1.2 HISTORICAL APPROACH TO GRAPHIC DESIGN

A. HISTORICAL APPROACH

FROM XIV CENTURY

• Movable types started everything
• Johann Gutenberg (1440)
• Text dominanted printing process
• Writter shared thougths, printer gave shape
• Illustration begun as 'illuminations'

PATH TO XX CENTURY

• The fonts evolved from xv century
• First attempts: proportions, geometry and symmetry
• It wasn't till XIX century when new procucts appear
• Posters, packaging, magazines...
• Images won strenght as element of design

PATH TO XX CENTURY

• Most of the elements of new media refer to old days
• 'Font' comes from 'fount' (meaning 'melt')
• 'Uppercase' and 'lowecase' come from position of letters in boxes
• 'Leading' (interlineate) from 'lead' (material used to separate lines)
• 'Points' and 'ems' to measure height and width from letters

20TH CENTURY

• The XX century bought more clearness despite victorian style
• Vanguardism focused on clearity and readability
• Author: Herbert Bayer (Bauhaus)
• Author: Jan Tschichold (Die neue typographie)
• Idea: Sans serifs are mandatory

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20TH CENTURY

• Swiss style also was important during '50s
• Ideas: Same as vanguardism, and grids

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20TH CENTURY

• Dadaism, a mix between art and social reaction (1916-1920)
• Ideas: irreverence, improvisation and social criticism
• Author: John Heartfield

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20TH CENTURY

• Media entered this game in '50s and '60s
• Photolithography and pictures overpassed movable type
• Pop culture fusionated arts, music, cinema and fashion
• From '60 to '70 graphic designer became wider in actions
• Saul Bass: designed titles for Hitchcock and Preminger

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20TH CENTURY

• Then, internet: the beginning of new media
• 1945: Vanner Bush wrote 'As we may think'
• Problem: huge amount of information many need to reach
• Memex protocol: machine to achieve, store and find

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20TH CENTURY

• 1947: Alan Turing starts working in Manchester Mark I
• It was the first storing computer
• After that, other systems as Ferranti Mark I followed
• Conway Berners-Lee and Mary Lee Woods where working there
• Their son Tim created internet years later

20TH CENTURY

• 1960: Douglas Englebart creates Augmented Research Center
• Their goal: make computers not for scientists, but for people
• They had to be interconected machines suitable for anyone
• 1963: Ted Nelson created 'hypertext' and 'hypermedia' terms
• They were defined as keys to interact with the system

20TH CENTURY

• First computerized graphics were created at universities
• There weren't screens at that computers
• Those graphics were printed in acetates
• Once printed, they were recorded with 16mm stop motion cameras

20TH CENTURY

• 1970: Xerox joined several researchers at Xerox PARC
• Their mission: create a protocol for architecture of digital information
• Text suites, e-mail or connected computers are part of their legacy

20TH CENTURY

• 1972: Alan Kay develops Graphic User Interface
• Learning code was no longer needed: screen shows things as they look
• The concept 'WYSIWYG' is a core part of graphic design
• He also created Dynabook, the first laptop prototype

20TH CENTURY

• 1980: Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN, changes history
• Proposed joining computers connection with hypertext
• The idea: a interconnected system to store, locate and access documents
• 1990: He created first internet browser
• 1993: Marc Andressen launches Mosaic, able to show text and pictures in internet

20TH CENTURY

• 1983: Apple launches Lisa, first computer with GUI
• 1984: Apple launches first Mac computer

20TH CENTURY

• That Mac was the first affordable personal computer
• Revolutionary because showed on screen what was going to be published
• Its hardware included new hardware: a mouse
• Included first text processor (MacWrite) and picture editor (MacPaint)
• Both combined, with screen and printer allowed people start self-edition

20TH CENTURY

• 1985: IBM 5150 (launched in 1981) adds first rudimentary Windows
• It was a GUI working for for MS-Dos
• That year Apple launched Aldus PageMaker (later, Adobe InDesign)

GRAPHIC DESIGN IN FIRST NEW MEDIA

• All that changes in ideas and software changed grapic design
• Not only you can combine text, pictures and print
• You can also change things magically before ending

GRAPHIC DESIGN IN FIRST NEW MEDIA

• First computers were able only to show and print rasterized fonts
• With 72ppi pixels everything looked in a 'saw-style'
• Apple PostScript makes possible work with quality fonts and pictures
• 1985: Apple LaserWriter, first printer working with that language
• And thanks to all that layout and design started working together

GRAPHIC DESIGN IN FIRST NEW MEDIA

• From then until now digital design has been evolving
• Text, pictures, audio, video and annimations are together
• Information has no more fixed sequencies
• There is no lineal order: hyperlinks make dynamic reading possible

GRAPHIC DESIGN IN FIRST NEW MEDIA

• 1995: Widespresd use of internet makes possible a 'second revolution'
• Then other problems started to be solved
• For instance, make screen colors real when printed
• For instance, fixing sizes despite changing computers
• For instance, creating fonts specially for computers with high resolution