Page 20 - Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals

8 Chapter 1. Design History
but did not go as far as to create a new visual language. This was a strategy that made sense and
has since been repeated (consider early computer design aesthetics). Usually, when a new medium or
communication strategy is developed (advertising in print and the posters of the Industrial Revolution),
it uses visual and language styles that people are already familiar with, and introduces a new way to
deliver the message. Too much change alienates, but novelty of delivery works by adding a twist on the
shoulders of an already familiar form.

Font Explosion

In addition to its new role in promoting products to the mass market, graphic design moved forward
with an explosion of new font designs as well as new production methods. The design of fonts had
earlier been linked to the pragmatic and cultural objectives of producing books and broadsheets. With
large format posters and numerous other print components, text needed to do much more than represent
a phonetic symbol. Innovations in production affected — perhaps infected — printers with the pioneer
spirit of the times, and all products and their potential were examined and re-evaluated. This attitude
naturally included the function and design of fonts and the methods used to reproduce them. Text was
often the only material used to promote its subject and became integral to a visual communication.
Jobbing printers who used either letterpress or lithographic presses pushed the boundaries of
both, competing with each other by introducing innovations and, in turn, pushing artists and type
foundries to create more products they could use. An entirely new font category, slab serif — sometimes
called Egyptian — was created. Thousands of new fonts emerged to meet the demand of the
marketplace.

Photography

In addition to font development, the Industrial Age also contributed the photograph and ultimately its
use in books and advertising. Photography (for print design) was originally used as a research tool
in developing engravings, but this was costly and time consuming. Numerous inventors searched for
ways to integrate photography into the press process since the early years of its development in the
1830s. Photo engraving eventually arrived in 1871 using negatives and plates. From that time forward,
photography has been used to conceptually and contextually support the communication of graphic
design in its many forms.