Graphic Design in Victorian Era - Essay Example

The Victorian Era (Fig. 1) also referred to social movement, celebration of the industrial era's spirit, design with fancy ornamental detail, the rise of American advertising design that contributed to the development of Graphic Design. In 1851, Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, organized the first international exhibition of manufactured goods as celebration of modern industrial technology and design in Crystal Palace. The exhibition attracted more than six million visitor and thirteen thousand exhibitors.

"Amazingly, the building, dubbed the "Crystal Palace" (Fig.2), was ready on time and on budget. In fact, due to presale of tickets, the exhibition was ensured profit before it even opened on May 1, 1851" (www.britainexpress.com). In 1851 just about everyone who could manage it visited the Crystal Palace: six million people in five months. Over four million of them came from outside London, double the usual number of travelers (Gillett, 1990). Handling that traffic was tribute to the new, high-speed, mass circulation of people and goods by railroad.

The project's architect, Joseph Paxton, was not simply builder of greenhouses, but railway engineer; the great ferrovitrious sheds that still lie behind the public face of King's Cross and Paddington stations are architectural cousins of the Crystal Palace. The cruciform palace was constructed of standard cast and wrought iron pieces, none over 24 feet long or weighing more than ton (Briggs, 1988). They supported 900,000 square feet of glass panes that were at the time the biggest ever manufactured.

The enclosed floor space was 772,824 square feet: room for nearly 14,000 exhibitors from around the world, featuring everything from raw materials and massive machinery for mining and manufacturing to fine arts and finished -products for daily use. Prefabrication allowed the building to be erected in nine months; it also meant the palace could be taken down as scheduled and rebuilt in expanded form as cultural center in Sydenham, south London, where it survived until 1936 when it was destroyed in fire (Briggs 1988: ch. 2). One of the English lithographers, William Sharp introduced the chromo-lithography to America.

Sharp moved to Boston in the late 1830s. He created the first chromolithograph in 1840 by printing the portrait of the congregation's minister, the Reverend F. W, P. Greenwood from two or perhaps three lithographic stone. Later in 1870, John H. Bufford, masterly craftsman achieved stunning realism on crayon-style images. "Hallmarks of Bufford designs were meticulous and convincing tonal drawing and the integration of image and lettering into unified design" (Philip, 1998). Bufford kept artistic direction responsibilities in his whole life.

Louis Prang (1824-1909), German immigrant to America who was the most plentiful