Lecture 3: The History of Type- production and distribution

The aim of this lecture is to understand where the now has come from and the chronologies of what has happened.

This lecture will cover from 3000BC to 1919

Any language to exist has to be an agreement that one thing will stand for another, it is social not purely individual therefore the sender and receiver must both understand if it is going to be successful. Type is a visualisation of language and the relationship between the type of language is its interpretation to visual communication. The interpretation with something as simple as 'type' is so vast. 

Type and typography is used interchangingly:
- Art and technique of printing with movable type
- The composition of printed material from movable type
- The arrangement and appearance of printed matter

TYPOGRAPHY:
- Craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form
- Type is a modernist obsession 
- "The written word endures... the spoken word disappears"
- The moment we identified visual communication was between 3000 and 7000BC
- In 7000BC stuff was beginning to be wrote down as trade was the primary source of putting spoken language into visual language.

TYPE is speech made visible 
Language itself isn't a linear process, its very complex and multi-dimensional, it is the basis of type

All that is necessary for any language to exist is an arrangement amongst a group of people. We can take our learnt understanding of language and interpret other languages, there can be remakes of letterforms and they can still maintain meaning. 

The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 and represented 3 different languages: Egyptian; Democratic and Greek 

1450- Johannes Gutenberg began work in printing
Block and movable type had been around 600 years in China and he capitalised it in Europe- the first movable machine that made type.

1450-1700- Classical oldstyle type.
Type was designed for specific uses and in 1870, William Foster introduced the elementary education act and it became mandatory to learn how to read. It provided the basis for modern education. This then encouraged the mass production through print because the demand for newspapers increased and there was the introduction of ink, the typewriter and printing presses. 

1919- Walter Gropius
The Bauhaus from 1919-1933 was created on the back of the first world war. This lead to the industrialisation of design and it became an artisan craft based on rural economy- brought together by the Bauhaus.

Triangulation and Harvard Referencing

Lecture 2: A 20,000 Year Non-Linear History Of The Image

Aims of the lecture: 

- Give a range of visual communication from different cultures and contexts
- Demonstrate how creative and tangential connections can be taught by diverse examples

Visual communication and images provide us with lots of creative juxtapositions.

I am hoping this lecture can provide me with visual resources that may help when solving briefs- give me a creative outlook on how to approach the brief and what to research into. It will also provide some political and philosophical approaches that may be useful again to give me a different outlook on a brief but also help with the COP essays.

The power of the image is very primal, it can be immensely persuasive and powerful. As a graphic designer I am well aware of this which means it heavily influences my practise.

Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly's work is very expressive which creates a powerful and spiritual feeling when looking at his work. The work may appear to have no meaning but it can be interpreted in many different ways meaning the image becomes incredibly powerful and emotive.

Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas

The experience of going to an art gallery now can be very emotional, this idea is shown through the above image, Rothko's Chapel in Texas. Rothko was an artist who sadly committed suicide so the chapel was created showing this particular work where the canvas' are incredibly dark and dull. When looking at these images, some people began to cry finding the experience of looking at the images emotional knowing about the tragic end to his life. 

In the 21st Century it could be argued that nothing every really happens unless it is recorded, taking a photo and putting it on to social media. This is the platform that creates power and impact through the image and the power of the image making itself. This could be by-products of capitalism- for example the 'Mona- Lisa collectables'. 

Mona Lisa in the Louvre gallery

Again going back to the idea nothing happens unless it is recorded. 

The far distance from the people and the painting creates an aura of greatness, making it more powerful. However, is it only powerful because we are told it is? Degrading the authority of the art-world.

Banksy, Mona Lisa (2013) 

This artwork was produced in the street for free but because the art world decide Banksy is worth attention people now knock down walls and place this work in a gallery meaning it is no longer viewed as graffiti.

COP- Finding research sources

BA (hons) Graphic Design

Context of Practice 1

Finding research sources

•   CoP Theme: Society

'Although on the surface the nature of design may appear to be relatively inconsequential, it might well be said to play a formative role in the history of capitalism and, in turn, in the social expression of capitalist practices.' Miles, S. (1998) Consumerism: As a way of life. London: SAGE Publishing.

Search terms/key words: Consumerism, branding, capitalism, consumer society, brand value, brand loyalty, design and capitalism

LCA Library	1: The consumer society reader Schor, Juliet & Holt, Douglas  (2000) 2: This changes everything: capitalism vs. the climate Klein, Naomi (2014) 3: Design thinking: integrating innovation, consumer experience and brand value Lockwood, Thomas (2010)
Google Books (preview)	1: Work, consumption and capitalism, Lynne Pettinger 2: Marketing, William Pride, Ferrell   3: Marketing Semiotics: Signs, Strategies, and Brand Value, By Laura R. Oswald
Google Scholar	1: Branding, celebritization and the lifestyle expert, Tania Lewis 2: Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding, Douglas B. Holt 3: Becoming a Consumer Society: A Longitudinal and Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Print Ads from Hong Kong, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan, David K. Tse, Russell W. Belk, Nan Zhou
Websites	1: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/power-branding 2: http://money.howstuffworks.com/capitalism.htm 3: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/09/15/brand-value-what-it-means-finally-and-how-to-control-it/&refURL=https://www.google.co.uk/&referrer=https://www.google.co.uk/
JStor	1: Pesticides in Coca-Cola and Pepsi: Consumerism, Brand Image, and Public Interest in a Globalizing India, Neeraj Vedwan (2007) 2: The death of a consumer society, Matthew Hilton (2007) 3: Brand Value in social interaction, Dmitri Kukso (2007)

Lecture 1: Visual Literacy- The Language Of Design

This lecture is about both visual communication and visual literacy.

Visual Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages using type and images, a level of understanding of signs, symbols, gestures and objects and it is affected by the audience and media.

Visual Literacy is the ability to construct meaning from image and type, interpreting images from various cultures past and present and most importantly producing images that effectively communicate a message to the audience. 

Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. 

For example: 

From looking at each image you can immediately tell that these signs are for the correct toilet to enter into without needing the word toilet on the sign. This links with the idea that visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be read.

Example of the idea images can be read

Visual communication is made up of presentational symbols whose meaning results from their existence in particular contexts. The conventions of visual communication are a combination of universal and cultural symbols. For example the + and x symbol are the same but rotated and the = and divide symbol are similar also.

Visual Syntax: the syntax of an image refers to the pictorial structure and visual organisation of elements. it represents the basic building blocks of an image and that effects the way we read it.

The Semantics of an image refers way an image fits into a cultural process of communication. It includes the relationship between form and meaning and the way meaning is created.

Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. 

Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which studies the structure and meaning of language. Semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems, visual language and visual literacy.