an illustration, then CMYK is the best option.

We can say that CMYK is sort of an opposite to the RGB model. This is due to the fact that in CMYK, we subtract the brightness from the white colour or in other words we subtract different shades of red, green and blue since those 3 primary colours together make the colour white by using what we call “inks”, however in the RGB model we make us of the additive colours which we call “lights” (the red, blue, green) and if for example you add red or green or blue (one of the primary colours) this gives us a different shade of colour.

References

Crux Creative. (2012). RGB VS CMYK: WHEN TO USE WHICH AND WHY. [online] Available at: http://cruxcreative.com/rgb-vs-cmyk-when-to-use-which-and-why/ [Accessed 7 Oct. 2016].

Van Holten, D. (2016). RGB versus CMYK. [online] Printernational.org. Available at: http://www.printernational.org/rgb-versus-cmyk.php [Accessed 7 Oct. 2016].

Morton, J. (2016). Color Systems – RGB & CMYK. [online] Colormatters.com. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/color-systems-rgb-and-cmyk [Accessed 7 Oct. 2016].

Colour Psychology

Colours. Our world is surrounded by them. Everywhere we look and everything we see is illuminated by millions of different shades of colours. Some colours are darker than others. Some are more bright and glossier in comparison to other colours and we are all human beings with different characters and personalities and all of us have different likes and dislikes. The same goes when it comes to choosing which colours we like and which we don’t.

Throughout history, colours have played a very important part, up to a point where we started defining colours and associating different colours with different features and also different emotions.

Yes, colours do carry a meaning to us whether we like it or not since this is something which has become hardwired in our brains throughout the years and colours carry out and make us feel different emotions. Now some of these colours may not correlate with all readers out there, but the following are very close to what the community in general feel with regard to these colours.

Red – This highly energetic and hot colour is one of the most favoured among society. It is a colour which invokes passion, lust and love and in fact reminds most of us in Valentine’s day. It also make us take action and keep us confident. On the other hand, this colour is also associated with anger, danger, violent and rebellious

Yellow – This is also one of the favourites and is quite a warm colour as well. It is a very bright and luminous colour and is therefore a colour associated with fun, hope, happiness and optimism. It can also be a colour used to give us warnings or to be cautious of danger that might be afoot. Yellow can also be associated with negative traits such as physical sickness, betrayal, deceitfulness, cowardice and impatience.

Green – Most of us associate green with nature, which is probably the reason why we link growth, vitality and rebirth with this colour. It is a colour which brings a certain kind of serenity and calmness to our minds. Kindness and a good sense of judgement are also positive traits of this colour and shares a love for family and friends. On a different note, this colour can be associated with envy and greed and like the yellow colour, it can be used to describe someone as being sick which when you reflect upon, is quite ironic when the same colour can be related to vitality. 

Blue – The most favoured colour among society.This is another colour which correlates to nature, in means of sky and sea. It is a cold colour and one full of authority and can be quite unforgiving at times. It represents loyalty, honesty, trust and freedom. Like the colour green, it is calm and tranquil. Unfortunately blue has a few negative traits of its own as well, the biggest one probably being depression and sadness. It is also a predictable colour and not spontaneous which in my point of view is not always a good thing. 

Purple – The royal colour. This is personally my least favourite colour. Since ancient times, purple was used as means to show power and although in today’s modern times this has lessened, it is still used to show power and wealth over others. It is a colour which spiritually calms our emotions and is full of mystery and dreams… however this colour is associated with arrogance and corruption. 

Fun Fact: The only 2 countries with their flag having the colour purple in them are Dominica and Nicaragua with only a speck of purple in them, as shown below.

The Dominica Flag with the parrot having his head and breast coloured purple

The Nicaragua Flag with a rainbow that has one of its stripes coloured purple

 

References

Empowered By Color. (2016). Meaning of Colors in Color Psychology. [online] Available at: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html [Accessed 10 Oct. 2016].

Morton, J. (2016). Explore Colors. [online] Colormatters.com. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/color-symbolism/the-meanings-of-colors [Accessed 10 Oct. 2016].

Motivation

So what exactly caught my interest in the first place that made me further my studies in Interactive Media? Well it all started when I was still in secondary school, the place and time where you really start noticing what things you like to do more than others. So one day we were having a computer lesson and in this lesson we learned a little about Photoshop, some techniques we can use, quick tips and tricks to make use of. to give and show an image its 100% potential etc etc…The lesson was only 1 hour long so we didn’t really have time to practice Photoshop ourselves, but the teacher showed us some really great pictures and images that were edited and enhanced using Photoshop and I immediately loved what I saw and wanted to be able to manipulate, create and change images myself using Photoshop.

Long story short, from then onwards, I decided to continue my studies at MCAST Paola on IT Software, where there we learned some subjects that I found really enjoyable, one of them being 3D Modelling. Programming was never really my forte and so I decided to continue furthering my studies at MCAST Mosta at the Institute of Creative Arts.

My next target now is to get a Degree in Interactive Media and after that, hopefully find a job associated with my studies, or at least a job which makes me content.

 

The Colour Wheel

Sir Isaac Newton was the first known person who invented the concept of a circular diagram containing colours, and since then, many other scientists have followed in his footsteps and continued to enhance this theory. Other scientists include Moses Harris and Johan Wolfgang von Goethe.

But firstly, what is a colour wheel? A colour wheel is simply a rounded coloured diagram based upon 3 primary colours; Red, Blue and Yellow. By mixing these 3 colours together, we are able to extract our secondary colours; Orange, Green and Violet. Following the secondary colours, if we continue to mix the secondary colours together with a primary colour, we will get our tertiary colours; Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet. This process goes on using the same concept and can end up with millions of different shades of colours.

 

The Colour Wheel

References

Tigercolor.com. (2016). Basic color schemes: Color Theory Introduction. [online] Available at: http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm [Accessed 07 Oct. 2016].

Colormatters.com. (2016). Basic Color Theory. [online] Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory [Accessed 07 Oct. 2016].

 

 En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Color wheel. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel [Accessed 07 Oct. 2016].