Johannes Gutenberg and the Origins of Typography

Introduction

In this essay I will be discussing about the Origins of Typography. I will be mentioning key factors that played an important role throughout, and up until the 19th Century. I will be mentioning Gutenberg, and how he influenced his time and many more centuries to come and how typography all started.

I will also be mentioning factors such as:

• The Printing Press - Gutenberg
• Steam Driven Printing Press/ Rotary Press
• Illustrated and Pictorial Newspapers
• Printed matter
• Black letter
• Roman type

I will also discuss how the movements influenced contemporary art and design, tracing back to the roots on how it started and how far forward industries have become because of new technologies always coming into play and new ideas being formed.

Who is Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg was a German Blacksmith, Painter, Goldsmith and Publisher born in Mainz, Germany 1398. He was the son of an upper-class Goldsmith. The inventor and the introducer of moveable type and the printing press. During the renaissance, in 1439 his moveable type printing arrived in Europe, using metal alloy and a hand mould for casting of the type. It introduced mass communication which made structure for society. His printing press also played a major role in the

Reformation, Renaissance and the age of enlightenment. Origins of Typography and advancement throughout the 19th Century

Writing is the foundation form of communication and it all traces back to using Pictograms and Hieroglyphs, which is how civilians communicated back then. Pictograms were how people expressed ideas, and communicated with each other, which eventually led into the alphabet and phonographic writing. All of this eventually led into other ways of communication and other type systems. Ancient cave painting date back to 20,000 B.C, and then formal writing was used by Sumerians which dated back to 3,500 B.C. ways of communicating advanced as people came up new ideas, which in 3,100 B.C the Egyptians introduced Egyptian Hieroglyphics which were symbols now being introduced into their art and architecture. The first alphabet was introduced in 1000 B.C by the Phoenicians which was also used by the Greek. The word Alphabet is a combination of the first two Greek letters Alpha and Beta. The industrial Revolution also had a large impact on design through mass communication.

Typography in the 19th Century produced new design types. With three major advancements, which were Fat faced fonts, Slab serif typefaces and Bold letters. The three biggest type founders of the 19th century were William Caslon, Robert Thorne and Vincent Figgins. And also the producing of three dimensional fonts, outlines and reversed outlines being very popular. William Caslon was an English gunsmith and designed typefaces. He started his own business in London as a gun lock engraver and book binder. His uniqueness in fonts made him a leading printer in the United Kingdom where we was from. Robert Thorne another type founder purchased a foundry of a former employee of William Caslon. In 1801 Thorne started using his own font designs and her was the first founder of type to begin using fat typefaces. He went on to designing many more of his own designs of typefaces up until his death in 1820. After Thorne had passed away his business was purchased by a man who won the lottery but was never in the type founder business.

The invention of manuscript books soon came into place in the middle ages. Both handwritten and illustrated manuscripts. The manuscripts introduced uncials and half uncials, introducing more rounded and more elaborate lettering. The art of Calligraphy writing made new ground and became very popular. The style of writing was described as a type of script. In the 19th century calligraphy revived by being introduced in Art Nouveau. Calligraphers travelled across the world to share their knowledge on the art of calligraphy. Calligraphy is only most commonly used in wedding invitations and logo design. Calligraphy today is used on multiple products and applications, including Graphic Design, menus, certificates and used for many more purposes. So the invention of movable metal type was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439.

With already having experience in metal production he knew how to cut punches and stamp letters. Each letter started off as a metal object, and each letter had its own unique way in which it was designed. Each letter had to have a shape because it had to be cut on a steel punch, using and engraving tool, and then cast in molten lead. Gutenberg wanted to develop and produce book production, which is why through the 18th, and 19th century it has advanced and especially to where we are today. Moveable type was a huge improvement on the handwritten manuscript, which was the method of book production at that time in Europe. The earliest printed book Gutenberg invented was his bible in 1455, it had 1,286 pages and issued 2 volumes. Other bibles that he created later required large fonts and setting up pages at a time took over half a day depending on all the rest of work that required in the process. Gutenberg’s first bible was of high technical quality. Which he worked on for over 2 years and was printed in Black Letter type. Today one of Gutenberg’s bibles is worth over 30 Million. (Griffith Moodle, Visual culture and theory, Sara Donaldson, 2019, Accessed August 2nd 2019 @ 4.45pm)

Through the development of Black Letter in Gutenberg’s bible it spread the printing across the Alps, with the character styles becoming much lighter and more Roman style. The drastic blackness of black letter type was never the easiest to read so a new type called Roman which was more readable was designed by a man named Nicholas Jensen who made Roman more presentable and pleasing to the eye. (Grace Fussell, 2019)

Many, many years after Gutenberg invented his hand press a major design that impacted society was the design of the steam driven printing press that was invented in 1814 by two German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer. Their printing press could print over 1,000 sheets per hour. The two pioneers founded the world’s first printing factory known as KBA (Koenig and Bauer). They eventually sold their press to the times newspaper. Their flat bed press was eventually out run by an American inventor named Richard Hoe who invented the Rotary steam press that could print over 8,000 sheets and hour. (Whattheythink.com,2014, Accessed August 2nd 2019)

