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Graphic
Design and Computers
I
have taken liberties with Webster’s definitions for the
purpose of making more clear the nature of my comments. Constraint
is defined as the act of holding back or repression because
of external forces or conditions. Restraint is defined as
control over one’s thoughts, actions or feeling–reserve,
to curb, check or bridle, and this is internal to the individual.
I am one of those persons who instinctively relates to plants
and animals but totally freak out with mechanical devices
when they do not work. This includes cars to refrigerators
and everything in between. I am convinced that machines sense
my ineptitude and deliberately test me. With good reason,
I have a deep-seated belief in the inevitable perversity of
inanimate objects such as any kind of machine including computers.
My first computer sat on the desk for a year before I turned
it on. The computer was delivered to me in 1983 and turned
on sometime during the Fall of 1984. It was an IBM hard disk
with Word Star software. I learned word processing –
period. Twelve years later I was still using the same machine
and software but did change printers although the new one
is still a dot matrix. Now that my credentials have been stated,
I can proceed with my remarks in clear conscience. To loosely
paraphrase a well known axiom, They who fail to learn from
history are doomed to repeat the same mistakes.
History
Repeats Itself
This certainly applies to design, and the concept is deserving
of examination as it pertains to design, typography, printing
and computers. In many respects, the computer has created
a similar dilemma as that faced by Victorians–the sudden
decrease of constraints with a corresponding increase in options
because of new technology. I think we are seeing today many
of the same conditions that beset our forebears. In hindsight,
we know they failed to discipline themselves when presented
with a greater range of decision-making.
During the fifteenth century there were numerous constraints
imposed on printers. Most of them were physical and related
to available technology. Presses were primitive, paper was
handmade, type was made one letter at a time and illustration
was restricted to woodcuts. Every aspect of printing was labor
intensive and demanded great skill. During the incunabula
period, books were precious. Most were printed with wide outside
margins so that edges could be trimmed as they became worn
or soiled. The combination of technological constraints, function
and skills resulted in some of the most beautiful books ever
printed. There was a unique affinity between handmade paper,
type, woodcut and printing impression that has seldom been
matched since that time. The books themselves are works of
art. With each advance in the technology of printing, there
were fewer constraints and lesser skills were substituted
for more difficult ones. Woodcuts were first replaced by wood
engraving or lithography, and later by halftone screen; text
type was supplemented with decorative faces, and eventually,
the hand-caster was replaced by automatic type casters. Printing
presses moved from platen to drum and steam power replaced
hand-operated equipment. Paper production increased through
the use of wood pulp with new machines and processes.
Major
Changes: The 19th Century
Evolution was relatively slow until near the end
of the eighteenth century, and it was the nineteenth century
in which dramatic changes took place. Printing and type design
were both stimulated by, and reflected, the growing industrial
revolution. As options increased because of improved technology,
constraints on design became less of a factor. Technology
that expedited printing or reduced its cost was favored although
it decreased quality. With more options, there was a corresponding
bastardization of design most commonly demonstrated through
complexity and mixing of styles. With greater production of
marketing ephemeral and various public notices, typographic
novelty became the rule rather than the exception. Even with
its excesses, letterpress printing was governed by a vertical
and horizontal bias because of lock-up. With the invention
of lithography at the end of the eighteenth century and its
perfection during the early years of the nineteenth century,
the right angle constraints were eliminated. With lithography,
artists could integrate illustration with type, create new
letterforms, curve or bend lines of type. Conventional typographic
materials could be printed letterpress and transferred to
lithographic stone where it was combined with that of the
artist. Other than speed of production, there were few constraints
for artists using lithography. By the 1870s, most standard
typefaces were made in families of six or more styles of expanded,
condensed, bold to lightface and ornamental. With the invention
of electrotyping, the proliferation of designs and availability
of type rapidly multiplied. By the 1880s, major type houses
published specimen catalogs three to four inches thick illustrating
thousands of styles, variations and sizes.
From 1828 onward, large letters for posters, announcements,
marketing and various other uses were cut from wood and mass
produced. These letters regularly ranged from four to one
hundred pica but some were much larger. Until this time, text
type was viewed as texture and ornamental display type as
decoration. With the large wooden letters, shape became another
consideration. With the invention of paper made from wood
fiber, and reliance on wood engravings as well as finely delineated
ornamental typefaces, paper surfaces were calendered and smooth.
Paper was produced in an ever increasing range of sizes, grades
and colors. None of them possessed the same qualities as the
incunabula rag papers.
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