Innovation and Decay

This week, I've learned how printing techniques and, accordingly, Typography has developed through 15th to 17th Century. There are a lot of people related to the innovation of new calligraphy, printing technology, illustration and typography during that era, which surprised me.

As you all see that according to the Meggs' History of Graphic Design Chapter 5, since the appearance of movable type machine which was invented by Johann Gutenberg, the demands of books had shifted from manuscript books to mechanically-produced books, because it took a lot of times and effort to make even one manuscript books.
However, what I though good about this era is that there are a great amount of beautiful books or bibles which are made of the collaboration of typography by machine and human-hand-drawn illustration or manuscript such as Copperplate engraving, woodcuts printing, and other techniques.
I think people in that era were really concerned for beauty and art. They were concerning about how to use the empty space of typographic page effectively, how to get people's attention, and how to make it looks interesting or beautiful.  I think this is what we call "Design" further than "Art." So I think that is one of the reason why there was the Graphic Design evolution in Renaissance.

Mostly in our current time, when the new technology has invented and became main stream, the demands for old fashioned things are decreased and decay. For example, how many people still write letters instead of texting to someone? I think sometimes it's good to be back on good old style, and I'm sure it will improve your sense of art or creativity. It can be writing letters, drawing without using pen-tablet (I guess it's not yet familiarized that much) or taking photographs using film camera, moreover it'll be more unique and creative if you can collaborate old and new technology like they've used to do.