Week Three

INTRODUCTION

Designing became an essential component of literacy. written language was very much encoded in distinct graphic forms. The development of the alphabet played a big role in this time era. It arrived in Italy and Greece around 700 BCE. The alphabet as well as its designs, carving, painting, drawings conveyed and was used gp individual expression, communicaiton and commermorative acts of records. Degrees of literacy also marked social dinstinctions and shaped all the various networks of political power. Construction of these pieces of work were mainly based on two basic approaches, which were namely ideal models and also constructed forms. Variations were also influenced by trade routes in the Mediterranean.

The following chapters were basically about how graphic designing became a form of literacy among the earlier settlers in Greece and also those of Italy. During this era in particular, the alphabet has just been introduced. Not only were messages being sent across the globe, it was also used daily in the everyday life of merchant, priest, gospels, and those in authority. This was able to build a society were rules and regulations were applied and obeyed. This justifies the fact that these were the first literates and also the first to be civilized.



The English alphabet has become universally known and is continuously being taught all across the globe and most common non English speaking countries. We begin to learn the English alphabet as early as Kindergarten. This is without a doubt what defines an individual a literate. In other words, one that is able to read and write efficiently. Fortunately the alphabet is read and recited in a specific and organized form unlike earlier forms of writing.


TIME ERA

During the earlier centuries, a rule concerning how letters were read and also how they were spaced was not fixed. These forms of writings and painting could be read from right to left, left to right, bottom to top and also from top to bottom. It was not until the sixth and seventh centuries before the alphabets were established and to be read specifically from left to right.
During this time, codex book were being made and they rapidly began to replace scrolls. These were that had separate pages that were bound together and also had a cover. These were more convenient to the reader because it allowed them to move from one page to another conveniently and efficiently.

Personal Reflection

It was a Roman invention that replaced the scroll, which was the first form of book in all-Eurasian cultures. Although technically any modern paperback is a codex, the term is used only for manuscript (hand-written) books, produced from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages. The scholarly study of manuscripts from the point of view of the bookmaking craft is called codicology. The study of ancient documents in general is called paleography. New World codices were written as late as the 16th century (see Maya codices and Aztec codices).
The codex was an improvement upon the scroll, which it gradually replaced, first in the West, and much later in Asia. The codex in turn became the printed book, for which the term is not used. In China books were already printed but only on one side of the paper, and there were intermediate stages, such as scrolls folded concertina-style and pasted together at the back.




SUMMARY
Books also played a big role in universities and other scholastic activities. Subjects such as Mathematics, Astronomy, and most importantly science were taught in these institutions and where they could be found were in text books. This thought made me ponder about how difficult it would have been if knowledge in these various subjects could only be derived from reading scrolls and other wood carvings. How inconvenient? Image reading a whole textbook that was written on a scroll.








You would probably have read very carefully and also mark where you left off. When you are done, you would have to fold up the whole scroll in order for it to be put away. The development of codex books must have been a revolution. But the facts still remain that up until this day, if codex books were not made, we would be left with no choice but to read our text be it the bible, textbooks, Quaran of even speeches of of a scroll. All knowledge in these earlier centuries were modified and also edited by the church. This was simply because discoveries would often interfere with the belief that the all mighty god was the creator and also all knowing.


Sources
The History of Graphic Design
Google Images