The productivity of the presses had greatly increased in the 19th century because of the invention of steam power. Print became more affordable to the working class people. In 1837 a man named Godefroy Engelmann was credited with the invention of Chromolithography which was a method for printing in colour. Chromos were mainly used to produce scenic photos and paintings. A replicating of an oil painting that is printed onto a canvas using an embossing technique. Chromo was also affordable in price. The 19th century had applied the most influential publication which was the Pictorial newspaper. It was made using steam driven letter press technology and could cheaply produce runs up to 100,000 copies. The pictorial news papers had enabled the production of urban mass culture. The newspapers featured the news, poetry, fiction and entertainment for all. The pictures used by illustrators were re made by wood engravings.

Much of society was uneducated and by having pictures made newspapers approachable to all people. Founded in 1842 was the Illustrated London news which used a strong use of images instead of text to bring the stories to life. When photographs appeared for the first time in newspapers they were copied as wood engravings because they could not be side by side with the letter press type. (Griffith moodle, Sara Donaldson, 2019, Accessed August 2nd 2019)

In the 19th Century the design of posters became the earliest forms of advertisement and became a way to visually communicate advertisements such as events, political etc. Printed through the steam press, and then hung on billboards and on stalls through the streets and cities. A famed 19th century painter/ poster artist Toulouse Lautrec was one of many popular artist for creating eye catching and captivating posters such as the “Streetwalker and “At the Moulin Rouge” he was influenced by the Japanese in exaggerating expressions, colour and facial features in his pieces. He was a very realistic artist taking exact moments as they are. (Biography.com editors, 2014) In the late 19th century at around 1880 the lithographic poster came into place. It was very slow and cost a lot of money for the production of the poster. Most posters at the time were very simple with wood or metal. In 1880 a man named Cheret made a stone lithographic process, which allowed every single colour you could think of be processed with only using 3 stones, the coloured stones were usually red, blue and yellow. This stone process required a lot of time and effort to achieve the colour intensities and textures that was not used on any other platform of media. Being able to combine an image and a word in such a beautiful way allowed the design of the lithographic poster to enter into the modern advertising age. (Internationpostergallery, 2017)

Art Nouveau was an artistic movement which also became very popular and peaked the late 19th Century which was known as the start of modern design. This modern design was based on using very decorative art. The designers of Art Nouveau set out to design an art type form to introduce into the modern age, which in a way was a response to the Industrial Revolution. A man named Victor Horta introduced the Art Nouveau style in 1893. It was usually practiced through art and architecture e.g. buildings. Art nouveau is a French term meaning “new art”. Art nouveau style is consisted of plant and organic motifs. The organic form took from sudden curves in its design also known for whiplash. It developed into more modern art during the 20th century. In relating to graphic design it was popular in poster printing and in the production of books, and also used by other artists for other types of advertising. Art Nouveau was to heavily ornamental and decorative as fonts or type but great for displays of work. Art Nouveau helped with the future works in textiles, buildings, jewellery and furniture. Art Nouveau has played a huge impact through the 19th century being one of the most recognisable styles in Design, Architecture and Typography which has developed into what we have today.

Graphic Design from the 19th century and even in todays society plays an important factor in our lives. Imagine a society where there is no signage to show directions, no printed handouts for events, and no logos with your own unique style, shape or colour for businesses to distinguish from eachother. There would be no identity for products or shops. If everything was to look the same it would be boring and unpleasant. And all thanks to Jan Tschichold in the Avant - garde era, 19th century who graphically designed his own posters with images and typography that carried messages which through this changed society by being able to carry information about political and social events. Graphic Design today transfers knowledge through image and text in branding, logos and packaging all through the improvement of computer technology and printing

Conclusion

Typography is a key element in most design industries. A font is one, if not the most important decision a designer can make. I believe the choice of font can either make a piece of work great, or it can completely throw you off. Without Gutenberg’s creative mindset we would not have what we have today with the experience and impact moveable type or what the printing press has done throughout the centuries. The invention of the printing press not only allowed Gutenberg himself to tell his story but also allowed others to tell theirs. He spread literature to the uneducated and made headway for the information age – The Renaissance. Without movable type or printing press there would have been no technical advances that now today is a modern world. The Gutenberg printing press caused an impact on social and Cultural Revolution. I also talked about manuscripts and how they all started and formed into ways of visual communication allowing people to keep up to date with the latest news and events at that time, manuscripts also helped the uneducated people, by introducing images into the papers, as sometimes, pictures could vision an article piece best. I also mentioned Art Nouveau “new art” which was the start of modernism in art and how we recognise it today. We also take a look at how graphic design today enhances businesses through their own distinct logos and branding all through technology improvements.