Patrevito - Chapter 1 Reflection

            I thought this chapter was very interesting because there wasn’t a lot to read about the evolution of typography.  They provided us with just pictures and descriptions of how typography has evolved throughout the years.  At the beginning of the chapter they showed pictures of hieroglyphics and different languages written in stone.  Typography written in stone is always fascinating to me because it looks almost flawless.  Between the 1400’s and the 1700’s was also particularly interesting because this was a big transitional period for typography.  Beautiful serif typefaces were being used, and ornamentation on typography was huge.  Personally I don’t prefer this type of typography because I believe that ornamentation gets in the way and look gaudy.  Certain ornamentation can work, but I tend to navigate towards clean and simple typefaces.  Typography really took a visual change during the nineteenth century and around the time of the Industrial Revolution.  New technology was being created that allowed for different methods of printing, which eventually lead to the designers taking advantage of this and creating really new typefaces.  San serif typefaces started to come about, along with serif typefaces with thick slabs and really bold lettering.  Ornamentation on typography was still really big around this time.  However, typography in the twentieth century to now is by far my favorite.  Simple clean typefaces were starting to make wave, and order was brought into typography.  Grid systems were used more often than not which allowed for typography to be more legible.  I really enjoyed looking through the pictures in this section because they are all so different yet still very similar.  Typography in photography was a big thing, and poster design was extremely popular.  Overall I thought this chapter was really interesting because it was fun to explore the pictures and see, instead of read, how typography has evolved.