Web Design History (The Computer)

In the beginning, web design was of the minimum, but as the Web progressed, HTML became more complex and flexible allowing users to add images and tables to web pages. With the invention of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and a web server technology with the ability to highly customize the response based on the user’s requirements (server-side scripting), web design experienced a rapid evolution.

In 1993, the first Internet browser, Mosaic – which enabled users to surf the Internet in a graphical way and opened the Web up to the general public – was released by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). The browser made it possible for users to view text and graphic, but within a very limited layout arrangement that influenced the ability to provide graphic design information for visual communication and restricted the abilities of web design.

Bitmap Font (The Computer)

A bitmap font is one that stores each glyph as an array of pixels (that is, a bitmap). It is less commonly known as a raster font. Bitmap fonts are simply collections of raster images of glyphs. For each variant of the font, there is a complete set of glyph images, with each set containing an image for each character. For example, if a font has three sizes, and any combination of bold and italic, then there must be 12 complete sets of images.

Advantages of bitmap fonts include:

• Extremely fast and simple to render
• Unscaled bitmap fonts always give exactly the same output
• Easier to create than other kinds.

The primary disadvantage of bitmap fonts is that the visual quality tends to be poor when scaled or otherwise transformed, compared to outline and stroke fonts, and providing many optimized and purpose-made sizes of the same font dramatically increases memory usage. The earliest bitmap fonts were only available in certain optimized sizes such as 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72, and 96 points, with custom fonts often available in only one specific size, such as a headline font at only 72 points.

Fortune Magazine (The Modernists)

Fortune magazine hit the newsstands during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history—the Great Depression. Four months after the stock market crash of 1929, Fortune appeared before a weary, disgruntled public that was threatened with complete economic downfall.

 

General WPA Posters (The Modernists)

Miscellaneous WPA Posters on subjects such as nature, education and the workplace. These posters were illustrated by the WPA Federal Art Project during the 1930s and 1940s.

-Themes include theater, nature, workplace confidence, art exhibits, literacy, photography and community events.

This WPA poster for the City of New York Department of Docks shows five ocean liners and brags about the “United States’ first foreign trade zone. Staten Island, City of New York, opened February 1, 1937.” The poster was illustrated by Jack Rivolta for the New York City WPA Federal Art Project in 1937.

This poster by artist Albert M. Bender for the Illinois WPA Art Project was used to promote domestic employment for women: “Jobs for girls & women. If you want a good job in household employment apply at – or write to Illinois State Employment Service.” The illustration was created between 1936 and 1941.

This 1940 WPA poster for the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority promotes low income housing: “Live here at low rent – Lakeview Terrace, 1340 West 28th St. at Main Avenue bridge.” Illustrated by Stanley Thomas Cough.

Who influenced Heartfield? (The Avantgarde)

John Heartfield played a major role in the Dada Movement, however, he learned techniques and styles from many other artists who expressed their political ideas through art. Influenced mostly by the early Dadaists, he adapted their style to portray his art. Below are some of Heartfield’s colleagues and other people who effected his art.

Dada (The Avantgarde)

Dada originated in Switzerland in 1916 as a reaction to World War I. It was started by a group of artists who wanted to break the traditional boundaries of distinct art forms. This symbolized the movement as a whole, as the artists were attempting to protest war, greed and the corrupt powers that existed. An original Dadaists Richard Huelsenbeck said, “Dada is the sun. Dada is the egg. Dada is the Police of the Police.” The artists felt that Dada expressed the concept of supreme egoism, in which, laws seem to disintegrate. A majority of Heartfield’s work was dedicated to the anti-nazi movement, and took a satirical approach to protesting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.

 

Bauhaus and the “International Modern” Style (The Avantgarde)

The Bauhaus school was established in 1919 in Dessau, Germany by a group of architects, engineers, and artists led by Walter Gropius. The ideals of this group were social and political as well as aesthetic. They sought solutions for the problems faced by the working classes in the depression years of Post World War I Germany.

Their concerns included urban planning, housing, and the development of high-quality, utilitarian mass production of consumer goods. A unique feature of their program was the melding of handicraft and industrial production methods. Crafts were thought to be the necessary first step in the training of engineers, architects and industrial designers.

In this they differed from the theoreticians of the Arts and Crafts movement, who resisted the use of industrial methods and materials; yet the Bauhaus designers shared the Arts and Crafts veneration of the hand crafts.