Thursday, December 6, 2018

Honoring Graphic Design's Past

It's a sad state for designers in today's world, as machine learning and artificial intelligence begin to dominate creative professions and disciplines. Naturally, it's a concern for designers themselves, (which is why I never became a graphic designer, although I wanted to at one point,) but I'm more inclined to think about the bigger picture. Namely, not just how design jobs are affected, but also the way the general aesthetic quality of design will be affected.
We've already seen the computer come along and change design quite a bit, and while typesetting, for instance, became no more difficult than using a keyboard and mouse, there was still an actual person at the other end. An actual person who knew what looked good and what didn't. When that actual person is gone, we're left with the aesthetic judgments of a robot, which, quite frankly, I don't trust.


This is a huge reason why I started this venture. Having witnessed a lot of these changes firsthand, I wanted to preserve and honor the glorious history (and integrity) of graphic design. And I thought the best way to do this was to make some of the most beautiful works of art from design's heyday available as decorations for the modern day homeowner--and incidentally as monuments to an era that has all but slipped away.
We'll never forget the amazingly intricate typesetting, the creative artwork, and the incredibly rich and nuanced aesthetic that enriched our lives with the amazing design work we saw all around us. Here are some visual examples that will (probably) make you cry. And that's because we won't see anything like them in the years to come.

 Rhinocerus, by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)

Hartmann Schedel's (1440-1514) Register (circa. 1493)

"Rip Van Winkle" Title Page (1905) by Dard Hunter (1883-1966)

Poster by Alfred Leete (1882-1933)

The Crystal Goblet; Sixteen Essays on Typography (1955) by Beatrice Warde (1900-1969)

Beethoven Festival Poster (1983) by Michael Cronin (1951-2013)

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