The Simplified Significance of the Gutenberg Press

The Gutenberg printing press enabled the mass production of books and documents in a much more timely way than they could be produced before. It was because of the Gutenberg press that the first mass production of the Bible took place, spreading ‘the word of God’ to the masses. Because of this invention, more people were exposed to the written word and were therefore more educated. As people of every social class were exposed to the written word and education, they were better able to see that their living conditions needed to be changed and that they could change it.

The Gutenberg printing press is indirectly responsible for many history changing events, including the founding of America. The printing press allowed for the mass production of the bible which meant that people who were previously unable to read could read. But since the only book many people had was the bible, religion spread. The Gutenberg press also allowed for the bible to be translated into other languages, allowing almost everyone to read it, spreading the ideas and concepts of the bible all around the world. Gutenberg died without any money or recognition, and it was only after his death that his life’s work and creation was recognized for its potential to revolutionize communication of the written word throughout the world.

The Gutenberg press paved the way for improved methods of printing the written word, such as typewriters, and computers. The publication and distribution of books would not have been possible without the initial invention of this printing press. Without it, people might still be carving messages into rock and only passing down stories through oral communication from one generation to another. Mainly, what the Gutenberg printing press did was to inspire the idea of mass, worldwide written communication, and maybe even communication in general.

Image From My Room

Page Design

In the textbook, Document Design, page design is defined as “the process of placing design objects such as text, headings, and images consistently and effectively on the page, taking into account the actual visual field, the characteristics of the design objects, and the relationships implied among them by the principles of design.”

I think a more simple way to say it is to say that page design is “the process of placing design objects on the page in the way that makes the most visual sense and adheres to the principles of design.” For my book cover redesign, the power zone is located at the top right corner of the cover and it is the design object that is the most prominent, important object, and adds the most context to the cover. Placing the image of the young man at the top of the page, the reader/audience experiences him first, relating to sequence. The flow of the page goes from the image at the top of the page, down to the left to the image of the notepad and pencil, and then to the right to the title of the novel. The reader’s eye is then moved down to the name of the author. The sequence/ flow of the document is logical, because the design elements are seen in order of importance as they are supposed to appeal first to ethos.  

It was my intention to make the visual rhetoric of the cover design to firstly appeal to ethos. The image of the young man with powerful eyes and his hand over his mouth provokes curiosity in the reader. I also tried to appeal to logos with the placement of each of the design objects.

I emphasized the connection between the author and title of then novel by making them the same color. I also emphasized the name of the author by placing the name directly in the bottom middle of the design. The angle of the pencil and the notepad works well to point to and emphasize the title of the novel. Also, by placing the title on top of the notepad, the context of the novel (the fact that the novel is about a guy who doesn’t speak and instead communicates just by writing) is more clearly stated/(implied at least). I used an orange line to separate the image of the young man from the bottom of the page because the pencil is orange, and this creates a sense of connection between the young man and the pencil.

I split the page in two, placing the image of the young man in the top half, and the title and the name of the author in the bottom half. I did t his because I thought those pieces of information were of equal importance to the effectiveness of the cover, and should therefore be given equal space. Doing this also creates a nice sense of contrast: the blackish background in the image of the young man with the gray-green color in the background of the title and author text.

Other Redesigns I Created For Fun [Well, sort of for fun]

Original cover art created by Christoph Neimann, 2004

1st version I created that only took me 12 hours

  

Project 2 - Book Cover Redesign

Synopsis of Novel Plot

The novel is about a young man in college who decides that his big mouth [talking] gets him into trouble, at which time he begins communicating entirely by writing. He realizes he is in love with his best friend Xandra, but he can’t bring himself to tell her because he doesn’t want to ruin their friendship.

Reasons I chose These Images, Colors, & Fonts

Because the college-age male character communicates entirely by writing, I used an image of a notepad and pencil, as well as a college-age young man with his hand over his mouth. I made the background behind the young man black to show the character’s sense of loneliness and confusion [he feels like he’s in the dark].

