February 15th

Just to start off, i've gotta say that today was, for whatever reason, just not easy to pay attention, the information was smacking me in the face with no real absorption, so heres the notes on what I got from the class....


So there's Rudolf Koch, a german typographic artist inspired by William Morris
he held the alphabet in very high regards
created "Nueland" typeface designed to be the pinnacle of German typography
created a variety of gothic faces as well, used heavily in Germany
twist in his story?
His German typefaces used heavily in African and Caribbean printing 
Today most often seen on the decals and tattoos of minorities 


Art nouveau inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement 
Becomes lead by more younger artists and due to this takes on a more risque visage and becomes uncensored in a way, very edgy stuff


Jules Cheret- father of the modern poster
Created a series of posters in 1900, sold for a large sum of money
You typically see a central female figure surrounded by movement, activity and typography
inspired by the work of loutrec for Moulin Rouge


Jules rival is Eugine Grasset
has a coloring book style to his work, with heavy black lines and flat panels of color

The Studio a popular magazine in 1893 centered around the graphic arts and illustration

highlights work of Aubrey Beardsley

also inspired by William Morris

Yellow Book- magazine for the excessive

High contrast illustrations that are reminiscent of wood block prints

very shocking

Alfonz Mocha- illustrator working in paris- 1890's

worked on thin vertical posters

designs are all very pragmatic

richly illustrated with a lot of texture

tiles, floral in the hair, volume, all the while being a flat articulation

Louis Reid & Will Bradley are the two leading practitioners of Art Nouveau inspired design in America.

Reid embraces pattern and panels of vibrant colors.

Henry Vandevelde- painter, architect, and designer

Draws influence from a variety of sources

japanese prints, art nouveau, arts & crafts together

title pages and poster design

"Jugend" (german for "youth")- magazine for younger society- young people style 

Peter Behrens- member of the jugend group 

known for multicolor woodblock prints 

"the kiss"- mysterious subjects, 2 figures kissing, but their sex is unkown

Characteristics of the glasgow school-

geometric

curved elements

rectilinear structure

symbolism

stylized 

February 1st

Oh god. So the dreaded test is next class, that means I need to actually retain some of whats been said in class??

We started of todays class with the rest of the film about William Morris and the legacy he left behind.

Arts and crafts movement comes around in reaction to industrialization

When people rebel against something (industrialization) they need to fill the void with something

With John Ruskin, utopian ideas begin to be had, more and more people are beginning to wrestle with these large ideas. Ruskin refuted the idea of the mercantile economy. 

Ruskin-philosophical leader that arts and crafters look to

With the union of art and labor, the idea that your work should be in service of society (constuction of gothic cathedral, as an example, various people coming together and putting together their ideas and skill)

How can art and craft combine for a beautiful result?

How can we bring the craftsman back?

Most people remember Morris for his pattern design.

The original wood plates designed by Morris are still in use today for wallpaper.

Morris established the Kelmscott Press in order to produce books by traditional method.

Golden Legend- type designed by William Morris, based on Jenson

Troy- Blackletter

Chaucer- Smaller version of troy

1894- Story of the Glittering Plain- Borders designed by Morris, Illustrations by Walter Krane

In the U.S.- the arts and crafts movement associated with Bruce Rogers, Frederick Goudy

Roycrofters- take the ideas of the arts and crafts movement to the U.S. And put an American spin on it, they have a more pragmatic business model and create more affordable pieces, Roycroft movement much more pragmatic than its English arts and craft counterpart

New information is sort of lacking in this class, but the review was extensive

Since I've covered almost all of the ideas and points in my previous blogs, theres no real need to go over it all again. 

A few of the points we touched on:

Point size measured from highest to lowest

Focus on sequence and overarching themes and ideas more so than dates, remember chronological order. 

