30 September 2009

Things to take away from today's class:

Culture:

Remember that communicating is more than words and pictures, it involves understanding the culture of the people you want to reach.

People in Chinese culture and People in Western cultures learn to read in completely different ways.  For people in the West it is all about starting from the left and moving to the right.  For Chinese people a text can start at the top on the left or on the right and it can move vertically or horizontally.  Thus, western people are more likely to read an image from the left to the right while Chinese people will understand and read an image differently.  You will need to experiment exactly what that way is and you will need to have a good sense of how direct people's attention around an information space.

The same applies to how you use color, how you use objects and shapes and how you use language.  Every aspect of a person's cultural experience impacts how they design communication and how they respond to communication design.  Look into the notes for the various factors.

Early History

There is strong evidence that language in China and the West developed on a very similar though completely independent path.  There are fewer artifacts from early Chinese pictograms and writing because of the materials used and the various climates in the country.  The use of stone and clay in the Fertile Crescent and the dry climate have preserved many more artifacts in this part of the world.

Language developed from pictures, pictures led to pictograms (e.g. hieroglyphics) and pictograms led letterforms and letterforms were refined over time.  In the West this led to an array of  abstracted alphabetic written languages.  In China this led to a complex character-based written language which has been essentially intact for more than 2000 years.

Earliest writing was done on stone, clay, bones, and turtle shells.  In China bamboo became the medium for writing text.  In Egypt reeds were the basis of papyrus sheets for writing.  In Egypt and elsewhere animal skins were used for parchment which was an extremely expensive medium but has been preserved quite well.  With the invention of paper in China printing became viable.  With the arrival of paper in the West printing also became more viable.

Pi Sheng invented moveable type but the nature of the Chinese language and the use of wood made it a bit impractical.  Metal moveable type was then invented in Korea where an alphabetic language and the use of metal were much more practical.  Finally, Gutenberg invented moveable metal type in the West and the potential for mass publication became a reality.  With printing simplified verbal literacy became a possibility and a necessity.  Printing also made the access to information available for everyone where it had been primarily available to the rich and priests previously.  Printing technologies for images also improved in the era of moveable type.  While China stayed with wood block printing Copper Plate Etching and very detailed images became possible in the West.

Technologies and recording media have always played an important part in communication design.  The technologies and media present the limitations and possibilities for image making, type setting and distribution.  When a new technology or recording medium expands the possibility for characters, letterforms and images there is an expansion of creative communication design.  When a new technology or recording medium expands the opportunity for message distribution there is an increased demand for creative communication design.

so:
          pictures
                              pictograms
                                                               characters & letterforms

and:
          stone & clay & bones & shells
                              papyrus & parchment & bamboo
                                                                                 paper
then:
          handwriting
                                cut forms
                                                         moveable type
as well as:
          drawing & painting
                              woodcut printing

                                                                plate etching

Moveable type then created the possibility for the development and creation of varied letterforms for myriad printed materials.

audiences for communication design were made up of:

          royal & priestly

                              wealthy & scholarly

                                                                everyone

and verbal literacy went from:

          non-existent

                                       limited

                                                                necessary

Remember:

There are no new ideas in communication design there are only new combinations and the synthesis of old ideas.  Even an ancient piece of work can inspire what you do now and understanding the technological limitations of its creation can inspire you even more.

until next time...