RENAISSANCE PERIOD
RENAISSANCE
• Originally used to denote the period that began in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Italy, when the classical
literature of ancient Greece and Rome was revived and read
anew, the word is now generally used to encompass the
period marking the transition from the medieval to the
modern world. In the history of graphic design, the
renaissance of classical literature and the work of the Italian
humanists are closely bound to an innovative approach to
book design
TYPOGRAPHY is the term for
printing with independent,
movable, and reusable bits of
metal or wood, each of which has
a raised letterform on one face.-
MEGGS & PURVIS (2016)
Typography is the art of arranging
letters and text in a way that makes the
copy legible, clear, and visually appealing to
the reader. It involves font style,
appearance, and structure, which aims to
elicit certain emotions and convey specific
messages.
TYPOGRAPHY AND PRINTING IN EUROPE
BLOCK PRINTING
• 1300s- pictorial designs were printed on textiles in Europe
• Before 1400-CARD PLAYING boomed the block printing industry
• PRINTS OF SAINTS- first recognized images of European block printing.
• BLOCK BOOKS- Made up of woodcut picture and words with
a religious subject and short text. Most of them have 30 to 50
leaves
TYPOGRAPHIC PRINTING
Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg
(late 14th century to 1468)
Gutenberg’s press
- considered as the revolution in printing
- invented movable, reusable metal type for printing.
-introduce remarkable printing speed, consistency
quality and durable types.
• 1450- first typographic book called the 42-line Bible
• He is viewed as the printer of the 36-line bible-reprint
42-line bible
• 1460-He published Catholicon (an encyclopedic
dictionary)
COPPER PLATE ENGRAVING
• It was created by
the Master of the
Playing Cards
who is an
unknown artist.
-a drawing is scratched
into a smooth metal
plate. Ink is applied into
the depressions, the
flat surface is wiped
clean, and paper is
pressed against the
plate to receive the ink
image.
The graphic design
Italian renaissance
Johannes Da Spira- invented the Roman Type
which eliminated some of the Gothic qualities found in
the Sweynheym and Pannartz fonts
Nicolas Jenson- present roman type design that
was first used in Evangelical Preparation.
He designed Roman, Greek, and Gothic
fonts
Aldus Manutius-established the Aldine
Press in Venice.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili- considered
a masterpiece of graphic design because
of the coordination and harmony of its
illustration and typography
1501 published a smaller pocket book-
Vergil’s Opera- set the first italic font
Italic font was closely modeled on the
cancelleresa script, a slanted handwriting
style liked by scholars for its writing speed and
informality.
Giovanni and Alberto Alvise- used printers’
flowers as graphic elements in an edition of
Ars Moriendi(Art of Dying) published on
April 28, 1478
Fleurons-decorative elements cast like type. An
edition of Ars Moriendi published on April 28, 1478, by the
Italian printers Giovanni and Alberto Alvise in Verona is
believed to be the first design that used fleurons.
The Verona Ars Moriendi used these as graphic elements
on the title page design and as fillers in short lines that left
blank areas in the text blocks
Francesco da Bologna Griffo cut Roman,
Greek, Hebrew and the first Italic types for
Aldine editions.
• Researched pre Caroline scripts to produce
a more authentic roman type, which today
is the book text face BEMBO
• Designed new capitals that used the one-
to-ten(stroke weight to height) proportion
• Made his lowercase ascenders taller
than the capitals to correct the
tendency of capitals to appear too large
and heavy in a page of text
• Griffo’s typefaces became the model for
the French type designers
1522, Lodovico degli Arrighi, an Italian
master calligrapher, printer and designer
La operina da imparare di scivere
littera cancellaresca (The First Writing
Manual of the Chancery Hand)
Il modo de temperare le penne( The
Way to Temper the Pen) in 1523 which
presented a dozen handwriting styles.
Giovanni Battista Palatino and Ugo da
Carpi- other Italian masters influenced by
Arrighi
The graphic design
French renaissance
16th century golden age of French typography
Geoff Tory- introduced apostrophe, the
accent and the cedilla
He developed French renaissance school
of book design and illustration
His lettering is a light roman with long
ascenders and descenders
HORAE(Book of Hours)
milestone in graphic design
• Champ Fleury was published in
1529. It is divided into three books,
and is concerned with the proper use
of the French language, dealing with
topics ranging from the elegance of
the alphabet to the proper use of
grammar. It was subtitled "The Art Consists of 3 books
and Science of the Proportion of The 1st attempt of the book is to establish and
the Attic or Ancient Roman order French grammar by fixed rules of
Letters, According to the Human
Body and Face". pronunciation.
The 2nd discusses the history of roman letters and
compares their proportions with the ideal
proportions of the human figure and face
the 3rd and final book offers instructions in the
geometric construction of the 23 letters of the latin
alphabet on background grids of one hundred
squares
Claude Garamond
• Recognized for the sheer quality of fonts
eliminating the Gothic styles.
• By 1540, fonts achieved a tighter fit with
closer word spacing and coordination
among the capitals, lowercase letters and
italics
The typographic figures
Louis Sominneau
Engraved the master alphabets of the new
typeface Romain du Roi into text type as
large copperplate prints.
