- Design and technology are always
intricately woven together.
New printing techniques and tools
changed the way designers work,
and this leads to new styles and solutions.
Take the Macintosh, for example.
The introduction of this tool in the 1980s
not only changed how designers worked,
but impacted the look of the things we designed.
Now, this gets a little technical, so bear with me.
For centuries, books and illuminated manuscripts
were hand-drawn, typically by monks or scribes.
If you wanted multiple copies, that monk needed
to hand draw each one individually.
This took a long time and was very labor-intensive.
In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented
the movable type printing press.
This process began with individual letters
molded from metal into slugs.
They were combined to create paragraphs.
Ink was applied to the metal type,
and paper was pressed onto the surface.
This process allowed for multiple copies
to be made from the same metal type.
When the copies were completed,
the type was taken apart and recombined
into another page or paragraph.
By the 19th century, and again,
due to the Industrial Revolution and increase in products,
there was a large need for advertising and promotion.
A manufacturer could produce 5,000 cups
but then needed to sell them.
The metal type process worked well
on books and posters with small type,
but the individual letterforms
made of metal had a size limitation.
When it was attempted to make large, headline size version,
that metal forms would break apart.
The solution was to make posters only with small type,
or find a new way to make big letterforms for printing.
Fortunately, an American printer, Darius Wells,
began making letterforms out of wood.
A printer could carve these letterforms
as large as they needed.
This answered the call for big type to promote events.
This was the birth of the American wood type poster.
At first, the printers of these posters tried
to emulate the look and feel of the older metal type designs
with elaborate ornaments and a variety of fonts.
This was accomplished by mixing large wood type
with smaller metal type.
It was also very difficult to print images,
so printer relied on fanciful typefaces
and multiple rules and dingbats to create energy.
As you might expect, this mashup of processes
created a complex and, at times, chaotic design.
The handmade quality gave a sense of the human touch,
which feels warmer and less clinical
than some of the typography we use today.
It's easy to assume that a new technology
replaces the old one, but like radio
before television, that's not true.
Today, letterpress printing with wood type
is incredibly popular.
Companies such as Hatch Show Print in Nashville
are looked at for design excellence,
and many schools have built their own letterpress workshops.
Wood type and letterpress are usually more economical
than offset printing when making smaller quantities.
Experimental work, limited edition books,
even wedding invitations, are perfect
for the letterpress process.
Over the last 30 years, as design
became more and more digitally-based,
many people yearn for the handmade and organic
and were turned to the printing technology
of the 19th century, creating again, wood type posters.