Test 1

Zeitgeist: the spirit of time

There is the concept of art for arts sake: something is beautiful just to be beautiful didn’t come until the 19^th century

-Very significant because they could write everything—not everyone could write

-you had to know all the history

-gave status, didn’t have to pay taxes

-studied for years

Egyptians made papyrus--> libraries shifted from blocks to rolls which made information transportable and lighter

Chinese made paper--> natural fibers were soaked in water and beaten into a pulp, shakes fibers to let water out, pressed with a woolen cloth which adhered while it dried

-Went into the desert to start a new society

-learned how to live together

-find God, write rules

-quest for solitude

-Writing formed an alphabet

-The ideas of letters for a sound

-Phonetic spelling

Egyptians-->Phoenicians-->Aramaic-->Greeks-->Romans

            Phoneciean sailors built Egyptians started forming alphabet

            Aramaic -kufic reads from right to left

                -Aramaic writing was based on oral tradition

Greek writing was a form of geometric lettering in the construction and organization

Romans looked at voids in letters when writing

Greeks and Romans had an analytics way of thinking about writing

-Romans calligraphy moved away from gothic script and more towards that of Spira or Jenson

Spria

Traveled from Mainz Germany to Venice

-goldsmith, printed in Venice


Jenson
humanistic typography
Taveled from France to Mainz to Venice
-extreme legibility in the fonts, great ability to design spaces between the letters and within each form to create an even tone throughout the page

The book of Kells, Lindisfarne, The book of Durrow:

            -holisticà simultaneous w. music and architecture and stained glass

                        -pulled forward to the now: set designs in Monasteries

            -ripple effects, legacies

Isolation=insulation

Book of Kells- signed by technique (person A, B, C)

The Celtic knots were made on a grid-structure, layers built upon each other

--was destroyed by Vikings

(see page 44-46)

Celtic People

-Nature was important to them

-high artistic ability

-deep spirituality

-When the church went to Ireland they blended with the Celtics

-Celtics worshiped at stones

-celtic church saw god everywhere in everything

**Romans were wary of nature, they kept the spiritual world separate from the natural world

Newborns born with sin vs newborns of god (celtic)

-Chinese created moveable type but it didn't spread because for the number of characters and symbols they had, it was impractical to use

-Started as gothic font --- see Gutenberg

-apprenticed as goldsmith: he can work finely, understands chemicals (engravings and metal work)

-created a secret process for making mirror

-brought together complex systems and subsystems, spent 10yrs of research and trials before 1st press was made, 20yrs before 1st book was printed (called 42 line Bible...1st in world)

-created own ink-the regular ink would soak into wood blocks but with the metal castings it would drip off so he needed on that is more tacky and sticks to the casts

-research and development; tenacity and perseverance

-studied different presses such as wine/cheese to make printing press

Monks: illuminated manuscripts

            Legibility/construction

Charlemagne

            -noticed quality of calligraphy dropping

          -collects scribes and illustrators together to fix the lack in quality

-these scribes defined upper and lower case, sentence structure, punctuation, and paragraphs

-german designer

-god son of Koberger and apprenticed under Wolgemulth

-at age 23 he goes to Italy to see classical typography

-brings back idea of perspective, type, proportion, compass and ruler geometry and art to germany

-related each letter to a square-->worked out a construction method using a 1-10 ratio of the heavy stroke width to height (same ratio as Trajan alphabet)

-believed you needed a sensitive eye and a trained hand

-at age 34 went to Italy for 1.5 yrs

TRAVEL

-how can consumers and companies meet (ex adidas store... all shoes lined up)
-act of making
-material experimentation (leaning glasses, redbull glass that punctures redbull from bottom)

          Marfa, Texas

-art cannot be changed into architecture or furniture

-art cannot be functional and vise versa

-tried to make a coffee tableàwasn’t at peace so he trashed it and didn’t try again for many years

