January 20, 2010

Important topics introduced tonight:

• Symbolic forms suggest early humans did not simply record their needs and activities but also placed value on the representation of these ideas.
• Words represent unspoken thought.
• Petroglyphs/ Ideographs: reduced to the point resembling letters.
• Egyptian experimentation when writing their texts. Introduction to hierarchy
• Egyptian innovations triggered the development of the alphabet and graphic written communication in Phoenicia and Greco- Roman world.
• Greeks adopted and refined Phoenician alphabet. They determined the direction of reading.
• Greek alphabet fathered Etruscan,Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets.
• Romans finalized our our 26 letter alphabet.
• Christian belief in sacred religious writings became the primary impetus for the preservation and making of books.
• A more refined uncial and half evolves in the earliest manuscripts during the Dark Ages. Intent for faster writing and more legibility.
• First type printed by Gutenberg was based on "textura" from Gothic Manuscript.
• Albrecht Durer
• Six Historical Categories of Type.
-Old Style Roman
-Italic or Cursive letter form
-Transitional Period
-Modern Period
-Egyptian or Slab Serif
-Sans Serif

I found it very interesting to learn how exactly type came to be what it is now a days. Personally I'm not a big fan of type, but I still like learning about it's history and how they got to us. I never would have never thought that to get out a new idea the scholars would just do it and publish it. With this they would receive ideas and feedback about what they did. They would also see what worked better for the public and any other person that might read it.