The Industrial Revolution (updated)

Before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, muscle power was the main source of energy. The introduction of the steam engine by James Watt changed all that and signalled the start of the Industrial Revolution. Factories started to mushroom in cities and urban centres. People from rural areas started to leave their villages and farmland and flock to the cities to find employment in manufacturing. This resulted in mass production, which in turn lowered costs which in turn resulted in an increase in demand.

The industrial Revolution coincided with that same period in history when European powers were at loggerheads between themselves, consistently and frequently waging wars against themselves, expanding their empires and busy colonising the World.

The Industrial Revolution resulted in a new manufacturing process which required large amounts of raw materials such as coal and iron. Steel started to be produced on an industrial scale. Progress in science and technology started to be applied to industry.

The Industrial Revolution had also a very negative social impact. Workers worked in factories for too many hours, sometimes for as much as thirteen hours a day. The wages were miserable. Working conditions were squalid, to say the least. The exploitation and the abuse of the working class was rampant.

"fat face"  was the typographical innovations during the industrial revolution. It was first introduced by Robert Throne and Thomas Cotterell. The innovation was in the contrast in the weight, it was changed in the thickness of each stroke. Sans-serif was the second innovation. This later became important to graphic design in the 20th century.

Mass production lowered costs and the demand rose as a result.Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc pg 144

Innovations in Typography

Graphics played and major role in the industrial revolution, it produced a shift in economic and social role of typographical communication. Urban and industrial society produced a fast development of jobbing printers, advertising, and posters.Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc pg 145

• The above type was designed by Thomas Cotterell
• Cotterell began the trend of stand casting , bold display letters as early as 1765.
• These display letters seemed gigantic to the eighteenth century compositors.
• They were used to setting handbills and broadsides types that were often half the size.

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc pg 145

The typographical innovations during the industrial revolution were the "fat face" 

The "fat face" was first presented by Robert Throne and Thomas Cotterell. The innovation was in the contrast in the weight, it was changed in the thickness of each stroke. Sans-seriff was the second innovation. This later became important to graphic design in the 20th century

• The above type face is called the Fat-Face type
• It is designed by Robert Thorn and Thomas Cotterell.
• They designed the first Fat- Face typefaces during the 1803

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc pg 146

• Tuscen styles with ornamental serifs.
• The top two demonstrates the variety of expended and condensed widths produced by the 19th century designers.
• The bottom one is an antique Tuscen with curved and slightly pointed slab-serifs.

• The English type founders were trying to invent possible design permutation and applying all manner of  decoration to their alphabets.
• They also varied the depth of shading creating everything from pencil thin shadows to deep perspective.

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc pg 148

Wood-Type Posters

When display types expanded in size, the problems doubled for both printer and founder. Casting was a hard to keep the metal in the liquid form while pouring and uneven cooling sometimes created sight concave printing surfaces. Large metal typeface were too expensive, brittle and heavy. Darius Wells was an American printer who created the the wood type from cutting wood, which is now known as wood type posters. The wood types were less expensive, easier to move, and just as sturdy as the other metal types.

The above image is a handbill for an excursion train, 1871

To be bolder then bold the compositor used heavier letter forms for the initial letter of important words. Over sized terminal letterforms combine with condensed and extended styles in the phrase Maryland day !

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc pg 150