A rich, visual retelling of history, international in scope, this book charts the evolution of 'print' into 'graphic design' between 1700 and 1914. It is organized into six chapters, each beginning with a short introductory text before immersing the reader in a wealth of delightful and fully captioned examples of printed ephemera - handbills, posters, advertisements, catalogues and labels - that served the demands of the emerging consumer classes of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and reveal the extraordinary skill, craft, design sense and intelligence of those who created them. A book of great appeal, based on comprehensive, original research, it keys into the new appreciation of 'craft' and hand-rendered graphic design.With around 850 illustrations, many specially photographed from private collections, it will be of immense and lasting interest to graphic designers, design and social historians, as well as collectors of print and printed emphemera alike.
1. Alternative Functions of the Black Art: Letterpress printing and working conditions • Training and aptitude • The status of the early letterpress jobbing printer • The sign-writer • The jobbing engraver • The engraved writing manual • The engraved frontispiece and title page 2. Celebrating the Challenge of Change: Handcraft to mechanized industry • Early 19th-century European typeface design • Display typefaces: British type foundries • Popular reading: broadsides, chap books, almanacs • Newspapers and early advertising • Advertising and the growing influence of the USA • Display typefaces: American wood type • 3. Mechanisation and International Ambition: Mechanization and its influence on the status of design • Advertising and the advertising agency • Packaging and the retail business • Posters and the entertainment business • Information design for transport systems • Lithography and the development of colour printing • Mechanization and the failures of training • Early photography and its influence on illustration • Oscar Harpel and the elevation of the jobbing printer • 4. Artistic Aspirations for Mass Communication: The apprentice and technical college • America and Artistic Printing • Artistic Printing in Britain • Photography and printing technology • Colour printing and advertising • 5. The Rise of Advertising and Design: Advertising and design as a service • Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau • Art, design and the cultural magazine • The fall of Artistic Printing • The mechanization of type composition • The commercial artist and the poster • 6. Printing at the Service of Design: Craft, science and revival • The independent designer • Designers working with printers • Establishing credibility for design • Graphic design and the graphic designer
