Living in a world dominated by digital technology has aided
our ability to design publications in creative and manipulative ways, a contrast tomthe limiting nature of traditional letterpress.
Using infamous fashion publication vogue as an example to
compare a version of the publication from the 1950s to the digital website of
the publication today, we can see how in terms of visual hierarchy and grid
systems, the limitation of design has evolved as a result of the emergence of
digital technologies.
With traditional
letterpress forms there are wide limitations as format is confined by size and mainly
practicality. As we can see, there are very few headlines in the 1950s issue of
Vogue magazine. Content is limited to one image per page, enlarged and the body
of text is also very limited compare to the extensive texts that are inherent
in modern day publications. Its simplistic nature is mainly due to the time
consuming nature of letterpress where a composing stick was used to print the
font. The application of photo was a slow and expensive process where photos
must have first been converted into engravings before it was printed. Additionally,
the application of color was much more immensely difficult as one color had to
dry before applying the next.
The lettering of the cover page would have been considered
too widely spaced out for practical reading standards today as spacing was
employed by the technique of leading in traditional letterpress. There is also
lack of framing and bordering in these publications. Due to the lack of
technology, a fixed, simple and very limited visual hierarchy and grid system
is used.
Now when we look at a digital article in Vogue UK on its
webpage, there are digital elements that make the content richer and more
interactive.
In contrast to traditional publication by traditional letterpress
printing, the average desktop format supports an array of complex hierarchy of
icons, menus, images and color palettes. The modern user is empowered by
digital technology to arrange access and edit a publication’s content and
images through a flexible hierarchy and grid system that is created by the
designer. They can also change as users hover over them.
Content is not confined by size as hyperlinks are employed
to guide the reader from one page to the next. It is also not limited to texts
but different Medias such as videos.
The evolution of modern technology has allowed the designer
to be more creative in the method of presenting content through grid systems
and visual hierarchy’s that can be easily manipulated to express their own
creative impulses and create more visually appealing and engaging formats to
match the semantics of their content.
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