Assignment 2

Emily Bristow

History of Graphic Arts

Assignment 2

1/22/15

The renaissance was a time where strides were being made in all aspects of life, especially graphic design. There were three significant things produced at the time that largely impacted aspects of graphic design that are relevant to this day. They are the printing press, and the development of typeface and trademarks (or logos). When printing presses first came about during the renaissance era they were strictly used to print books. The introduction of printing presses allowed for a faster production process of books and design, while also allowing multiple copies to be made. Books no longer required hand drawn illustrations or writing, as they could now be printed directly together, but this was only the first innovation that began to pave the way for print today.

With the development of printing presses came the revolution of typeface. Nicolas Jensen was one of the most famous designers of the time, known for his innovation in typeface. His first roman font produced had consistent spacing between letters and within letters themselves while also being better aligned altogether. These things made his font extremely more legible than any produced before. Many of the aesthetics in his roman type are still relevant today in the font “Times New Roman”, which is so popular it is the default font on many systems today. Just as the printing press paved the way for current prints, Jensen laid down the stepping stones for font design today.

As printing presses developed and more printers like Jensen began to pop up it was decided that printers needed a sort of signature to identify the books they printed. Printers began to design individual trademarks to print on their book. These trademark images were sorts of emblems with the printers initials placed in them. Thus the beginning idea of the logo, a unique design that is identifiable to specific companies or people, and is always used in branding today. These three things were not the only developments of graphic design during the renaissance, but they were the most significant. The printing press, typeface, and logos (trademarks) were all developments that have greatly impacted graphic design since and remain to this day.