Herbert Matter - Swiss Graphic Design

Herbert Matter was a Swiss-born American designer and photographer, and was well known for his revolutionary use of photo collaging. Matter heavily influenced design in the 20th century and helped form the many different kinds of design we have today. He was born in Engelberg, Switzerland, in 1907, and grew up in Switzerland. He studied painting and design in Switzerland as well as in France, and he worked with a number of people famous for their innovative and creative ideas and creations, such as AM Cassandre and Le Corbusier. When he returned to Zurich in Switzerland, he created posters for the Swiss National Tourist Office, and instantly internationally received many compliments and praise. When he had reached the end of his education, Matter became a freelance graphic designer and photographer in Paris, not unlike other Swiss graphic designers of that era. He travelled to America in 1936, where he was hired by the great art director Alexy Brodovitch. He worked and created masterpieces for famous magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and many others. He began working as a professor of photography at Yale University in 1952 and ended his teaching career in 1976. He was also a design consultant from 1958 to 1968 to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. In 1977 he was elected to the New York Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography in 1980 and the AIGA award in 1983. 

These designs are very varied in the sense that some of them are simple and some of them are quite full of information and objects. For example, the America Calling is quite simple yet has an elegant feel to it. I think this could be the sepia tones making it look elegant, but this is how it is effective. It also uses the colours of the American flag to attract an audience and to get people to look at the poster. It also has a grainy feel to it, and I think this looks good as it makes the image look older than it actually is, and ties in well with the sepia tone. The font also comes together with the old-style theme of the image. The second image is, in my opinion, very crammed and in-your-face. When I say this I mean it was intentionally meant to look like this, and the artist has pulled that off spectacularly. My favourite thing about this image is the fact that the entire image is black and white, with the contrast quite high, and the instant pop of red in a few words. The font makes it even harder to read considering the colours in the background clashing with the colours in the foreground, as well as the actual font itself. This was meant to stand out, as a new way to attract an audience, and it worked very well. The third poster is an image of a snowy road, and once again Matter made a bold and eye-catching design, as the photo in the background is all black and white, excluding the sky, and then the title in red guides your eyes to the wording, thus creating an effective poster. It is not a dark shade of red, but a very bright and saturated shade of red, and works well in this style of work. 

Swiss Graphic Design - Josef Muller Brockman

Josef Muller Brockmann was a Swiss graphic designer and a teacher. He was born in the town of Rapperswil, Switzerland in 1914. Most of the subjects he took in the University of Zurich were mostly design-based, as he studied architecture, design and the history of art. After leaving university Brockmann began his career by becoming an apprentice to designer and advertising consultant, Walter Diggelman, but already had second thoughts. He left the apprenticeship and instead audited courses by Ernst Keller and Alfred Williman at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. He devoted himself to being a freelance designer and illustrator, and in 1936 opened up his own studio in Zurich, focusing on graphics, exhibition design and photography. He was asked to create some concert posters in 1951 for the Tonhalle in the same city of Zurich, which he created and called ‘Musica Viva’.

These pieces were created by Brockmann, and just by taking a quick glimpse you can see how inspiring and influential he must have been to other aspiring graphic designers in that time. A lot of his work usually contains 2 or 3 colours, but that sometimes differs. The one with the black lines intrigue me because of the fact that it looks strangely like a 3D image, which could have been the effect he was trying to send out. The image with the two arrows really interests me because he uses negative space to try and make the viewer doubt which arrow they are supposed to be looking at, and in that perspective I think he managed to hit that target. I think that design is very innovative and the idea of two arrows is used by many companies and logos today. I really enjoy looking at the piece with the white lines and the blue background, as it is a very simple colour scheme, but needs only shapes to attract an audience. He used rectangles of different widths and lengths to create an almost futuristic look. 

In Brockmann’s work, he makes good use of shapes and colours, and really knows how to combine the two into something marvellous. Many posters are usually crammed with a lot of objects and focal points, but Brockmann creates pieces that are very simplistic and easy on the eyes. This is a great trait of Brockmann’s, as he is able to keep a page shockingly simple yet also catch an audience’s attention rapidly. His work is a great example of Swiss style, as Swiss art usually excels in simple and clean art which promotes minimalism. Some posters and designs almost make me feel claustrophobic, as there is many a time where there is too much crammed onto one page, but with Brockmann and his Swiss design it is much more relaxed and free.  