We’re not experts in one thing but we are experts of the design process

Build on a wild idea

Focused chaos

Fail often to succeed sooner

New England/Kentucky
-religious attitude toward design
-simple, true, honest to material, longevity "the best is that which functions beset" "hands to work hearts to God""
-practical design
-anticipated modern design
-the attitude of anonymous
-authentic-->all forms bread force
-were free from distraction when working-->didn't have to worry about money, time, food, etc.
-their community helped support them
"the shakers make a chair like they expect and angel to com sit in it"

-Judd:
sculpture, right angles, simple, clean edges truth to material
-Chinese Calligraphy
attitude of anonymous, focused on craft
-Book of Kells
attitude of anonymous, good craft
-De-stijl movement: it matters what/how its made, truth to material

-1^st book completely typographical and printed book

-contained 60 diagrams of the solar and lunar eclipse printed in yellow and black , it was a scientific analysis

-traveled from Augburg to Venice

-woodcut borders and initials were used as design elements

isolation=insulation
become good at a specific craft
micro climate
small workshops

-return to roman calligraphy and typography
-moved away from gothic fonts
-moved more towards that of spira or jenson (humanistic typography)

-humanist, scholar

-set up a printing crew

-had Italian influence: cover page, italics (to fit more words on the page), page #’s, page layout

-loved the classics, set up a school at age 40 to bring this style back

-traveled from France to Italy to study

-when he returned to Paris he teaches as a philosopher, works as a scribe for a graphic designer

-worked with a scribe apprenticing to absorb through craft

-his work had an archaic feel (from, Estienne)

-gained sensitivity

-became a book seller, focused on illustration and bounding

-forms a company for book design “a school” on to make a good book

-helps develop this idea of a grid for letters ("G" like celtic)

"trained hand, sensitive eye"

-liked to work in a store brings a new eye

-interested in typography-->the pursuit of perfection, raises the bar of work-->rejects a large % of his cast type

-after printing a book he melts the type down and recasts it

-innovates press, ink, and paper

-relates to Romans w/ respect to negative space, space between and in the letters: dealt with the idea of clarity and simplicity

-type becomes minimal-there is empty space
-developed hot press to rid paper of horizontal lines

-wanted to make a  book on geometry

-focused on quality of the printed effort

-elements of Euclid

-used wood to print the colors

-how can you design a page that is long lasting learning

-ahead of his time: lead the way for the Dutch, Russians, and Americans

-london book seller, used woodblocks for color

simple lines
idea of negative space
degree of excellence / the pursuit of excellence

-innovation, lower price, factories, repetitive tasks, more production, work drudgery, craft is not important (we become machines), poor living

-does speech that inspires Morris to do books

-talks about medieval type and the Book of Kells

-from rural England

-liked reading and writing

-Morris and Edward Jones decided they are going to be clergy so they traveled to France but became artists instead

-REVERIE: deep day dream where you make a jump in your life and purpose-->you leave the norm and you figure things out; think about things you wouldn’t have

-comes home and marries a model-->he goes for beauty

-jumps out of “class” to marry a laborers daughter

-the problem was the craft of the furniture and wall paper (when trying to fix up his house) so he

started designing wall paper and furniture

-worked in architecture firm but it was too boring for him

-designed his house from the inside out-->based on function, not looks-->a window where theres a view, a door to a traveling space

-gets into book making (graphic design)

-open to inspiration, strays away from the norm-->total design

-devoted to making hand printed books/pages
-worked out of a shed
-designed 3 type faces (a renewal of Jenson, Koberger, and Shoeffer)

-tried to keep Kelmscott press going after they shut it down

-graphic designer, jeweler, and silversmith

-restore the holistic experience of apprenticeship which had been destroyed by subdivision of labor and machine production (industrial revolution)

-Lucien Pissarro learned painting from his father then apprenticed as a wood engraver and illustrator under Lepere

-comes across Kelscott book and it inspired him to make books

-the couple collaborated on designing, wood engraving, and printing-->many books had 3-4 color woodblock prints

-drew inspiration from Nicolas Jenson

-combined the traditional sensibilities of the private press with the interest in the art nouveu and expressionism movements

