Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux, France on April 20th, 1840 and died July 6, 1916. From early on, Odilon was able to have a hand in numerous mediums of art from architecture to sculping he got to experience a wide variety but still found himself using charcoal or paint in most of his works. I chose to research this artist because his work fascinates me, I both like and dislike it at the same time. I admire him because of his innovative work is, he served as a precursor for the surrealism movement, and a lot of his work is nightmarish and unsettling. Throughout his work, the theme of eyes (seen in image 2,4 and 5) makes several appearances, even in his self-portrait one eye is visible, perhaps his later work “The Cyclops” is a nod to both him and his self-portrait. I love the range of styles in his work, and that even though they shift throughout his various works, his overarching themes stay the same showing how peculiar imagery is incredibly powerful.
Work Cited.
Bertrand-Jean Redon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.odilon-redon.org/.
Odilon Redon. (2021, August 22). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon.
For my topic I chose wood type, I was drawn to this topic because of the parallels it shares with mid-western style typefaces. I thought that I could implement certain elements of the midwest such as a wanted poster and other wood-type glyphs. I tried to keep that theme flowing throughout the zine, and used various types of wood-type faces to relate the visuals of my zine to the topic at hand. I am very please with the end result, as it gives the viewer a decent understanding of the roots of wood type and different key facts as well. If I were to mark this zine I would give myself an 8/10, I think the theme fits perfectly and the visuals relate throughout and are pleasing to look at. I spent a total of around 8 hours on this project which is why I think 8/10 is a reasonable mark for my effort. I would however take 2 marks off for spelling neatness and perhaps the pencil crayon looks a little rough, overall I am happy with the outcome.
Picture of My Zine
Work Cited.
Fonts by Hoefler&Co. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.typography.com/blog/a-treasury-of-wood-type-online.
Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. (2021, September 19). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Wood_Type_and_Printing_Museum.
Heller, S. (2017, June 01). The Birth of a Wood Type. Retrieved from https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/birth-wood-type-brylski/.
What Is Wood Type? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://woodtype.org/pages/what-is-wood-type.
The invention of the printing press changed the course of history and writing. The printing presses invention is credited to a man named Johannes Gutenberg however, the first instances were instances of printed texts were discovered in China. Being able to print instead of hand write greatly impacted the revolution of the renaissance, because it allowed for the spread of mass information whatever it may be. The Gutenberg Bible is one of the most well-known works linked to the invention of his press. In his time he created around 180 copies of this Bible. Contrasted with the previous method of writing copies of the Bible which would normally take over a year to handwrite, the Gutenberg was a much more effective and to write a bible. As well the printing press restricted the amount of human error as each copy would relatively be the same, allowing for consistent copies of the text.
Render of The Early Printing Press (1436) Created By Gutenberg. Image 1
The Accessorization of The Letter
Gutenberg was not only responsible for the printing press but also for the first typeface. This typeface was known as blackletter, while it wasn’t necessarily the best typeface paved the way for new types to be created and influenced the way that letters are decorated today. Typefaces are created for many different uses, each unique type conveys different emotions and choosing a typeface is an important process in design, writing, and any other sort of writing activity. Certain fonts that came soon after blackletter such as Bembo and Adobe Jenson are more iconic and we can see their impacts on modern typefaces. The reason that typefaces were created when the printing press was because for a typeface to work it always has to be the same, and handwriting has many minor flaws that disrupt the flow of typeface.
Blackletter Typeface (1436) Created By Gutenberg. Image 2
Personal Thoughts
While the use of the Gutenberg press is no longer used in today’s culture, its impact can still be widely seen. The use of printers is a daily occurrence and while technology has changed the ideas of printing have stayed the same. The same can be said about typeface, and that original versions of certain typestyles have varied a little but the original idea can still be seen. It is important to be able to understand how modern ideas and techniques have evolved from the past and give us a new appreciation for history. I think that with all the modern technology that is so easy to access we sometimes forget what used to be a struggle and certain inventions become less valuable to us. Even having a book back 600 years ago was a luxury, understanding this and doing research on these topics has given me insight and gratitude for what I can create and learn about because of these inventions.
Modern Printers One of The Modern Conveniences of Print. (Image 3)
Work Cited.
A Brief History of Typography & Typefaces. (2014, July 3). Retrieved from https://www.ashworthcreative.com/blog/2014/07/brief-typography-typefaces/.
Bangera, J. (2017, November 29). What Do All The Printer Model Letters Mean? Retrieved from https://blog.inkjetwholesale.com.au/printer-education/printer-model-letters-mean/. (Image 3)
Blackletter. (2020, May 29). Retrieved from https://paperbackdesign.com/typefaces/blackletter/. (Image 2)
Green, C. (2018, August 21). The Difference Between Font and Typeface. Retrieved from https://hobancards.com/blogs/thoughts-and-curiosities/difference-between-font-and-typeface.
History.com Editors. (2018, May 07). Printing Press. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press.