The Innovation of Linotype

The creation of Linotype is one of the most distinguished artifacts and inventions in the United States’ entire printing world. Created and developed by German watchmaker Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1884, it revolutionised the way type was created, and the world had not seen anything as innovative or astounding since the creation of Gutenberg. The linotype hugely increased the speed at which printing was done, and the newspaper industry excelled because of this creation. Its technique, at the time, was quite innovative and outside-the-box thinking, and required actual lines of text instead of each individual letter. The name Linotype is derived from the full name, Line of Type, which is exactly what the machine is. This machine is very different from any other machine and there are a number of reasons why. It also had a professional effect on printed work, which led to the newspaper industry becoming more popular. Like all products, the Linotype had a rival, and it was called the Compositor, which promised a faster and practical way of creating type. Both machines wanted to revolutionise and change the way the print world saw things, but the Linotype came out on top as its machinery and simplicity was what people wanted.

The Linotype is quite large and measures at about 7ft tall. It works by creating a line at time, thus the reason why it is called Line of Type. Inside the Linotype are matrices, which are small brass parts with the edges indented with characters. These are assembled into lines to create a line of text. Once one of these lines are creates, a line of text is automatically cast via a solid bar which is more commonly known as the Linotype slug. The person behind the machine, the operator, types the text onto the keyboard and the Linotype pulls type, which is then able to be printed. The Linotype machine has four major components that make the machine able to work and function properly. These four parts are: the magazine, the keyboard along with all its parts, the casting machinery and the distributing mechanism. The matrices are held in the magazines and they show the different type cases. The keyboard works by getting the matrices in the right/wanted order, as it gives complete control of the machine and allows the operator to write and create lines of text that they so want. Once the keyboard is set with all its different functions, the rest of the process is automatic.

Linotype Model 4

The matrix is the very foundation of the Linotype machine, as casting a line of text and returning all the matrices back to their places is essential for the Linotype’s success. To produce a single line of text with the Linotype machine, three steps must be accomplished. First, the matrices must all be composited into a line. Secondly, the slug (line of text) must be cast. Thirdly, and lastly, the matrices should all be distributed back to where they originally were. 

The sequence in which the Linotype machine works is quite simple if you understand the basics of a printing press. The person behind the machine, the operator, presses the desired characters and letters on the keyboard, which releases the selected matrices from the magazine. The matrices are then sent to an assembling elevator, where they are all put in order. The letters are then engraved into the matrices, after which this line of matrices goes to where they are cast, the casting unit, where a plunger injects molten metal into the mould. The slug is then put into the galley tray, where the lines are held in the correct order. While this is happening, the matrices are being sent to the second elevator and are distributed into the magazine, where they are supposed to be. Once the Linotype slug has been created, it is taken to the proofing area, where it is locked in a bed press and inked and printed to check if there are any mistakes or flaws in the text. If there are any, the slug goes back to the composer. When the slug is correct, it is signed off and sent to the press.

The keyboard of a Linotype machine is quite similar to a typewriter. It has 90 keys and is separates letter cases, as all the lowercase letters are on a side depending how often they are used.  All the uppercase letters are on the other side. All of the symbols that are not letters are situated in the middle of the keyboard, in between the lowercase and uppercase letters. The unfortunate thing was that although this machine was very complex and was very innovative in its time, it had no backspace key or anything to erase the past commands. If a mistake was made, the operator would run their fingers down the first two rows of the keyboard so that the slug would come out as ‘etaoin shrdlu’. This would mean that they would have to recast thee slugs, but on occasion these mistaken slugs would make their way into the newspapers and prints, making it a joke in the printing industry. 

This is the keyboard of a Linotype machine, all the lower-case letters on the left, the upper-case letters on the right and all the symbols in the middle.