The first change that I feel absolutely had to be made to this book cover was putting a real image of a person on it. The original cover seems so impersonal with just a generic, almost abstract image of a young man. The impersonal quality of the original cover does not match the intimacy of the story or the scarily real-life way in which it is told. By using an image of a young man with piercing eyes, the reader will be drawn to the cover and to the novel.

The second most important change that had to be made was the color. The original cover is a yellowish green color, which doesn’t make much ‘rhetorical’ sense. It’s also not very professional looking. I stuck with green, but changed it to a gray-green which is much easier on the eyes and is more subtle so it doesn’t distract from the rest of the content on the cover.

The novel is written for students in tenth grade or above, so I chose a font that is not professional and looks more fun. I also chose the font because it resembles actual handwriting, which ties in nicely with the premise of the book. I included a frowny face [which I edited to appear to lay flat on the notepad] because that image appears multiple times in the novel, and it subtly shows the reader that the character is unhappy with his current life situation.

Alignment

I placed the name of the author in the bottom center because it is the most convenient place on the cover to include the name of the author. Since the image of the young man is largely located in the top right corner, I placed the image of the notepad and pencil to the left to create a sense of balance. I also considered the issue of balance when I put the text slightly out of line, with half of the title below the other half and slightly to the right to emphasize the diagonal angle of the notepad.

Color / Contrast

I chose to put a subtle orange line under the image of the young man to create contrast with the black background. I also chose to use an orange line because the pencil on the cover is orange and it creates a subtle sense of balance. I chose to use black font for the title because the name of the author is in black, and that creates a sense of unity/similarity because the author is the person most responsible for the existence of the book. I placed the name of the publishing company in the top left corner, not just because that’s  where it is located on the original cover, but because there is nice contrast with the grayish color of the logo and the black background on which is it located.

Power Zones

On this cover, the power zone is in the top right corner, because that’s where the reader’s eye is immediately drawn. The young man covering his mouth is the most import aspect of the cover [besides the title of the novel] and is therefore nicely positioned in an obvious power zone.

Overall, I hope my new cover is much more enticing than the original and anyone tenth grade and up that saw it would be compelled to read the book.

3 Most Important Information Designs Concepts

The most important concept that I have learned so far is rhetoric, or the ‘context’ of the document and how it must be considered to create a successful end product. The purpose of most documents is to somehow persuade the audience/reader to believe something or take some action. That underlying motive must always be considered, I think, before document production can even begin. I did not realize this fact, but the ‘rhetorical’ aspect of documents has long been an issue for me. For example, my previous redesign project did not come out as well as it could have because I did not consider the ‘rhetorical’ (context) of it. It was not clear which company I was appealing to with the proposal because I had an image and the logo of Meals on Wheels on the cover, when the proposal was actually supposed to appeal to 1st Alarm Co. of Lubbock. I created a document with the wrong ‘rhetorical’ meaning, and therefore the document was ineffective.  

The second most important concept I have gleamed from the readings is the concept of alignment. I never really thought about it before but it makes a lot of sense. One concept within alignment that I find the most interesting is unity. I now understand that where you place something on or in a document is not as important as its inherent connection to other items of equal importance or meaning on the page. Before I just thought alignment was either centered, justified, or right or left-aligned. I never understood the visual importance of just which alignment you choose for a document, or that you can choose more than one alignment for a single document, as long as related information is presented the same way. For example, on a business card, the name of the card-holder should be presented in the same typeface as the name of the company they work for, but does not have to have the same typeface as the card-holder’s phone number, because that is separate information. Even if the information is not placed closely together, the information has definite unity.

The third concept that I find especially important in document design is contrast. Contrast is also a great way in which to show how information items in/on a document are related or unrelated. I have always been somewhat aware of contrast, but not consciously. Until reading the section on contrast in Kimball/Hawkins I never realized there were so many different ways, not even really realizing that bold, italicized, and underlined text are classic (though somewhat cliché) examples of contrast used in documents. I also had never consciously considered that there are so many different ways in which to create contrast. I had previously thought of contrast in text as consisting of two things: color and size; however, there are five notable ways, including shape, size, color, value, and position! Every successful document, either printed or online should include contrast, which is why street signs and websites generally are made up of two or three colors opposite each other on the color wheel.