Lecture 8, ITAP - Production for Visual Communication

When we talk about production, it is not instant that we think of visual production, but with some thought, a lot of production is visual communication. We’ve been visually communicating through out the whole of time, even through wet clay markings in 2000 BC. We advanced to pictures for instances the earliest recorded history were the pictures of Babalon from around 3300 BC. Moving on to 400 AD, the world’s oldest dated book is recorded on silk, called ‘The Diamond Sutra”. The first printed book in America was ‘The Whole Book of Psalms’ printed in 1664. But the history of the printing of books is rich in history well before is reached the United States. The first printed book in Europe was printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany in the 1450s, it was called the Gutenberg Bible and was printed with a movable type printing press. It was printed in black letter type style that was later to be known as Texualis and Schwabacher, which was printed by an oil-based ink that would adhere to his metal type. The ink was mainly carbon but also had high metallic content with lead, titanium and copper predominating. Although William Caxton was the person to introduce this art, the printing press, into England after the Dutch, German and French. He set up a press in Westminster in 1476 and the first book to be published there was an edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. He was also the first person to print a book in English.

If you try and think about the 10 key developments which helped in the production of graphics to how it got here today, there’s a lot to think about. What counts as a milestone rather than just a development what makes history to how we conjure and manipulate images today, what production of technology makes graphics what it is? Well, looking through from 3500 BC through to 2008, there’s a lot that has gone on, I have chosen 10 key milestones which I feel have truly benefitted and changed how we do graphics in the current day. The first milestone is from 3200 BC when Sumerians use cuneiform alphabet on clay tablets, this is important because this first introduces language and communication into the world, how to talk/communicate to one and other. In 105 AD paper was invented in China by Ts’ai Lun, without paper we would be without resource that was accessible and easy to use, and today without paper, we would not be at the visual communication stage we are at now, without paper, how do we have portable communication? In 445 Johannes Gutenberg printed the first book in Europe, without the invention of printing we could not replicate and communicate the same thing several times without having to draw/write it over and over. Without printing we wouldn’t be able to communicate efficiently and productively. In 1790, Thomas Bewick perfected the process of wood engraving, without wood engraving we would never be able to get the exact replica over and over again for an image. In 1875 Offset lithography was used for printing on tin, without other forms of printing we wouldn’t be able to print onto other malleable surfaces, tin is much more hard warring that paper to therefore lasts longer, meaning a message/communication can last longer. In 1887 Monotype machine was invented by Tolbert-Lanston, which was more versatile that linotype. It was used for commercial printing, it produces individual characters to print and can switch between fonts also special symbols were easily incorporated such as math’s equations. Without the monotype machine we would not be able to print complicated communication and changing types, which are a big part of graphic communication. In 1948 the colour scanner was invented by Kodak and was a revelation for graphics, this now meant that things could be scanned into the computer and manipulated in a different way. In 1987 Apple Macintosh launched its first computer, and without computers we would not have Adobe Illustrator which was invented in 1987 which dramatically changed the way images could be views, images could now be drawn and manipulated in a completely new way that the human hand could not do before. And this was all made possible and to be views by the world through the invention of the World Wide Web (WWW) introduced in 1992 by Tim Berners-Lee of CERN. Without the web we would not be able to broadcast work and communicate to people, clients, supporters and buyers of graphics without computers and the internet. It changed how graphics worked and how it was scene to become a global market accessible to everyone.