The creation and development of Linotype drastically sped up the printing process, as prior to the creation of mechanical printing everything would be printed by movable, individual letters. Many people were needed for print, as they needed to set the type by hand, which meant that countless people were hired to try and speed up the process. This did not work out as planned, and printing with movable type was chaos. It would take very long to find letters and assemble them into lines, in order. It was a very slow, tedious and tiring work, and this meant that printing newspapers or books would take a very long time. Many a time would a typesetter run out of letters, or sorts, as they were called, thus the saying, “out of sorts.” This was very frustrating for workers as they had spent a very long time trying to assemble a line. The Linotype machine massively increased the workload and was much faster, efficient and less time-consuming. It also only needed one person to operate it, which meant that a single man could do the work of five or six men. Naturally this kind of speed in the workforce made the initial workers fear they would lose their jobs. However, this was quite the contrary, as the speed at which they were creating magazines, newspapers and books was so fast compared to their original work speed that they needed more men to work the machines. 

As you can see, the text has individual letters and characters in it, which proved to be a much slower process. 

On this image, you can see a very clear difference in the way it holds text, as the whole line of text is on this one bar, known as the Linotype slug. 

The creation of the Linotype machine led to many other pioneering breakthroughs in the 19^th century and early 20^th century. However, it was not born overnight. It had many competitors and had been thought about for at least twenty years prior to the Linotype machine. All these machines before the Linotype machine had not been as successful as the Linotype, leaving the Linotype machine to prove the best.  Its simplistic, reliable and easy to use design had made it that much easier to choose between the Linotype machine and other competitors, such as the Paige Compositor. It completely changed the way the print world works as it was much more available to the public, as well as its high production rate. The fact that it took almost no labour compared to a job you would need six people for was astounding. These qualities of the Linotype machine had locked in its fame and soon it was all over the globe. It was internationally seen as a success. It is a machine that will not be forgotten in the print world, as it revolutionised typesetting and printing. 

Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg, or his full name Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, was a German blacksmith and inventor and is the man who led Europe with his invention of the printing press. His invention proved to be superior and far more advanced than the work of other printing presses in the past. Mechanical movable type was not around or had been thought of before Gutenberg had begun using his innovative ideas and turning them into reality. The printing press played a vital part in history and without Gutenberg and his ideas the world would not be what it is today. The creation of the printing press is regarded as the most important event in the modern era. It gave a chance for ordinary people to be able to read and to have knowledge. Before this only the churches would get prints and books. This gave power to the masses and quickly spread all around the world. His work started the printing revolution and was also very important in the making of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific revolution.

Gutenberg was born some time in 1398 and was born in the German city of Mainz and was the youngest son of the high-class trader and merchant, Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden. His second wife was the daughter of a shopkeeper in the town he lived in. It is believed he was baptised somewhere around where he was born. There is not a lot of information regarding Gutenberg's early life, and most of it is a mystery. He is mostly known for things he did later in life and when he used his innovative ideas to help push the future forward.

Gutenberg had already created certain inventions for printing, and it was the combination of all these that he was able to create the mechanical movable-type printing press. By doing this it allowed the mass production of printed books and was available to both readers and printers. The way he created type was to create a type metal alloy which consisted of lead, tin and antimony which had a low melting point which made the alloy more durable. He used a mixture of different mechanisms and tools from many different areas and put it all into one machine, which made it easier, effective and much more affordable. The first model that he created was in Strasbourg and was around the year of 1440.

A replica of the printing press

The Gutenberg Bible

Movable type was a big improvement on the older, traditional techniques that were used to create documents and manuscripts. At the time handwritten techniques were still being used. Mechanical movable type revolutionised European book-creating. Gutenberg changed the world for the better as his invention spread rapidly across the globe. The way he did it was by using wooden letters or characters and later turned them into metal, then formed an oil-based ink which was then used on the metal characters in the wooden printing press. With this innovative and brand new creation, 42 entire lines could be produced simultaneously, which hugely decreased the labour needed to work the machine, thus making this invention much easier and practical. Gutenberg’s most prominent book was a book called the Gutenberg Bible, and due to the high value and low price of it, almost anyone could buy one. This led to a massive rise in movable type and many people found out about Gutenberg through his book, which were only 42 lines.

In 1468, the great inventor Gutenberg died, and the most unfortunate aspect of history is that he was never appreciated in his own time, but was only recognised as a mastermind after he died. The story is quite tragic, as no one really believed in his inventions and he died thinking nothing had changed.  He died in his home city, Mainz, and was buried in a church that was later knocked down and replaced with a newer church, which was also knocked down. He may have received no recognition in his own time, but history regards Gutenberg as one of the most influential creators of all time.

