"The Roman Alphabet | 7th century BC"

What was the basis of the Roman uppercase alphabet? The Romans used a variant of the Greek alphabet as the basis for their uppercase alphabet
What were the purposes of the formal and informal styles of lettering? A rigid, formal script was used for important manuscripts and official documents and a quicker, informal style was used for letters and routine types of writing.  

Why is the Roman alphabet the most widely used and what contributions did it make? Refined several distinct styles of lettering which were used for different purposes.

From where did serifs originate? The carving of words into stone

When and where did lowercase, or minuscule, letters develop?   It is a true alphabet which originated in the 7th century BC in Italy and has continually altered for the last 2500 years — influenced by Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician alphabets to the Semitic alphabet — in which the phonetic values of some letters changed, some letters were lost and gained, several writing styles ("hands") were developed and two such styles, the minuscule and majuscule hands fused into one resulting in lower and upper case letters 
 
What is a ligature and why were they utilized?  Ligatures (special combined characters, "fi" "fl" "ff" and "ffi" being the most common) were originally created for two reasons. First, when working with metal type you couldn't kern these characters close enough together, so they were combined and placed on a single piece of metal. They were also used to imitate calligraphy, where these letters could be merged by hand. 


Post an example of the Roman alphabet in visual form. 

"The Greek Alphabet | 800 BC"

How did Greeks come in contact with the Phoenicians? Around 800 BC with the rise of ancient Greece

How was the Greek adaptation of the alphabet different from its predecessor? Its most notable change was with the adaption of the Phoenician letterforms. Phoenicians regularly traveled to Greece and established trade agreements with them
Why is the Greek alphabet considered to be the world's first true alphabet? It has given rise to many other alphabets including the Latin alphabet. 

Name several similarities and differences between the Greek and modern English alphabets? . much less suitable for Greek languages, several of the consonants were adapted as vowels
Post an example of the Greek alphabet in visual form. 

"The Phoenician Alphabet | 1050 BC"

The Phoenician alphabet is based on what principle? Based on the principle that one sign represents one spoken sound
Describe the shape of the letters and what tool created them? The shape of the letters were angular and straight the letters were incised with a stylus

What two reasons made the Phoenician alphabet so successful? This system contrasted with other scripts at the time which used complex characters and were difficult to learn. Another reason for success was the trading culture of Phoenician Merchants spread the use of the alphabet into parts of North Africa and Europe.

What long term effects on the social structures of civilizations did the Phoenicians have with the creation of their alphabet? First widespread script, its simplicity allowed it to be used in multiple languages, also allowed common people to learn how to write.

Post an example of the Phoenician alphabet in visual form.

"Hieroglyphics and the Egyptians | 3,000 BC"

In the sixth century BC, what three civilizations invaded Egypt? Persians, Greeks and Romans 
Post an example of the inside wall(s) of an Ancient Egyptian temple.   
What was discovered on the inside of the temples? Inside the temples they discovered carved and painted images on every wall and surface.

Scholars believe that Ancient Egyptians were inspired and influenced by which written language? Cuneiform

What is the difference between logographic and alphabetic elements? Logograms are visual symbols representing ideas or objects and alphabetic variations came later as the language evolved into demotic used for document writing.

The term Hieroglyphic derived from what two Greek words? Hiero means sacred and Glyphic means engraving or writing.

What is a scribe? Students went to scribe school to learn how to read and write

Who else was trained to read and write? Why? Military leaders were trained as scribes so they could communicate while in battle.
Post an example of hieroglyphics on papyrus.   
What is papyrus and how was it made? Papyrus substrate made from reeds Native to Egypt. Wet reeds are placed criss-cross over each other flattened and dried, and are rubbed with flat stones until the surface becomes smooth. 

What is a substrate? a papyrus made from reeds  

What were the Books of the Dead? The Books of the Dead were usually commissioned by the users themselves before death. 

How did Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics become a forgotten language? Over time those who could read and write hieroglyphics disappeared until no one knew how to decipher the ancient language. 
Post an example of the Rosetta Stone.   
What is the Rosetta Stone? Where was it discovered? Scholars believed that this Rosetta Stone had the same inscription written on it in three different languages. It was discovered in 1798 a few miles east of Egypt  

What three languages are included on the stone? Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic and Greek 

Why couldn't the text on the Stone be deciphered? A chunk of the stone was missing none of the three texts were complete

Who finally deciphered the text? What was his breakthrough? French scholar Jean Francois Champollion, Champollion's breakthrough came when he was able to match up the hieroglyphic symbols with the Greek version of the name Egyptian Pharoah Ramses.

Why does the interpretation of the Rosetta Stone have such significance?  Because of the Rosetta Stone we now know a great deal about the ancient Egyptians and Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

"Cuneiform and the Sumerians | 3,000 BC"

The Sumerians were one of the earliest types of this kind of civilization? What does that mean? The Sumerians was one of the earliest Nomadic civilizations who migrated to Sumer. Now known as southern Iraq around 3500 BC.

