Notice how your attention was first drawn to the title of this blog? One reason is it being at the top of the page, however, it enhances the effect by the boldness of the text contrasting from the text you are reading right now. Bold text also known as fat faces and slab serifs were heavily used during the industrial revolution.
Communication with Typeface
Industries were growing at a rapid pace, hence the name “the industrial revolution” due to this, communication through design was vital to promote their products against the competition. To enhance communication in typography people started experimenting with bold fonts. Robert Thorne responded to this growth of industrialization by founding the bold, fat roman typeface, which affected the development of advertisement for the revolution. Vincent Higgins was another individual who brought a new view of typography by introducing a 3D aspect to these bold typefaces in 1815. This then inspired designers to implement and essentially normalize the usage of these typefaces.
Technology and Design Hand in Hand
Technology and design seemed to grow hand in hand during the revolution. As I mentioned, design was needed to create advertisements in magazines or newspapers for products and machines factories produced, some of these machines being made supposedly to assist designers and typography in general.
Inventions such as the steam-powered printing press by Friedrich Koening and metal or wood hand presses used for important words with typically the largest typeset being used in print shops sped up the production of newspapers and advertisements making it cheaper and efficient. However, this did take away jobs from individuals who worked in typesetting, only one person was needed to work a machine that would normally take multiple people to do.
Another huge invention that benefits designers from the industrial revolution was photography. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first-ever permanent photo using a camera obscura. This allowed designers to take their designs even further by now being able to reprint photos.