Ars Memorandi- 1470- Art of Dying

REMEMBER THE PUNCH and the process associated with it

textura- even texture, seen in the Gutenberg bible

31 line Letters of Indulgence (not something done by hand, early manifestation of Guttenberg's printing) vs Gutenberg bible

*exemplar page

Well, the movies drew on for a while, and to be honest, I got a kick out of the way the host talked, but there was definitely ALOT to hear about the life and legacy of William Morris. Hopefully I do well on the test next class, god knows I need it.

January 25th

1800- first iron printing press, great because iron can be cast easily so more can be made quickly, iron is durable and can apply more force

Frederich Koening- 1814- inventor of the first durable cylinder steam powered press, the double cylinder can produce 1000 prints an hour

Ned Lud- led revolt against technology

Luddites- people who refuse technology

Due to this belief, construction and use of these machines had to be done in secrecy to avoid damage and destruction by the luddites.

Penny papers- cheap and visually conservative, they gave the common man the opportunity to afford a paper, to make up the lost money, these newspapers sold ad space

The first Ad Man- John Goober- 1881- had the first ad agency 

The first ad men were brokers of space

Otmar Mergenthaller- 1886- perfected the linotype machine, allowed the user to set an entire line of type at once, 1 person can do the work of 7 or 8

Victorian era graphics- marked by their aesthetic confusion

Victorian era- marked by strong moral and religious beliefs, the victorians loved fussiness

During this era, which is loosely related to the rule of Queen Victoria, you have a rise of the middle class, a rise of people with extra money to spend, these are the people who never had money who all of a sudden have plenty so they buy, and with the rise of these people are the people right next to them to help them spend it. You have a radical decline in the quality of products, with more people around to spend money, people become business people existing to simply sell, so you have people making chairs and what not who arent craftsman or love the craft

Lithography allows for crazy shapes, blends, and gradation

Chromolithography- begins in boston

ephemera- printed documents and things not meant to be collected (dime store novel, movie or show ticket)

scrap cards- chromolithograph prints, great examples of victorian era graphics, produced in mass, not intended as works of art

Victorian era graphics- fresh faced/idealized imagery of children, pattern work, exotic animals, trompe l'oiel, a lot of graphics promoting entertainment, our idea of father christmas comes about at this time

Around this time, a lot of examples of nationalistic pride

The use of color becomes much more evident and common

Chromolithography allows for the print of color on metal

It's around this time that we see the development of American food culture

1901- Quaker oats is developed from the combined effort of various oat sellers (this is also the time we see the development of Aunt Jemima and other brand names, products start adopting personas, developing a relationship with the consumer is important to win their trust)

Popular magazines begin to rise from the mid 1800s- “The Practical Housekeeper” with these magazines, the advertisements both juxtapose and play minds games of sorts ( practical housekeeping woman vs. leibig beef extract ad woman)

reductive style- akin to abstraction

toybooks- created for childrens entertainment

Walter Crane's absurd ABC's- 1874

Ralph Caldecott's Hey Diddle Diddle- 1880

Kate Greenaway's Under the Window- 1879

1840's- Harper's Illuminated New Pictorial Bible which was sold in 64 installments

Harpers Weekly, using engraved sketches

Thomas Nast- father of american political cartoon, he gave us uncle sam, the donkey and elephant, our modern depiction of santa clause, as well as Columbia, He is also credited with beginning the downfall of boss tweed in NY

Short video about William M. Tweed or "Boss Tweed"-  U.S. politician who heavily affected the politics of New York City and State around the mid 1800's, he was accused and convicted of fraud, treason, grand larseny, for which he was imprisoned.

John Ruskin- how can you consciously order the lives of society so that everyones happy, this is the beginning of socialistic ideals, he thinks about restructuring society

William Morris- father of the arts and crafts movement, supported the idea of getting back to the loving quality craftwork of making a chair, getting away from the shotty workmanship and produce more quality products, his entire life was a crusade against the ugliness of the industrial revolution, and his list of achievements include but are in no way limited to reviving the medieval art of tapestry making, wrote over 90 books, and was one of the most popular poets of his time