text

After Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1436,

typography became a prominent tool in visual commu-
nication. From this technological advancement, literacy
increased throughout the world, and more people had
the means to access and interpret posters, books, and
newspapers. Typeface designers and printers relied on a
“linear dimension of type” to convey meaning to their
readers, and continually developed new typefaces as a
means of renewing the viewer’s sense of visual stimula-
Meggs, Phillip B. History of Graphic Design. 3rd ed. [S.l.]: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Print. O’Mahony, Niamh, Sally Chang, Lisa Clatworthy, and David Johnson-Davies.
tion and relationship to the text (Armstrong 33). The
act of reading, however, is a physiologically exhausting
and visually monotonous process that has significantly
contributes to “physical tiredness” and a dependence on
mundane, visual stimuli to extract information (Arm-
strong 46). Thus, designers have sought to “recapture
and retain freshness” in the work they produce to
reclaim the reader’s attention and personal connection to
content and information; therefore, attempts have been
made to creatively display and communicate content in
a more subjective manner that actively engages readers
(Armstrong 33).

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http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/adopt-a-book/nuremberg.htm
The development and evolution of Gutenberg’s print-
ing press not only increased our ability to mass produce
textually based materials, it also led to the development
and popularization and of printmaking. Printmaking is a
“pictorial that is produced by a process enabling it to be
multiplied” by means of relief: woodcut/wood- engrav-
ing, or intaglio: etching, engraving, dry point. (Rebecca
Williams). From the 13th century to the late 14th centu-
ry, the primary use of printmaking evolved from a form
of raw artistic expression to typography’s counterpart.
The first instance in which a relationship between image
and text is addressed occurred in 1493, with the produc-
tion of the illustrated book, the Nuremberg Chronicle
(Williams). From this image-text relationship, a “new
dimension” of design emerged where imagery and text
work together in order to enforce a particular meaning to
the viewer (Armstrong 33).

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This “new dimension”, that we continue to utilize today,
became the basis for constructing a sense of “universal
understanding” in the work that designers produce. This
ideology developed during the period after the Industrial
Revolution, the “mass communication era” when a mass
commercial culture emerged due to population increases,
urbanization, and the emergence of a working class, and
the need for cheap, widely circulated media increased
(Jobling 3, Lane 11). More people needed to be reached
more quickly than ever before, so the need for universal
interpretations among the masses became a necessity.
In turn, mainstream graphic design developed as a way
to “convey ideas through juxtaposition or integration
of word and image into a holistic entity” by means of
reinforcing universal meaning (Jobling 3).
Mass marketing and advertising have relied
heavily on the graphic design in order for the masses to
successfully interpret a particular message the same way.
(Jobling 4). Graphic designers succeeded in their mis-
sion to achieve universality by utilizing print media as a
way to reach large segments of the population. Although
many were short lived, there were “2,328 magazines and
reviews in circulation across the British Isles” by 1900,
and it is highly likely that most of them were illustrated
in one way or another (Jobling 9). Widespread circula-
tion of such publications attributed to and solidified the
increase in literacy, and by the turn of the century 90%
of all adults, particularly in England and France were be-
lieved to be literate (Jobling 9). Magazines and journals
accompanied the boom in literacy by catering to a variety
of people and interests including children, women, reli-
gion and technology (Jobling 9).
Printed publications incorporated both typog-
raphy and images as the foundations for their aesthetic.
Wood engravings were commonly used as an “integral
part of the narrative, often serving to sum up for fore-
ground a particular passage of text through a judicious
placement on the page” and helped readers to have a
clear visual concept of the content (Jobling 24). Wood
engraved illustrations were soon replaced by “photo-
mechanisation”: the process of printing photographic
negatives on woodblocks and printing them. This
allowed for realism to exist within the pages of maga-
zines, journals, and newspapers, but it did not result in
the decline of illustrations. As the use for printed media
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increased, the need for graphic designers to produce
conceptually engaging materials became a staple in mass
communication. They became the masters of meaning.

