Graphic Means
Graphic means is a documentary about the evolution of Graphic Design Production. From Analogue printing processes to Digital printing in a 30-year timeframe.
It was pretty interesting to see the complexity of the procedures in Graphic design through various types of machinery back in the days when digital technologies were non-existent. Some processes that were used to create graphics were:
- Printing Presses - Halftone dots make printed materials look darker - Photo-type setters - which was first used in the 1950s - Photon Machine - Typesetting - which creates negative form using light and camera - Paste-up - Layout techniques - Photostats Machine - which was used to scale and reproduce images - Typositer - Which allowed spacing modification between letters - Linotype - IBM Personal Computer - Laser Writer Printer
I also wrote down the process of phototypesetting, which I found pretty interesting
1. Designer or creator director come up with an idea
2. The idea would then be typed on the typewriter, then it gets sent to the designer
3. Designer would then work with layouts and refinements such as type styles and fonts
4. It then goes to the type compositor, which will then retype to the photo composition machine
5. The output creates long strips of paper
6. Working with other parts of the layout such as illustration, photography and lettering
7. Figure out the size and cropping
8. Photoscan camera to the actual size of the layout
9. All of the elects such as illustration, layout, lettering and photography needed to be pasted onto the mechanical
10. Sent to the printer in large format, creating negatives out of it
11. FPO photos (Low res photos) were replaced with actual photos that will be used in the printing process
12. Transferred to the metal plate to be used for the printing process
Some tools that graphic designers used were compasses, French curves, adjustable angles and the T Square.
In the digital era, Apple released the first Macintosh desktop where everyone could learn and use it. However, it was too expensive, and it was not fast enough for Graphic designers to work on. It was also difficult to adjust from an analogue point of view. The output generated by the computer was pixelated, which was not up to the quality of typesetting machines. However, in 1985, Apple unveiled the laser writer printer, which has improved printing quality closer to typesetting machines. Types became editorial and expressive, and people could work more quickly and efficiently with their laptops. However, due to the simplicity of the technology, clients have the tendency to expect to see a finished design in a short timeframe which creates panic and short deadlines.