Romain du Roi
Increased contrast between thick and
thin strokes, sharp horizontal serifs, and
an even balance to each letterform.
It also started the category of types called
transitional roman due to its shift from the
Venetian tradition of “old style” roman type
design.
Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune
Established an independent type-design
and foundry operation
Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune
Established an independent type-design and foundry operation
King Louis XV found the expression of
Rococo in his work
Rococo- French art which thrives from 1720-1770 is
composed of S- and C- curves with scrollwork,
tracery, and plant forms derived from nature,
classical and oriental art, and medieval sources.
Light pastel colors were often used with ivory white
and gold in asymmetrically balanced designs.
Pioneered standardization because of his
published first table of proportions
-explorations into casting enabled him to cast single-,
double-, and triple- ruled lines up to 35.5
centimeters(about 14 inches) and to offer the largest
metal type (equivalent to contemporary 84- and 108-
point sizes) yet made.
Stocked the arsenals of rococo printers with a
complete design system (roman, italic, script, and
decorative type styles, as well as rules and
ornaments) of standardized measurement whose
parts integrated both visually and physically.
Planned a four-volume Manuel typographique (Manual of
Typography) over many years but produced only two(2) volumes
“Type , Its Cutting and Founding” in 1764
“Type Specimens”(originally planned as volume four) in 1768
George Bickham the Elder
• The most celebrated penman of his time.
• In 1743, He published The Universal
Penman
• Signed broadsheet, title pages, and large
images for domestic walls that were
frequently based on oil paintings
John Pine
• The best engravers of his time
• He was a chief engraver of seals for the
king of England and created portfolios of
large etchings
• Opera Horatii (Works of Horace) were
sold by subscription before publication,
and a list naming each subscriber was
engraved in script on the front of the
volume.
• His works reduced serif and thin strokes of
letters which made the contrast in the text
material dazzling. Each letter was inscribed
by hands; thus, the text has a slight
vibration that gives it a handmade quality
instead of a mechanical uniformity.
William Caslon
• His first commission was an Arabic Font for the
Society for promoting Christian Knowledge
• In 1722, he made the first size of Caslon Old Style
with italic.
• Caslon fonts were used by all English printing for
the next 60 years and have a variety of designs.
• Type designs were not particularly fashionable or
innovative. They got an outstanding legibility and
sturdy texture that made them “comfortable” and
“friendly to the eye”
• He increased the contrast between thick and thin
strokes by making former slightly heavier
• He worked in the tradition of Old Style roman
typographic design that had begun over 200
years earlier during the Italian Renaissance
John Baskerville
• Involved in all facets of the bookmaking process.
He designed, cast, and set type; improved the
printing press; conceived and commissioned new
papers; and designed and published the books he
printed.
• Baskerville’s type designs are wider, the weight
contrast between thick and thin strokes is
increased, and the placement of the thickest part
of the letter is different. The treatment of serifs is
new: they flow smoothly out of the major strokes
and terminate as refined point.
• His Italic fonts most clearly show the influence of
master handwriting.
• Wide margins and a liberal use of space between
letters ang lines were used around his alphabets.
• He published 56 books
William Playfair
• Scottish author and scientist who used
Cartesian coordinates and analytic geometry to
convert statistical data to symbolic graphics
• In 1786, he published his Commercial and
Political Atlas. This book was laden with
statistical compilations and, in forty-four
diagrams, introduced the line (or fever) graph
and the bar chart to graphically present
complex information.
• He created a new category of graphic design,
now called information graphics. This field
of design present complex information in an
understandable form.
Louis René Luce
Achieved an imperial graphic design statement
From1740 until 1770, designed a series of types
that were narrow and condensed, with serifs as
sharp as spurs. Engraved borders were being
widely used and required a second printing: first
the text was printed and then, in a second run
of the same sheets, the borders.
In 1770, he published his Essai d’une
nouvelle typographie (Essay on a New
Typography), with 93 plates presenting the
range of his design accomplishment.
Giambattista Bodoni
Pioneer of a new category of the roman
type called Modern
Redesigned the roman letterforms
around 1790
Reinvented the serifs by making them
hairlines that formed sharp angles with
the upright strokes eliminating the
tapered flow of the serif into the upright
stroke in Old Style Roman
Françoi Ambroise Didot
• Didot type has maigre(thin) and gras (fat) type
styles similar to the condensed and expanded
fonts of our time.
• In 17775, issued fonts that have lighter and
geometric quality
• Revised Fournier’s typographic measurement
system and created the point system
• Didot System identified type sizes with the
measure of the metal type body in points such
as ten-point, and twelve-point. It cast-off the
traditional type sizes such as Petit-Romain and
Gros-Text
William blake
• Published books of poetry; each
page was printed as a
monochrome etching combining
word and image.
• Pages are either hand-colored with
watercolor and printed colors,
hand-bound each copy with water
colors.
• His bright colors and swirling
organic forms are forerunners to
expressionism, art nouveau, and
abstract art.
Thomas Bewick
• Father of wood engraving.
• His “white-line” technique employed
a fine graver to achieve delicate tonal
effects by cutting across the grain on
blocks of Turkish boxwood.
• Publication of General History of
Quadrupeds in 1790 made his
technique to become a major
illustration method in letterpress
printing.