Movable Type

Movable type is when typography or text is created using movable pieces of metal or other materials such as wood with engraved letters in them, so after being soaked in ink would create the letters after pressed down.  Movable type is usually individual letters and punctuation marks, so naturally it would take a decent amount of time for a single document to be created.

The first ever movable type system for creating text or art was created in China by a Chinese inventor by the name of Bi Sheng. It was made of ceramic materials and was made in the Northern Song Dynasty, around 1040 AD. It spread to Korea 200 years later in the Goryeo dynasty and this led to a metal version of the printing machine. Over 200 years would have definitely seen some new advances in the printing press, but nothing that included this kind of machinery. Because of this new technology they printed the Jikji, the oldest extant movable metal print book. These two machines were very difficult to keep up with however; they both took a lot of manpower and labour and were also very expensive. In China they still continued to use the ceramic system whereas in Korea they had the metal system. The manpower needed to handle thousands of ceramic and metal tablets was unimaginable. 

In the 15^th century Johannes Gutenberg created a much easier and innovative movable printing system which had mechanics that were much more advanced than the one created by the Chinese 400 years ago. It was also considerably easier to use because the European language had less characters and the text was more limited. Something I find very fascinating is how the type pieces are still created using the same alloy of lead, tin and antimony, which is what Gutenberg used in his printing press. 

Movable type was much more efficient and quicker to use than woodblock printing for many different reasons. The individual letters made out of metal were more durable, thus having a longer use life. The lettering was more uniform and looked tidier than the woodblock printing. Because of simple and limited alphabets such as English or various European alphabets the printing press was extremely effective and was heard about more and more. In 1445 the Gutenberg Bible was of very high quality and of a low price, which meant anyone could get one. The popularity of the Gutenberg Bible led to the quick news that movable type was much more superior to other techniques such as woodblock printing. As the news spread, so did the printing press, and soon they were all over Europe. 

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial revolution began in the mid 1700’s and was one of the greatest manufacturing boosts of all history. The places that were affected by this exponential growth were mostly countryside and rural areas rather than the main city areas. It was mostly in Europe and America and soon enough everything became industrial. Everything became less homemade and more mass-produced, which is how it used to be before the revolution kick started. Everything was done at home with basic instruments and machines, which would allow people to do jobs that would need doing every day. Industrialization went from many workers to powered machinery that would allow fewer workers to do more work. This allowed factories to begin mass production and soon enough everything was becoming more advanced and efficient. The main industries that boomed during this time period was the iron and textile industries, as well as the advance of the steam engine and this helped improve systems of transportation, banking and communication. It also helped the employment of hundreds of people from the working class.

Prior to the revolution that changed the world, normal day-to-day life would be a challenge for most people, as a lot of people lived in small villages and communities, where most tasks would be farming for food. Life for a normal family would be quite hard, as incomes would be low and disease would be abundant. Because of the diseases around, many farmers’ cattle died, which made life much harder to even go by one day without starving. Also the disease for humans would be just as bad, and in most cases fatal, as medicine cost a lot and was not advanced as today, so people could possibly die from a common cold. People were forced to create their own clothes and, furniture and tools, as there was no one else to do it for them. On rare occasions you would find small rural shops, which used their own home-made tools to fix or create objects like furniture or clothing. There are many reasons why Britain was the home and birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. It had large and disposable deposits of coal and iron ores, which was essential for progress in the industrial revolution. Another thing Britain had was a politically stable and steady society, and also the fact that they had the world's leading colonial power. This meant that their colonies could work as a foundation for raw materials and to sell their manufactured equipment. The demand for British-created products was massively increased and merchants needed a more cost-effective way of creating products, which led to the modernization in machinery, which was essentially a huge factory.

Industrialisation was spreading to other countries in Europe, such as Germany, France and Belgium, and then quickly spread to North America. By 1850, industrialisation was all around Europe and most other developed countries, and the entire Western region of Europe had been swept over by the wave of new technology. North America’s east region had also been massively industrialised and by the 20^th century they were the leading power in the industry.