Why is the region of Sumer considered the Cradle of Civilization? Sumer is considered the Cradle of Civilization because its where cuneiform was created the world's first written language.

What could the Sumerians practice year round because of the regions climate? The Sumerians were able to practice year round agriculture.
Post an example of early Cuneiform (Sumerian pictograph).
Why was Cuneiform created? Cuneiform was created to keep track of business transactions.
What medium was used to "write" Cuneiform? Explain the process of preparing and writing on this surface? The Sumerians chose to write on clay tablets. They would wet the clay, form it into flat surfaces, use a wedge shape stylus made from reeds to make impressions into the clay surface and lay the clay tablets in the sun allowing them to dry and harden. Creating a permanent record of the transaction.

What did Cuneiform begin as a series of? Cuneiform begin as a series of pictographs. 


Post an example of evolved Cuneiform (wedge-shaped).
After it evolved over time, what shape did the characters of Cuneiform evolve into?  Cuneiform evolved into a wedge shaped language.
Post an example of Akkadian Cuneiform.
After the Akkadians conquered, what happened to the Sumerian culture and written language? The Akkadians adopted the Sumerian culture and written language cuneiform.

What is a pictograph? A pictorial or visual representation of an object

Why did the creation of Cuneiform allow the Sumerians to become a sophisticated culture? The new form of communication allowed Sumerians to become a very sophisticated culture and because of their fertile region Sumerians became a target for many invading civilizations.

Visual Organiztion

Not directing the audience through a design is misdirecting them!
Eye Movement
- The typical eye moves left to right and top to bottom
- Controlling eye movement within a composition is a matter of directing the natural scanning tendency of the viewer's eye.
- The eye tends gravitate towards areas of complexity first. In pictures of people, the eye is always attracted to the face and particularly to the eye
- Light areas of a composition will attract the eye when adjacent to a dark area.
- Diagonal lines or edges will guide eye movement.
Optical Center
- The spot where the human eye tends to enter the page. Optical center is slightly above mathematical (or exact) center and just to the left
-It takes a compelling element to pull your eyes away from this spot
Z Pattern
- Our visual pattern makes a sweep of the page, generally, in the shape of a "Z"
- Effective page design maps a viewer's route through the information. The designer's objective is to lead the viewer's eye to the important elements or information

 Fonts
use no more than two fonts on a page 
make sure that they compliment each other
avoid all upper case letters unless its necessary
choose the right font, make sure that the font you choose work with the tone or theme
don't over use fancy or complicated fonts
www.typography.com\email\2010_03\index.htm
  
Effective Page design maps a viewer's route through information. The designer's objective is to lead the viewer's eye to important information.

Visual hierarchy will establish focal points based on importance. 
A crucial part of the design process is to establish an order of elements

To establish visual hierarchy ..ask yourself
-What do I want my viewer's to look at first?  

The Grid:way of organizing content on a page using any combination of magazines, guidelines, rows and columns

- The grid was instituted by modernism

-The grid can assist the audience by breaking info into manageable chunks and establishing
relationships between text and images

-A grid consists of a distant set of alignment-based relationships that act as guides for distributing elements across a format

-Every design is different; therefore every design will require a different grid structure...one that addresses the particular element within the design

- A grid is used to help clarify the message being communicated and to unify the elements

Cave Paintings - 35,000 years ago

What are cave paintings? Beautiful, detailed and colorful representations found on the inside of cave walls and ceilings

Name several common themes found in cave paintings? Large animals such as Bison, Horses, Deer, Tracings of human hands and abstract patterns

How were these paintings created (tools, pigments)? Water, plant juice, animal blood, soil, charcoal, hematite and a form of iron oxide

What is the most famous cave painting site? When was it discovered and by whom?Post an example of cave painting(s) from this cave.  Lascaux. Discovered in 1940 by four teenage boys
Why did this cave have to be closed? What was done to satisfy public curiosity? It closed because the paintings were being damaged by the carbon dioxide emitted from the tourists. To satisfy public interest, the french government created Lascaux two.

Post an example of cave painting(s) from Altamira cave.
In Altamira cave, why do most of the paintings have a red hue? Most of the paintings have a red hue caused by the red clay in the soil.

Who discovered this site? How old are the paintings confirmed to be? Discovered by Marceline Sanz De Sautuola and his daughter Maria. The paintings were created nearly 19,000 years ago.

What is the oldest known cave painting site? When was it discovered and by whom?Post an example of cave painting(s) from this cave. Chauvet was the oldest known cave painting, discovered in 1994 by Eliette Brunell, Christian Hillaire and Jean-Marie Chauvet.

What was different about the painting techniques at this site? Walls were scraped clear of debris, 3D effect was created by etching around the edges

What is "speleology"? s the scientific study of caves and other karst features, their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form and change over time

What three reasons do archeologists and historians believe prehistoric man created cave paintings?