Meggs' History of Graphic Design
Fourth Edition
Phillip B. Meggs
Alston W. Purvis
2006 John Wiley & Sons Inc
Hoboken, New Jersey
Key Notes:
Pg 161-165
The Rise of American editorial and advertising design.
The first pictorial magazine was the Harpers New Monthly published in 1850 as a 144 pages of "serialized Englished fiction" and "numerous woodcut illustrations", was accompanied by a Harpers Weekly and had other editions added later for woman and youth markets.
Magazines push print technology to evolve and they evolve alongside:
- Halftone printing, 1887.
- Two colour printing, 1893.
The development of magazines closely tied to the development of advertising agencies.
Pg 383-389
An editorial design revolution.
Editorial design after decline.
"Over the course of the 1950s a revolution in editorial design occurred, spurred in part by the design classes Brodovitch taught." - pg384
"Examine each problem thoroughly, develop a solution from the resulting understanding and then search for a brilliant visual presentation." - pg384
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Monday, 16 April 2012
The Last Magazine
Interesting book I got out from the library, The Last Magazine by David Renard.
"Magazines, as we know them, are dying." - David Renard.
"The stylepress: physically and aesthetically engaging, vibrant creative chroniclers of trends. These will be the last printed magazines." - David Renard.
The book makes many interesting points about the future of magazines as well as differentiating mainstream media magazines from what he calls 'the stylepress'. Stylepress magazines as Renard defines them are vibrant luxurious design objects, which engage and inspire the audience through creativity. The book also displays a large number of examples sorted under questions about what a magazine should/could be, relating to the attributes of stylepress magazines, such as:
- "Why does the magazine experience have to be confined to flipping through pages?"
-"Why do magazines have to be designed for ease of use?"
-"Why are magazines created to be disposable?"
-"Why does a magazine have to be programmed to the lowest common denominator?"
These questions seem to sum up many of the key points stated by Rennard in regards to stylepress magazines. Experience based design, creativity and ideas over content, timeless value as an object rather than short lived value as news media and designing without the mainstream market demands in mind.
A lot of what Renard says seems to make sense and I think agree that this could be how the printed magazine is valued in the future, but I'm also interested in how the stylepress is represented in the digital form, or how it can be represented.
Notes/Quotes from reading The Last magazine by David Renard and Mute Magazine Graphic Design by Pauline Van Mourik Broekman, Simon Worthington and Damian Jaques:
Notes from reading The Last Magazine + a few short notes from Mute Magazine Graphic Design by Adrian Shaugnessy
| Reviewed by Magculture (website) |
"Magazines, as we know them, are dying." - David Renard.
"The stylepress: physically and aesthetically engaging, vibrant creative chroniclers of trends. These will be the last printed magazines." - David Renard.
The book makes many interesting points about the future of magazines as well as differentiating mainstream media magazines from what he calls 'the stylepress'. Stylepress magazines as Renard defines them are vibrant luxurious design objects, which engage and inspire the audience through creativity. The book also displays a large number of examples sorted under questions about what a magazine should/could be, relating to the attributes of stylepress magazines, such as:
- "Why does the magazine experience have to be confined to flipping through pages?"
-"Why do magazines have to be designed for ease of use?"
-"Why are magazines created to be disposable?"
-"Why does a magazine have to be programmed to the lowest common denominator?"
These questions seem to sum up many of the key points stated by Rennard in regards to stylepress magazines. Experience based design, creativity and ideas over content, timeless value as an object rather than short lived value as news media and designing without the mainstream market demands in mind.
A lot of what Renard says seems to make sense and I think agree that this could be how the printed magazine is valued in the future, but I'm also interested in how the stylepress is represented in the digital form, or how it can be represented.
Notes/Quotes from reading The Last magazine by David Renard and Mute Magazine Graphic Design by Pauline Van Mourik Broekman, Simon Worthington and Damian Jaques:
Notes from reading The Last Magazine + a few short notes from Mute Magazine Graphic Design by Adrian Shaugnessy
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Idn Editorial Design Issue
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times.
“The famous opening line of Charles Dickens’s novel a tale of two cities is a perfect description of todays publishing industry. There are more means of communication available to us today than ever before – but such a plethora of choices inevitably implies that not all of them will survive.” - idn (vol.16 no.5 2009)
Excerpts from Idn magazine: Editorial Design issue
How do you see the future for little white lies – and editorial design in general?
We see ourselves just plodding along, adding new bits and bringing new ideas to LWL as and when we can afford it, and generally trying to keep it fresh and relevant. As for editorial design in general, while we take no pleasure in the fact that many magazine companies are closing in this wintery economic climate, we would like to think that it might force people to think more carefully about the standards and qualities of their magazines. Basically when it’s hard to survive , people have to up their game, and the overall quality of magazines that I might find on a shelf will rise. We don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing for magazines, or for editorial design in general.
it was the worst of times.
“The famous opening line of Charles Dickens’s novel a tale of two cities is a perfect description of todays publishing industry. There are more means of communication available to us today than ever before – but such a plethora of choices inevitably implies that not all of them will survive.” - idn (vol.16 no.5 2009)
Excerpts from Idn magazine: Editorial Design issue
How do you see the future for little white lies – and editorial design in general?
We see ourselves just plodding along, adding new bits and bringing new ideas to LWL as and when we can afford it, and generally trying to keep it fresh and relevant. As for editorial design in general, while we take no pleasure in the fact that many magazine companies are closing in this wintery economic climate, we would like to think that it might force people to think more carefully about the standards and qualities of their magazines. Basically when it’s hard to survive , people have to up their game, and the overall quality of magazines that I might find on a shelf will rise. We don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing for magazines, or for editorial design in general.
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