Megg's History of Graphic Design Chapter 8

Title page from john Milton's Paradise Lost, John Baskerville, 1760



Master Alphbets for the Romain du Roi, Louis Simonneau, c.1700.



Title Pages from Manuel typographique, volume 1, Pierre Simon Fournier Le Jeune, 1764.



Broadside type specimen, William Caslon, 1734

- The typeface Romain du Roi had increased contrasts between thick and thin strokes, sharp horizontal serifs, and an even balance to each letterform

-1702 Medailles folio was the first book to feature the new types

-As engravers became increasingly skillful they could produce books independent of typographic printers by hand engraving both illustrations and text.

-Though William Caslon’s design were not very fashionable they were very sturdy and legible

-Baskerville preferred pure typographic books rather than engraved title pages, illustrations and generous use of flowers and arrangements

-The foundation for information graphics is analytic geometry, developed by Rene Descartes

- “Modern” defines a category of roman type, first used by Fournier le Jeune in his Manual typographique to describe trends that culminated in Bodoni’s work

Typography timeline Draft

What I have for my Typographic timeline so far, my idea is to have a plumed pen and each feather holds the information and on the end of each there will be an example of that font. Still going back and forth with a color scheme I was hoping for a vintage poster feel.

Chapter 7 Megg's History of Graphic Design

Printer's Mark, Pere Miguel, 1494.



Pot casse emblem, Geoffroy Tory, 1524.



Fantastic alphabet from Champ Fleury, Geoffroy Tory, 1529.



Title page for the Whole book of Psalmes, Stephen and Matthew Daye, 1640.

-The roman alphabet designs of Sweynheym and Pannartz and the course decorative borders of early French books were the first steps towards Renaissance book designs.

-Many early printers designed trade marks to identify their books

-Design innovations like the title page, roman and italic type, printed page numbers, woodblock and cast metal ornaments and approaches to the layout of illustrations with type enabled Italian printers to pass on the basic format of the typographic book

-Roman capital initials are set into block squares with meticulous floral designs and crible

-After the war between French troops and the reformed church, many French printers Fled to other countries such as England and Switzerland

-First print in American colonies was the Whole booke of Psalms, printed by Stephen Daye.

Chapter 6 Meggs history of graphic design

Illustration from The Game and Playe of the Chesse by Jacobus de Cessolis, c. 1476



Illustration from Teuerdank, Johann Schoensperger, c.1517.



Illustration from De responsione mundiet de astrorum ordinatione, Gunther Zainer, fifteenth century



Nuremburg Chronicles, Anton Koberger, 1493.

-Incunabula meaning “cradle” or “baby linen” was the adopted name for books printed between Gutenburg’s invention of typography in the 1450s.

-Printers met a lot of ressitance from woodcutter’s guilds, such as Gunther Zainer when he wanted to illustrate his books with woodblocks.

-Exemplers: handmade model layouts and manuscript texts used as guides lines for the woodcut illustrations, typesetting, page design, and makeup of books.

-The types for teuerdank, designed by court calligrapher vincenz Rockner, comprised one of the earlist examples of the gothic style known as Fraktur.

-The types designed by Sweynheym and Pannartz marked the first step towards a romanstyle typography based on letterforms that had been developed by italian scribes.

-Printing came to other countries such as France and spain through German printers sent by German import-export firms.

Chapter 5 Megg's History of Graphic Design

System for casting type,(Steel punch, Brass Matrix, two type molds) Early-nineteenth-century.



Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, Jan Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 1459.



The Master of the Playing cards, The Three Birds, c. 1450.



Jack of Diamonds, woodblock playing card, c. 1400

-Typographic printing allowed economical and multiple production of alphebet communication

-After the Crusades opened Europe to Eastern influence, relief printing arrived on the heels of paper, Playing cards and religious-image points were early manifestations.

-Early prints evolved into block books, which were woodcut picture books with religious subject matterandbreif text.

-John Gensfleish zum Gutenburg of Mainz, Germany, first brought together the complex systems and subsystems necessary to print a typographic book around the year 1450

-Gutenburg developed a unique alloy to maintain a constant mass throughout the process of manufacturing type and used Linseed oil to produce thick and tacky ink

-Rationale Divinorum officiorum was the first typographic book that employed a small-sized type style to conserve space and increase the amount of text in each page.

Chapter 4 Megg's History of Graphic Design

Islamic Illuminated manuscript, eighteenth century



The book of Durrow, the man, symbol of Mathew, 680 CE.



Caroline minuscule from the Alcuin Bible, ninth century CE.



Unicials from the Gospel of saint Matthew, eighth century CE.

-Illuminated manuscripts get their names from the reflectiveness of the gold leaf applied to hand written books, though the name today refers to all decorated and illustrated hand written books developed in the 1400s. The decoration gave the images mystical and spiritual overtones.

-The evolution of letter styles was based on a continuing search for simpler and faster letterform construction and writing ease. “Unicia” letters were more suited to rapid writing

-The interlace seen in a lot of Celtic art was a two dimensional decoration formed by a number of ribbons.

-Islamic design motifs filtered into Spanish Christian manuscripts they were fascinated with designs of intricate geometry and intense pure color.

-During the 1200s the rise of universities created an expanding market for books, literacy was on the rise.

Chapter 3 Megg's History of Graphic Design

Lantingji Xu, Wang Xizhi's,353



"A goat and sheep", Zhao Meng-Fu, fourteenth century CE.



Woodblock image of revolving typecase, c. 1313 CE.



Chinese movable types, c. 1300 CE.

-Chinese writing is visual, every symbol is composed of a number of differently shaped lines with in an imaginary square. Chinese characters are logograms, graphic signs that represent an entire word.

- The high government official, Ts’ai Lun invented paper, before the chinese wrote on bamboo slats using bamboo pens with dense ink.

-Printing was invented by the chinese, the first form was relief printing seals called chops were made by carving calligraphic characters into a flat surface of jade, silver, gold, or ivory

-during the early ninth century the chinese government began to issue paper certificates to merchants. Paper money was used instead of metal coins due to shortage of iron money. China became the first society where ordinary people had daily contact with printed images.

Project 1:Infographics Timeline

Infographics The Board Game! :D

Chapter 2 Megg's History of Graphic Design

Ras Shamra Script, c.1500 BCE.


Greek Allotment tokens, C.450-430 BCE.


Book Script, C. 400-500 BCE.


Base of Trajan's Column, C. 114 CE.

-The alphabet’s true source may come from the Phoenicians, and early Canaanites and Hebrews. -Phoenicians were sea travelers and their settlements were hubs for international trade so they were able to spread their ideas as well as the alphabet to different places such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. -The Phoenician alphabet evolved not only into Greek and Roman writing but also into Aramaic as well which would become the predecessor to modern Hebrew and Arabic . -As the Greeks used and developed the Phoenician language using it in for such things like democratic situations and play writing it was adopted by the romans and was spread throughout the world and became the foundation for many other languages and alphabets. -Alphabets made literacy possible for poorer society members.