Summary 2

CHAPTER 10: THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT AND ITS HERITAGE:

·         Quality of book design and production = casualty of Industrial revolution.

·         Notable exceptions were books by: WILLIAM PICKERING :( 1796-1854). English publisher. He played an important role in the separation of graphic design from printing production. He also commissioned new woodblock ornaments, initials and illustrations. He also maintained control over format design, type selection, illustrations and visual considerations.

·         Cordial working relationship between publisher/designer and printer: PICKERING AND CHARLES WHITTINGHAM (1795-1876) OF CHISWICK PRESS.

·         WHITTINGHAM complimented PICKERING’s demands for quality.

·         Books of prose and poetry, PICKERING’s 53 volume series Aldine Poets, designs moved toward classical simplicity.

·         PICKERING revived Caslon types= straight forward legibility.

·         Liturgical books, 1844: Book of Common Prayer = finest e.g. of revival of gothic forms, permeated 19^th century.

·         Landmark in Book Design= PICKERINGS edition, The Elements of Euclid.

·         Diagrams and symbols printed in brilliant primary colours with woodblocks, colour replaced traditional alphabet labelling to identify lines, shapes and forms in geometry lessons.

·         Dynamic colour and crisp structures anticipate geometric abstract art of 20^th century.

·         Revival treated book as limited –edition art object, influenced commercial production= result of Arts and Crafts Movement, flourished England, last decades of 19^th century as reaction against social, moral and artistic confusion of Industrial Revolution.

·         Design and return to handicraft advocated.

·         Cheap and nasty mass produced goods of Victorian Era abhorred.

·         WILLIAM MORRIS :( 1834-96) Leader of English Arts and Crafts Movement. Pivotal figure in history of design. Fitness of purpose, truth to nature of materials, methods of production and individual expression of designer and worker. 2 dimensional pattern designer, botany and medieval arts.

·         JOHN RUSKIN  (1819-1900) Artist and Writer inspired philosophy of movement. Rejected mercantile economy. Pointed toward union of art and labour in service to society. Exemplified in design and construction of medieval Gothic Cathedral. This was SOCIAL ORDER. Process of separating art and society begun after Renaissance.

·         Industrialization and Technology causes: isolating the artist, consequences were eclectic borrowing from historical models, decline in creativity and design by engineers without aesthetic concern.  Ruskin’s theories and fervent belief: beautiful things were valuable and useful precisely because they were beautiful. Ruskin concerned about social justice, advocating improved housing for industrial workers, national education system and retirement benefits for elderly.

THE CENTURY GUILD:

·         ARTHUR H MACKMURDO: was inspired by William Morris. Renaissance architectural forms and ornaments.

·         Floral stylization of Art Nouveau

·         EMERY WALKER: Master typographer and printer of CHISWICK PRESS.

·         SELWYN IMAGE DESIGNED TYPEFACES.

THE KELMSCOTT PRESS:

·         Committed to recapturing beauty of incunabula books. Hand printing, handmade paper, hand cut woodblocks, initials, border.

THE PRIVATE PRESS MOVEMENT:

·         CHARLES R ASHBEE: founded guild of handicraft in 1888.

·         Psalter was design master piece of ESSEX HOUSE PRESS.

·         DOVES PRESS

·         EDWARD JOHNSTON: master calligrapher of arts and crafts movement.

·         ASHDENE PRESS: semi gothic types. Ringing elegance and straightforward legibility.

·         ELBERT HUBBARD-ROYCROFT PRESS.

·         LUCIEN PISSARRO

·         ESTHER BENSUSAN

·         NICHOLAS JENSON WAS THEIR INSPIRATION.

A BOOK-DESIGN RENAISSANCE:

·         Long-range effect of Morris was significant upgrading of book design and typography throughout world.

·         SJOERD H. DE ROOS (1877- 1962); art nouveau style, simplicity and unique for Dutch book design. Typeface= foundation of sound book design, practical, beautiful and easily readable. Zilvertype= updated version of Hollandsche Mediaeval. Disteltype = modern interpretation of Carolingian miniscule designed by LUCIEN PISSARRO.

·         JAN VAN KRIMPEN (1892-1958): book designer in Netherlands.

·         J.F. VAN ROYEN (1878- 1942): book designer and private publisher and general secretary of Dutch PTT (POST, TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH).

·         CHARLES NYPLES (1895- 1952) = MASTER PRINTER PUBLISHER.

·         A. A. M. STOLS: (1879- 1942) = MASTER PRINTER PUBLISHER.

·         Sought to revive printing arts through return to traditional standards.

·         Guidelines: symmetrical layouts, tranquil harmony, balance, careful margin proportions, proper letter and word spacing, single traditional typefaces in few sizes as possible, skillful letterpress printing.

·         Typographer should serve text first and otherwise stay in the background.

·         EUGENE GRASSET

·          RUDOLPH KOCH (1876- 1934): IMPORTANT GERMAN TYPE DESIGNER. Powerful figure, mystical and medieval.

·         Book Designer BRUCE ROGERS (1870- 1956)

·         TYPEFACE DESIGNER, FREDERIC W. GOUDY (1865- 1947). Design, cutting, casting of typefaces. He based many of his faces on Venetian and French Renaissance type designs. STARTED CAMELOT PRESS – 1894. 1895- BOOKLET PRESS. Then he designed his first typeface = Camelot.

·         PRIVATE PRESS= VILLAGE PRESS

·         WILLIAM ADDISON DWIGGINS (1880- 1956) HIGHLY LITERATE BOOK DESIGNER WHO ESTABLISHED HOUSE STYLE FOR ALFRED A. KNOPF publishing company.

·         ALBERT BRUCE ROGERS of Lafayette, Indiana evolved from KELMSCOTT roots- 1890s. The total design. HE JOINED RIVERSIDE PRESS – 1896. His typeface Centaur = font inspired by JENSON. He adopted a sense of visual proportion and of rightness.  He was also a classicist, revived forms of past.

·         Morris, arts and crafts movement, and private presses inspired vigorous revitalization of typography. Victorian typefaces declined = 1890s.

·         Garamond, Plantin, Caslon, Baskerville and Bodoni= past masters were studied, recut and offered for hand and keyboard composition during 20^th century.

·         MORRIS F. BENSON (1872- 1948) Designed important revivals of Bodoni and Garamond.

·         THOMAS MAITLAND CLELAND (1880- 1964) designer whose border, type and images were inspired by Italian and French Renaissance.