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Meaning
http://www.vistawallpaper.org/vista-military-wallpapers/free-mushroom-cloud-wallpaper
Designers became influential figures who decided the
meaning that their audiences would take from their use
of text and imagery both outside and inside of com-
mercial markets. For the purposes of design, “meaning”
will be defined as something “meant or intended” to
evoke a feeling within the designer’s audience (Merrium
Webster). Cases in which a particular meaning is designed
to be perceived by observers, cues, symbols, signs, and
metaphors are utilized by the designer. For instance, a
cue “is a signal of something or a reminder of some-
thing” and utilizes the power of an individual’s memory
as a means of evoking a particular meaning (Moriarty).
An example of a visual cue is an image of a mushroom
cloud.This evokes a sense of destruction, horror, and
power by causing the viewer to recall a specific instance
in which they’ve seen a mushroom cloud, (perhaps in a
history book or documentary), and why the mushroom
cloud appeared, (the United States bombing Hiroshima
to conclude World War II).
A symbol is “socially and culturally determined and [its]
meanings can change between groups and across time”
(Moriarty). An example is the swastika. Before Adolph
Hitler began the Nazi party in Germany, the swastika
was a symbol among many cultures of “life, sun, power,
strength, and good luck” (Rosenberg), however when
Adolph Hitler began the Nazi party in Germany, he uti-
lized the swastika to represent different concepts:
“In red we see the social idea of the movement, in
white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the
mission of the struggle for the victory of the
Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of
the idea of creative work, which as such always
has been and always will be anti-Semitic.”
(Hitler 496-497)
Since the Holocaust and World War II, the swastika
invokes fear, sorrow, anti-Semitism, and destruction as
it reminds the world of Hitler’s perversion of power
and hate.
http://brokenworld.wikispaces.com/15.3%2BFascism%2Bin%2BEurope&usg
 A sign is “something that stands for something else”
and uses involves a signifier--a word, sound, or object-
-that represents a signified, which is the concept, idea,
or thought that you want to communicate” (Moriarty).
An example is a stoplight that uses colors (red, yellow,
green) to represent actions that drivers should take when
approaching an intersection. In all of these instances, the
visual signifiers were created and/or utilized by designers
to evoke a particular meaning to their audience.

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Graphic design embodies both typography and imagery
as tools to invoke meaning to an audience. By combining
these two powerful elements, designers ensure that their
messages are not lost in translation,
“When an object is placed in a situation, it is
meaningful in ways that may or may not have
been predicted by its designer. The object may
also bring about changes in the situation,
changes that are in some sense apart of its
meaning. Finally, the meaning of a thing is
reinvented by each individual who uses it, and
evolves along with the situation of which it is apart”
(Walker).
By adding textual components such as explanations, cap-
tions, titles, and phrases to imagery, designers ensure that
their intended meaning comes across. Such efforts have
evolved throughout the course of Graphic Design history
and are evident today in advertsting, books, magazines,
and billboards.
 works
Armstrong, Helen. Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the
Field. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2009. Print.

Hitler, Adolph. Mein Kampf. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943.

Web.

Jobling, Paul, and David Crowley. Graphic Design: Reproduction

and Representation since 1800. Manchester: Manchester
UP, 1996. Print.

Lane, W. Ronald, Karen Whitehill. King, and Thomas Russell.

“Background of Today’s Advertising.” Kleppner’s Adver
tising Procedure. 18th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pear
son/Prentice Hall, 2011. 5-31. Print.
cited
Moriarty, Sandra. “AN INTERPRETIVE STUDY OF VISUAL
CUES IN ADVERTISING.” Spot.colorado.edu. Web. 26
Oct. 2010. <http://spot.colorado.edu/~moriarts/viscue
ing.html>.

Rosenberg, By Jennifer. “History of the Swastika.” 20th Century

History. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. <http://history1900s.about.
com/cs/swastika/a/swastikahistory.htm>.

Williams, Rebecca. “Illustrated Books.” GDES 3330. St. Edward’s

University, Austin. 22 Sept. 2010. Speech.