Shutt, B. (2014, August 18). This Week in Tech History: The Gutenberg Bible and Printing Press. Retrieved from http://vrworld.com/2014/08/17/week-history-gutenbergs-bible/. (Image 1)
K. (2013, June 8). Why We Should Thank Johannes Gutenberg. Retrieved from https://thelibrary.org/blogs/article.cfm?aid=2327.
“The Painter and His Pug” Self Portrait (1745) Image 1“Beer Street” (1751) Image 2“Gin Lane” (1751) Image 3“The First Stage of Cruelty” (1751) Image 4“The Reward of Cruelty” (1751) Image 5
William Hogarth was born in England on November 10, 1697, and died on October 26, 1764. William created many different types of mediums of art. He was a portrait painter, satirist, social critic, and personally most interesting of them all he was a printmaker. His combination of these skills made his work some of the most unique and interesting works of his time in my opinion. My favourite of his works was “Beer Street and Gin Lane” seen in images two and three. He contrasts the good of beer with the bad of gin. At the time gin was very popular and William saw the problem with that craze and depicted the “evils” of gin, and likewise displayed the “good” with beer. The reason I find these prints so interesting is because of the contrast between them and a large majority of the art that came before. A lot of history saw realism, portraits, or other more basic depictions of life. The business of his work causes my eye to wander throughout the image with many different lively actions going on at once, making him one of the most fascinating artists at the time to me.
Work Cited.
“Beer Street and Gin Lane.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 June 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane.
“William Hogarth.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Aug. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hogarth.
For my mood board, the three events that I linked were Monopoly, WW2 and The Great Depression. I Used the main theme of Monopoly not only as a board game but as a system to link all three of these events. Using such topics as power and money to draw parallels between the three of them. I think that these topics play a key role in the 20th century and thus why I chose them. I would give myself an 8.5/10 on this project. I worked really hard and researched many different topics and ideas to come to the conclusion and ideas that I displayed in my project. My favourite part of this project would be the monopoly section, seen in the image below. I used this section to draw the most parallels between the three events that I chose and I think it really makes the whole board flow and comes together nicely.
Monopoly Section of Mood Board, Link: https://projects.invisionapp.com/boards/4Y42Z62CEAH/
Storytelling has long been a part of human history. To be exact the first examples that we see in history dates back nearly 35000 years ago. Rock art is some of humanity’s first examples of actually recording some sort of information, whether that be a picture of an animal, a handprint, or a religious story. Rather than actually communicating through something that is easily lost, rock art and other early forms of writing help new generations to have insight into what previous generations went through. Rock art is important because it shows the culture and heritage of humans thousands of years ago through visual and symbolic mediums.
Nine Mile Canyon, Utah (A.D. 600-1300) Created by the Fremont and Ute peoples. Image 1
Symbols Throughout History
While rock art was history’s first real canvas to record certain information, the use of symbols was incredibly important to the shaping of written knowledge, and many languages to this day use symbols as a key component to written words. Some of the first uses of symbols being used in writing would be that of hieroglyphs. The use of hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt is some of the first times that we see a society distinguish certain information through the use of symbols and characters. Cultures have learned from this idea since the first use of hieroglyphs. Written language has since evolved significantly from that point, but we can still see these uses of symbols in modern language and written literature. The Chinese language uses different characters for different words instead of an alphabet like English, because of this there are thousands of different symbols in the Chinese language, and we can see that relationship between word and symbol just like in ancient Egypt.
Similarities and differences between different ancient languages (Mesopotamian, Chinese, and Egyptian) Image 2.
Personal Thoughts
So what does all of this information tell us? Why is this meaningful and important information to know? More than just interesting facts to know, understanding early written knowledge can help us have a greater understanding of early written information and can give us a greater connection to understanding our early ancestors. We use written language, pictures, symbols and numerous other information recorded in our daily lives. Understanding the evolution and beginning of recorded knowledge helps us to have a greater appreciation of recorded information today. Whether we as humans use a book, newspaper, look at a painting or anything else, imagining a world without the possibility of those mediums is almost impossible to think of. Recording certain ideas or stories help so those ideas do not die with the people who thought of them, this is why the beginning of rock art is truly so important. Because without rock art we would have been set back in knowledge for thousands of years.
Petroglyphs on sandstone at Newspaper Rock, southwestern Utah. Image 3
“Chinese Symbols: The Most Common Chinese Symbols and Their Meanings.” TutorMandarin, 27 Aug. 2018, https://www.tutormandarin.net/en/chinese-symbols-meaning-behind/.
Davis, Ben. “Why is hieroglyphics important today?” mvorganizing, 30 May. 2021, https://www.mvorganizing.org/why-is-hieroglyphics-important-today/.
“Languages – Chinese – A Guide to Chinese – Chinese Characters.” BBC, BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/guide/alphabet.shtml.
Rheenen, Erin Van. “15 Caves and Canyons That Hold the World’s Ancient Art.” 12 Oct. 2017, https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/amazing-ancient-cave-art-from-around-the-world. (Image 1)