Ashbee, Pissarro, Rogers

-from Indiana

-considered the greatest American book designer of early 20^thcentury

-did journalism/reporter in a morgue, became landscape artist, worked on a railroad

-JM. Bowles: showed Rogers a Kelmscott book and he goes into total design of books

-switched lettering to that of the French Renaissance-->pulled away from Jenson and Ratdolt

-He’s director of design at Riverside Press for 12 yrs – leaves to free lance to realize his potential

-1916 travels to England to meet Walker (it didn’t work)

-he made 700 books but thought only 30 were good

-he made 700 books vs kelmscott press made 53

-pulled away from Jenson and Ratdolt and moved toward lettering from the French Renaissance

-total design (silverware, glasses, purses)

-traveled to Vienna because the British didn't approve of their work

-Secession: art successed--left Vienna where they lived and did it to change-->the period art was false to their times

-they designed their own museum and space-->had olbrich design the museum-formed the Wiener Werkstatte – Vienna workshop

-Klimt and Hoffmann are at the workshop and works with a new eye for design-->Have a critical and sensitive eye

-resistance to the new
-the traveled
-total design (Bauhaus)
-truth to materials (same as shakers)

-was Architect

-goes to Darmshtat: started by a duke and designed by olbrich- formed a school to do new work

-teaches, designs houses, furniture, etc.

-goes to world fair in USA and returns to Germany pushing better products

-started the Deutche Werkbund: movement of designers to fix german craft

-commissioned with AEG-electrical company of utilitarian products

-head of design: total design: buildings letterhead, factories

-implements grids and modularity (like Tory)

-creates a design Mecca

AEG- total design (Behrens, Gropius, Mies Van der Rohe, Le Corbusier)
Vencie- easily accessible through trade and travelers (Ratdolt, Manutius, Tory)
Nuremberg- a center that has the craft, people, money, printing design mecca (koberger, durer, wolgemuth)
VIENNA-wiener werkstatte: vienna worshops (olbrich, hoffman, klimt, mackintosh-glasgow 4)
Bauhaus-TOTAL DESIGN (Gropius, Albers, Breuer)

-Survives WWI as a german soldier and Became director of Bauhaus

-spiritual quality to what they are doing, wanted to rething how you design, collects best artists and designers

-gets Johanas Itten to teach: taught foundation class (everyone must take) theory of design process

-Albers comes:teaches what does paper do? what can your material do for you? addresses colors

-Breuer:Wasslee Chair from a bike frame

-tea pot--off kilter,chess set based on movement of pieces

-nazi afraid of communist

Holland – horizontal landscapes, movement follows that of the surrounding area, right angles, parallel lines, linear works, clean lines] = Dutch mind – reducing down – editing

-Mondrian:

Break tree down forms Geometric shapes

-Die-stijl (movement)

black and white colors, right angles, primary colors only, simple (SHAKER IDEAL)
influenced Bauhaus

define dutch art

-Trained as a cabinite maker

-30yrs old at design of the Red Blue chair

-studies as a gold smith

-does some architecture

-interested in furniture

TOTAL DESIGN: does 681 projects

            -it matters what it is made of

            -it matters how it’s made

                        SHAKER IDEAL

last director of Bauhaus 

-wider, the weight contrast between thick and thin strokes is increased, the placement of the thickest part of the letter is different
-wide margins and liberal use of space between letters and lines
-focused on perfect alignment between the inch-thick brass platen and the smooth stone press bed
-developed new ink, added a sheen to the dense black ink
-smooth glossy surface of paper was achieved by using hot-pressed woven paper

-innovated geometric style of composition by tempering floral and curvilinear elements with strong rectilinear structure
  Mackintosh- main design theme is rising vertical lines, often with subtle curves at the ends to temper their junction with horizontal lines

"guiding spirit who led the revolt (the Vienna Secession)"
(Olbrich, Moser, and Hoffmann joined in as well)


The Vienna Secesison:
a countermovement to the floral art nouveau that flourished in other parts of Europe --> the movement drew inspiration from the Glasgow School