[1] Illuminated manuscripts were among the most precious objects produced in the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. These documents were primarily produced in monasteries and courts—their creation commissioned by society’s rulers. Who was the intended audience? Explain.

[2] Engraving is printing from an image that is incised or cut down into the printing surface. To produce a copperplate engraving, a drawing is scratched into a smooth metal plate. Ink is applied into the depressions, the flat surface is wiped clean, and paper is pressed against the plate to receive the inked image. How does engraving differ from relief printing? Be specific.

[3] A type specimen sheet displays a range of typographic sizes and styles. The first printer’s type specimen sheet was issued by Erhard Ratdolt upon his return to Augsburg, Germany from Venice. How and why are type specimen sheets used in design today?

[4] The Industrial Revolution was a radical process of social and economic change from an agricultural society to an industrial one. The amount of energy generated by steam power increased one hundredfold and replaced animal and human power as the primary source of energy. Cities grew rapidly, as masses of people left a subsistence existence on the land and sought employment in factories, and political power shifted away from the aristocracy and toward capitalist manufacturers, merchants, and even the working class. With regard to Graphic Design, what was the result?

[5] The Victorian Era was a time of strong moral and religious beliefs, proper social conventions, and optimism. “God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world” was a popular motto during this period. Aesthetic confusion led to a number of often contradictory design approaches and philosophies mixed together in a scattered fashion. Give an example of graphic design produced within the Victorian Era and explain why you would define it as such.

[6] Lithography or “stone printing,” was invented by Bavarian author Aloys Senefelder in 1796. Based on the simple chemical principle that oil and water do not mix, an image is drawn on a flat stone surface with an oil-based medium. Water is then spread over the stone to moisten all areas except the oil-based image, which repels the water and accepts oil-based ink, which is then transferred to paper. Toulouse Lautrec used this process to create numerous commercial promotional posters. Define one of these posters and describe the importance of the technique to the visual outcome.

[7] Art Nouveau is an international decorative style that thrived between 1890–1910. It encompassed all the design arts—architecture, furniture and product design, fashion, and graphics. Select a piece of the work by Alphonse Mucha that fits within the distinction of Art Nouveau… describe the work in detail explaining the elements which convey the style of the movement.

[8] Aubrey Beardsley (1872–98): The enfant terrible of art nouveau, made use of a striking pen line, vibrant black-and-white work, and shockingly exotic imagery. A strange cult figure, he was intensely prolific for only five years and died of tuberculosis at age twenty-six. He became famous at age twenty, when his illustrations for a new edition of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur began to appear in monthly installments, augmenting a strong Kelmscott influence with strange and imaginative distortions of the human figure. Define —in detail—the technical importance of Beardsley’s illustrative style.

[9] René Magritte (1898–1967) a Belgian surrealist who used jolting and ambiguous scale changes, defied the laws of gravity and light, created unexpected juxtapositions, and maintained a poetic dialogue between reality and illusion, and truth and fiction. His prolific body of images inspired many visual communications. Select an inspired example, describe its relevance to Magritte, and explain your selectins’ importance to the history of graphic design.

[10] Plakatstil (Poster Style) is the reductive, flat-color design school that emerged in Germany early in the twentieth century; it employed flat background colors; large, simple images; and product names. How is this style still relevant in today’s graphic design? Give examples and be specific.