ITAP Lecture 9

A brief history of production

The first book ever to be printed in Europe was in 1445 by a man called Johannes Gutenberg who printed the 'Guttenberg Bible'. His invention of the mechanical movable type printing started the printing revolution and is very much regarded as one of the most important events to take place for the development of graphic work. The pages were created using letters made from a hard metal punch, which were then laid out onto a softer copper a bar and hammered into that. This was then placed into a hand held mould and the piece of type would be cast by filling the mould with molten metal. This cools almost immediately so then the piece of type can be removed from the mould. The metal is covered in ink and pressed onto paper to make the page. This can be used again hundreds and thousands of times to create identical pieces.

Expert

My favourite expert is Stefan Sagmeister. This is because I think a lot of his work is really interesting. Most of his work also represents things he has learnt in his life. For example this image shows his latest book 'Things I have learned in my life so far'. When he was younger he had acne which made his skin quite bad and it always bothered him, so he uses his face a lot in his work and edits it so you can't see his skin. This example shows one of five covers from his book. His work also has a meaning and always sends out a message. He does it in a way which is very clear and gets the point across straight away which I think is important in Graphic Design. I also like the way his work communicates well with the audience. A lot of his work is very opinionated which may cause some debate and in a way this is a good thing as it makes people talk about his work, I think Stefan Sagmeister's work is very inspiring and I have related to his work in a few of my previous projects.

ITAP Lecture 8

How text can change the context

Adding text to an image can have a very great effect. A few words can completely change the meaning of an image. For example this image shows an image of a pipe and underneath it says 'This is not a pipe'. I think what the artist means by this is that it is an image of a pipe. Text may be added to an image to explain something or to express an opinion or focus on a subject. You may look at an image and think of it in a certain way, but once text is added it will make you look at it from a different point of view and change your perspective.

The way text is used to persuade or influence

Text can have very powerful meanings and have ways of putting across certain points of view. Text in advertising is usually used in a way to persuade or influence the audience to make them buy a certain product or support a certain campaign. This image shows two examples of a political poster by the conservatives. They show an image of Gordon Brown and state two bad things that have happened while he has been in power. This persuades the audience not to vote for his party and they are more likely to vote for the conservatives instead as they would assume that because the poster is by the conservative party, they would not let the things happen that Gordon brown has. Another way text can be used is to persuade or influence emotionally by making the audience feel a certain way such as guilty, happy, motivated etc.